In the Meantime

by Robin Lippincott

Book Overview

From the intimacy of small-town America to big city life, from World War II to 9/11, In the Meantime vividly encapsulates an unforgettable era.On a hot summer's day in 1931, three five-year-olds meet... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592642004
• ISBN13: 9781592642007
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Toby Press
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Novel

IN THE MEANTIME is the finest book I've read this year. Robin Lippincott has managed, in a mere 170 pages, to tell the life stories of three compelling characters and friends--Kathryn, Luke, and Starling. Lippincott's tale begins with midwestern children who dream of escaping to New York City--an American ideal--to chase dreams and reinvent their lives. The friends come of age against the backdrop of WWII, details of which Lippincott creatively intertwines with his narrative. He paints vividly the bombing of Hiroshima and its devastating effects on the people of Japan. He reveals also the desperate fight for survival one man experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. These events, though geographically removed from his main characters, affect the tone and urgency of Lippincott's novel. That his characters--Kathryn, Luke, and Starling--might live life fully. That we as the novelist's readers might do the same. The novel ends a few days short of September 11, 2001. As Lippincott writes, fittingly, close to the end of his story, "She turned to musing about the brevity of human life and how, retrospectively, it is but a flash, an instant--something that takes place between this or that historical event, between this or that much larger and more significant natural phenomenon..." I highly recommend this book.

The Mystery of Time, Transcended by Art

This is an extraordinary novel, a demonstration of time's inevitable shaping of human lives, from the ascent of youthful hopes and dreams, to middle-age's reluctant descent into the shards of thwarted ambition, on into the long flat plain of old age and its final reward of acceptance (if we're lucky): intense but calm happiness at simply being. So Kathryn, the only one of the original three lifetime friends remaining after eighty years, is able to just let unproductive thoughts go, and sit gloriously in sun slanting through windows, knowing that the dust will come, but in the meantime, she's lucky to be alive. And although the author so deftly and authoritatively shows time's mean grip on us, he does it in a mere 170 pages, suggesting that art is the only way we can step out of the stream, distance ourselves enough to render time and assess its effects. He does the same with space, flashing to Tokyo and Amsterdam to give us indelible glimpses of less fortunate threesomes crushed by war. And the amazing thing is that this transcendence of time and space work in this slim volume, giving us a language to ponder them long after we put the book down.

A seminal work of literary skill that fully engages from first page to last

Robin Lippincott is a talented author whose two previous novels ("Our Arcadia: An American Watercolor" and "The Real, True Angel") were models of well crafted fiction. Now Lippincott has authored a third literary gem with "In The Meantime", a novel that features the intertwined lives of Kathryn, Luke and Starling who first meet each other at the age of five in 1931. Residing in a small Midwestern town, the three become fast friends. After the end of World War II they move to New York City and find themselves dealing with the racism and prejudice of America in the 1950s. Throughout their adulthood their steadfast bond of friendship endures through all manner life's disappointments. There three-person friendship is mirrored within the pages of "In The Meantime" by the experiences of three friends in Hiroshima on the day the atomic bomb was dropped, and by a trio of jews hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. The story stretches over seven decades until there is only one of the friends left to relate their story. A seminal work of literary skill that fully engages from first page to last, "In The Meantime" is especially recommended for academic library Literary Fiction collections, community library contemporary novels, and the personal reading lists of those who appreciate a finely crafted novel with respect to both the longitudinal development of characters and deftly presented dialogue.

Brave, Spiritual Journey

The lives of three friends - Luke, Kathryn and Starling - from the age of five in the 1930s until a few days before September 11th, 2001 provide the setting of "In The Meantime". But the true meaning of this elegantly crafted novel lies in its challenge to reexamine the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Japanese civilians. The mid-section of the novel takes the reader to Hiroshima, and into the lives of ordinary Japanese citizens on that horrendous day. Seichi, Yukio, and Myeko are three Japanese friends with hopes, dreams, and plans just like the three American friends. "In the Meantime" explores the humanity of Japanese citizens who were going about the tasks of ordinary life on the day the bomb was dropped. Later, Kathryn meets Peter, who along with his friends Renata and Hans, are sent to Auschwitz. This is a beautifully written spiritual journey for all those who are brave enough to embark. It is highly recommended.

Wonderful combination of story and storyteller

Robin Lippincott's third novel, In the Meantime, has a lot more to do with style, structure, and character development than it does with plot. The plot is rather simple, really. In 1931, two friends, ages five and six, stumble upon the prettiest boy they have ever met. He is playing in the mud and is wearing a mud crown. The three become inseparable for the remaining lifetimes, with the novel ending on September 7, 2001. I can see where Lippincott chose to give the last chapter its pre-9/11 date. There is something innocent about all the days before that one that defines lifetimes. What makes this novel different than the average coming-of-age or the BFF (best friends for ever) novel is the style. The long and never-boring sentences are reminiscent of the great Faulkner himself--only with punctuation. The back cover blurb is approximately 200 words, yet there isn't a word that can be deleted because each word provides important information for the reader to learn about the three main characters, Kathryn, Luke, and Starling. Some sentences run for almost two pages, but they are easy to follow. In regards to structure, in the first section, we see the children meeting. In the second section is near the end of Kathryn's life, after Luke has passed and Starling has disappeared. What happens between those two sections is In the Meantime, where the three plot to go New York and live together, where Kathryn takes a husband and a lover, where Luke becomes a successful editor and tries to deny his homosexuality, where Sterling dreams of becoming a famous actor, only to have both his dreams and his lust for Luke dashed. Character development is crucial in a novel like this, especially one that is a mere 178 pages long. You get to intimately know Kathryn, Luke, and Starling, yet there is not one spoken word of dialogue. Amazingly, none of the characters actually speak, yet each has his/her distinctive voice and speech pattern. One chapter doesn't seem to fit. It takes place on August 6, 1945 when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. We see the effects of that day and event on three friends who seem to mirror Kathryn, Luke, and Starling in a different culture. But it is jarring, and I see no need for it to be there, unless it is to make a statement that friendships like theirs are not unique and happen everywhere. Armchair Interviews says: If you want to read a book where every word was measured for its value to the sentence and the story, this is it.