This novel is about love and romance but in the most elevated emotional forms. I believe the author asked herself about the whys and ways of love and again answered herself in writing it in its most profound forms.

The main character is a widow, 43 years old Edith Chardman, who has some kind of a relationship with a philosopher, Edwin, who was Edith’s teacher once, although there is a major age difference of about 40 years between them. He loves and adores her.

Edith is well-to-do and doesn’t do much as to work of any kind: however, she is well-read, well-educated, and bright. While she is in a skiing town where she has a house, on a very snowy day, a 24-year-old lost skier, Jared, who is looking for a place to stay rings her door. Jared is a young, handsome, brilliant scientist and innovator.

The story gives the details of Edith’s relationships with both these men while examining love in its intellectual, emotional, physical, and platonic forms.

I enjoyed reading this book greatly, partly due to Pearl Buck’s exquisite writing style and insight into the main characters, although I couldn’t wrap my head around its ending when Edith made Jared go and marry someone else because she thought that union was in his best interest. This may be because the author wanted to insert into the plot a kind of true-to-life logic.

enjoying Pearl Buck's genius.

that she looked at love relationships from several different angles.

that she made both men superior to the woman, but since this author passed away in 1973, she was the product of an earlier understanding and she must have played to it; therefore, this stance is understandable.

is Pearl Buck, the famed Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

The writing style and character portrayals are excellent.

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Created Nov 23, 2018 at 1:59pm • Submit your own review...