Love May Fail

Love May Fail

Adult fiction
After reading a scholarly tome, particularly one well over 600
pages, I tend to go for something a tad lighter. I found Matthew
Quick's Love May Fail a most delightful change of pace. It's told
from the perspectives of several quirky participants in a most
wonderfully unlikely journey.
There's Portia Kane. As the book opens, she is catching her
pornographer husband having sex with a much younger woman in the
marital bed. ("Forgive her, universe, for the little bimbo knows not
whom she screws.") She leaves him to return home to her pathelogical
hoarder and totally paranoid mother. Reconnecting with a high school
friend, she learns bad news about the teacher who helped her survive
her high school years and decides it is her mission in life to save him.
The educator (or actually ex educator) in need of rescuing, Mr.
Vernon, was forced into early retirement by a baseball bat wielding
student who attacked him. Crippled physically and scarred emotionally
he has retreated to the boonies of Vermont, his sole companion a small
dog whom he sees as the reincarnation of Albert Camus. When Portia
breaks in on his life she must rescue him from choking to death on his
vomit because his dog (with whom he believes he has a suicide pact)
has died and he's trying to do the same.
The third person whom you meet through her letters (because
she's died of cancer) is Mr. Vernon's dead mother who left him to
become a nun.
Finally there's Chuck Bass, former student of Mr. Vernon, uncle
of a five-year-old metalhead, and former drug addict who has had a
crush on Portia since their high school years.
This cast and their supporting actors act out a story--sometimes
poignant, often hilarious--that is well worth checking out.
On a personal note, my New Years Eve was fabulous. I read near the
tree with Joey cat on my lap. That was incredibly sweet. My
resolution number two is one Joey is insisting on: play more with the
cat. We cuddle a lot but now he has shown a great deal of interest in
his interactive cat toys.
A great big shout out goes out to all the cat and dog companions who
add so much to our lives.
Julia Emily Hathaway







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