Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
They Met in a bar on Martha's Vineyard. Bill was instantly smitten--her cool beauty, her insouciance, her sassy youth--but Juliet was unimpressed. Even so, a courtship began, and for the next eight summers, in sublime settings across North America, Bill Roorbach and Juliet Karelsen made circuitous progress toward a lasting love and, finally, marriage. In charming fashion, Summers with Juliet tells this tale, but it also chronicles a second awakening, as Juliet rekindles in Bill his childhood enchantment with nature. Now marvelous creatures abound: giant ocean sunfish and wild turkeys, bellicose hummingbirds and canny trout, all of them images and explications of the many facets of Juliet. Landscapes hold new mysteries, too, and the author vividly describes his exuberant road trips with Juliet around the country, from the River of Promise in Montana, to the Gulf Coast of Florida. And at last, they come to a wooded lake in New Hampshire and the singular June day when "love's all there, sweeter than the cake."Synopsis
Roorbach (English, The Ohio State University) tells of his courtship and marriage to Juliet, and describes their vacations together in sublime settings across North America. He chronicles not only their love affair, but his awakening to his childhood enchantment with nature. The author is a recent winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award in Short Fiction and the author of . Lacks a subject index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Publishers Weekly
Roorbach's debut provides pure enchantment, linking a story of natural wonders to the wonders of his romance with one Juliet Karelson. They met in 1982--he was 29 and she was 20--and began to take camping trips together, with little money roughing it over almost all of the United States and Canada. A few times during eight years of summer adventures, the couple broke up, but only temporarily. Their travels continued while the author advanced from odd jobs to writing assignments (he is now assistant professor of English at the University of Maine) and sternly independent Juliet skirted commitment, establishing herself as an artist. Lyrical, earthy and suspenseful, the book makes immediate the excitement of confronting snakes, bears and possibly menacing strangers, as well as the great rewards of life in the wilds. The mating dance of this appealing couple concludes in the book's final chapter with their 1990 wedding, after which everyone clogged to the strains of fiddle and accordion music. And so, it seems, they lived happily ever after. (Feb.)