Heat Wave [Paperback]

Maurice is a professor and writer and is busy writing a travel journal of local places. He often invites his editor and his girlfriend down for the weekend to help with each chapter. The issue is Maurice's infatuation with his editor's girlfriend. Oh, what memories this stirs in Pauline's heart. She fears for Theresa, who is so in love with her husband.

Years ago, Pauline fell in love with Harry, a professor and bon vivant. Pauline and Harry married much to everyone's surprise. Harry was known as a lady's man and not the type to marry. And, in due course, Theresa was born to Pauline and Harry. Harry was not much of a father, he loved Theresa but was not involved in her life. Much the same could be said of Maurice and his behavior with Luke. Pauline is so afraid for Theresa, she could sense imminent betrayal, and no one was speaking of it. Pauline was much respected by Maurice, but he offered no excuses nor did he feel he needed to excuse his behavior. This type of thing just happpened.

Penelope Lively has given us an elegant portrayal of fragile family dynamics that have already been greatly affected by adultery. Pauline will do anything to assist her daughter, and she opens her heart to Theresa. She discusses her own life with Theresa's father, and the fact that she should have left him long before she did. However, Theresa is not ready to discuss anything about her husband with Pauline at this time- denial is the name of the game. Pauline must take little steps with her daughter and support her as best she can.

This is once again, a book not to be put down. Penelope Lively has a habit of writing this kind of novel. The conclusion adds a form of the unusual and unexpected. I was not ready for this story to end, but the author knows best. We realize that the anxiety and suspicion we have felt has led to frustration, and now we can look at the situation with clearer eyes. This is Penelope Lively's eleventh novel, and I must read each one. She is an author unlike any other. Each book is better than the last, but how can that be? A witty and intelligent author with every novel a number one in my book! prisrob

Long-divorced Pauline, a freelance book editor, is spending the summer at her country cottage, World's End, with her daughter Theresa and her family--husband Morris, baby son Luke. Theresa and family occupy one half of the duplex, and Pauline the other. It's an agreeable relationship that allows each household the privacy it needs as well as the companionship, as the entire family gathers for dinner and other outings.

All is seemingly serene in both houses, but as the weather turns hotter in an unusually strong heat wave, the civilized overlay between the adults gradually melts away. For in an almost obscene coincidence, as far as Pauline is concerned, her daughter's husband Morris is engaged in an affair that is destined to break Theresa's heart--the same as Pauline's was broken many years ago by her husband (and Theresa's father) Harry.

The similarities between Morris and Harry are chilling. Both are authors. Both are self-centered, charming, and careless of their women. Both have affairs with young women who are "editorial groupies." As Pauline watches Morris become increasingly involved with Carol, the vacuous girlfriend of his own editor, Jack, she begins to relive (and re-feel) the horrible emotions she encountered as a young wife betrayed by her own cheating husband. The novel moves effortlessly between the present and the past as Pauline watches her own daughter's betrayal and is helpless to stop it. As her emotions churn, so does the weather. Only Luke, the innocent baby, is unaware of the terrible events unfolding all around him, and only Luke is unscathed in the end.

Similar in tone to the works of Joanna Trollope, "Heat Wave" is just about as good as it gets. It is beautifully written, spare and to-the-point, and it ensnares the reader completely in its seemingly simple story of love and loss.