A Roof Against the Rain

By JoEllen Collins

A Roof Against the Rain tells the story of a 52-year-old widow, Juliet Barnes, who, while adjusting to life on her own, begins a correspondence with Sam Duncan, a college professor renting her vacation home. Ironically, he cancels the rental because his wife also becomes fatally ill. After many months of exchanging increasingly intimate letters, they meet, and Juliet is aghast at his near-exact resemblance to her late husband, Paul. The book then explores her attempts to deal with this coincidence, the memories it awakens of her late husband, and her growing passion for Sam, who occupies his own place in her heart. She moves from Santa Monica, California, to Sun Valley, Idaho, meets different men, and sees her daughters, young women in their twenties, in addition to her twice-divorced best friend, involved in similar quests for meaningful relationships. Other settings include Malibu, Manzanillo, New Hampshire, and Paris. Some of the book's themes are loss and recovery, the changes in sexual mores from her mother's generation to Juliet's, the possibilities for love and passion amongst survivors of grief, and the intricacies of friendships among women-particularly between mothers and daughters.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 059551720X
• ISBN13: 9780595517206
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Life Can Have Another Time Around

A Roof Against the Rain This book takes a big dive beneath the surface of the relationships we try to develop and deal with, as best we can, at a "mature" time in life. We have sincere hopes for our family, our friends, and for finding the right mate if we are alone. But we can do things counter to our hopes just because we are who we are and the crippling emotions we harbor. This storyline gives the comfort that, despite our contrary sides, our hopes and dreams can become reality, and life continually unfolds. Ms. Collins does a fine job of narration in her choice of details about the characters' thoughts and daily lives, which bring us easily into their world. Judy Graven