REVIEW: THE LANDING BY SUSAN JOHNSON

Note, the format of my Short and Sweet reviews differs in that they simply comprise the book blurb and a short response (hence, the short and sweet).

I like the multi-layered title of this book. While it relates to the setting (a fictional town called The Landing), it also relates to our own “landings” – where and how we land when life throws us a curve ball (or two). Here’s the blurb:

Jonathan Lott, recently divorced, is about to find how much love really matters in a funny, delightful and poignant novel that lays out the human condition – looking for love in all of its many forms with secrets, polite lies, desperation, compromise and joy.

Jonathan Lott is confused. His wife has left him for a woman and he doesn’t like living alone. Is it true that an about-to-be-divorced man in possession of a good fortune is in need of a new wife? Would Penny Collins do, divorced herself, school teacher and frustrated artist? What about beautiful Anna, blown in from who knows where, trailing broken marriages behind her? There’s a lot happening at The Landing, where Jonathan has his beach house, and he’s about to find out how much love matters.

Marie hated being touched; she hated having her hand held. Her hand began to sweat but she did not know how to extract it so she kept it there, in misery, the sweat flowing like a fountain on her palm, like a religious miracle. When Marie stood up there was a damp patch on her dress where her hands had been flowing in her lap. (p108)