Fortunate Lives

By Robb Forman Dew

Book Overview

The Howells family are revisited in the summer of 1991. David, 18, is preparing to go to Harvard and Sarah is now 13. A young woman, Netta Breckenridge, enters the family's lives and creates a fragile domesticity for the Howells.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316890685
• ISBN13: 9780316890687
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.7" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A Family Deals with Loss

This novel explores themes of loss, individuation, family and friendship. The story is told with low expressed emotion built on the premise that still waters run deep and what is felt does not always have to be communicated. There are several plot lines in this book. A family deals with loss after their son dies in a tragic accident. Years later, their oldest child gets ready to leave for college and these wounds open again. Meanwhile, a truly gross holier-than-thou nymphomaniac professor enters their lives and 'adopts' them. The mother for some reason is unable to set limits or boundaries with this woman. The woman soon drags the son into a preposterous affair. Superimposed on this is dad's attempt to make peace with the young man responsible for their son's death. It all doesn't quite work but it was thought-provoking, very tender at times, and definitely worth reading.

A son's last summer at home is detailed with charm and humor

Dew's story of a son's last summer before entering Harvard University is charmingly detailed by a master storyteller. It speaks of a mother's devotion and care for a son who must inevitably separate from her. This is a book every mother of a son should read before he leaves for school. Indeed, the main character is fortunate to have a mother such as Dew describes.