Search - The Last Time They Met

I consider myself a pretty bright person - at least not stupid, but I did NOT understand the ending of the book. If what it was implying is true, then the rest of the book makes absolutely no sense to me AT ALL. So, do I believe 1 page or the previous 312 pages? ARGGGHHHH!

I also struggled with this book. The prose irritated me and her overuse of italics (I mean really, if someone says something, use quotes!).

Sigh... I dunno. I wanted to like this book, but I just didn't overall. Some of it was really good, but by and large, I found it irritating me. :( I think it had to do with the cross-over of the character of Thomas from Weight of Water... I didn't like him in that book and didn't like him here either.

Worth a read if you are smarter than me - and if someone reads this that understand the ending, enlighten me!

After I finished this book I had to go on-line and read reviews and comments on this book to make sure I understood the ending. I did. This book is very unconventional. It starts out with Linda and Thomas meeting at a writer’s convention when they are in their 50’s. The reader discovers Linda and Thomas have a passionate history. Very little of the history is revealed. What is revealed is the obvious attraction and deep love these two people feel for each other. The next section takes you back 26 years to the “last time they met” in Africa. Shreve spent some time in Africa and did some work there. You can tell the familiarity of the landscape and culture from the writing. It seems fate has brought Linda and Thomas together after almost 10 years apart. I did find it too much of coincidence that you would run into someone you once loved in highschool in the middle of Africa. Shreve did a good job making it believable. The final section of the book is really the beginning of the love story when Thomas and Linda are seniors in highschool. The rest of the mystery is revealed in this section; From Linda’s life with her aunt and how she ended up there to the tragic accident that initiated their first separation. And then, the surprise ending. I had to read it 3 times to make sure I understood it. I appreciate Shreve’s talent as a writer even more after reading this book, reinforcing her place on my favorite author list.

The Last Time They Met opens with two old lovers, both poets, running into each other at a writer's conference. Well, Linda Fallon and Thomas Janes aren't old, actually--just middle-aged, with a lifetime's worth of history between them. In the first section, Anita Shreve only suggests what that history contains: there was adultery, we gather, and a car accident, plus some illicit encounters under a pitiless Kenyan sun. Presumably the rest of the book will lead back to the beginnings of this grand passion, right? We think we know where this is going--but that's the tricky part, because we don't.
The novel does get off to a slow start, with an unnecessarily drawn-out description of a luxury hotel. But it picks up speed as it moves backward in time, from the lovers' vividly evoked interlude in Africa, to their adolescent years in the Massachusetts village of Hull, and finally to Linda's deepest, darkest secret. Only then does the author unveil her final revelation, which should leave most readers somewhat out of breath, and possibly even obliged to turn back to the first page and read the book over again.

This book started a little slow for me. But as I began to get farther into the book, the characters began to come alive for me. The two main characters, Thomas and Linda, are basically soul mates, having first met in their teens. The book begins in the present in their 50's when they "bump" into each other at a writer's convention and progresses, or maybe I should say regresses, backwards from their 50's to their teens when they met. I fell in love with the two characters, cheering them on all during the book that something would help them to finally get together. The ending I never saw coming. In a way, I felt betrayed by th author. Still, overall, a great book and an author that I will definitely be looking for more of.

I loved this book. The beginning was a little difficult to get into, but once it got going, I found it remarkable. Plenty of thought provoking material and an ending to make you rethink all of what you had just read.

What an amazing book. The ending will leave you wanting to reread the book again! This is my first by this author and I definitely will read more of her novels.

Extremely well written as is typical of Shreve. Has characters you care about, but resolution is disappointing.

this book, and all books by Anita Shreve are absolutely fabulous!!!

I would highly recommend it!!!

An intense love story between Linda and Thomas who first meet as high school teenagers then as young adults and much later as adults just past their prime. They have a deep connection to each other but people and events keep them apart though they never lose their love for each other despite all the decades that pass. I have never felt so cheated by a novel's ending. I felt the ending was absolutely gimmicky. I can take a sad ending, after all stories can't all have happy endings, but the ending of this book comes isn't sad. It's a complete shock. It's like Shreve doesn't care about the readers at all. Read this book but don't read the last page.

A Writer who is good at capturing the delicate relationships we have

Compelling reading as only Shreve does.

From the time Linda and Thomas meet, at a charmless hotel in a distant city. to the moment, thrity-five earlier, when a chance encounter on a rocky beach bins them fatefully together, this hypnotically compelling novel unfolds a tale of intense passion, drama, and suspense.

Fascinating story.

A love story...and then some! As I read this book, I enjoyed it. The story line was captivating. At first, I thought Anita Shreve's writing style was a little different and kept me wondering why she chose to chronologically regress as she told this tale. However, you MUST read this novel all the way to the very last line. It leaves you with an "Oh, my gosh!" reaction. I loved it!

It has been a very long time since I read this book, but I recall liking it!

Another great Shreve book with a twist at the end!!

From the last time Linda and Thomas meet, at a charmless hotel in a distant city,to the moment ,thirty-five years earlier,when a chance encounter on a rocky beach binds them fatefully together,.