Book Summary and Reviews of Room on the Sea by André Aciman

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Cloggie Downunder

A thought-provoking tale filled with gorgeous prose.
Room On The Sea is a novella by Egyptian-born American author, Andre Aciman. On a warm summer Monday, Paul Wadsworth and Catherine Shukoff encounter one another in a Manhattan central jury room. Paul is a retired lawyer, reading the Wall Street Journal while they wait to be sent to a courtroom for jury selection; Catherine is a psychologist who reveals she’s reading Wuthering Heights when she notices Paul’s interest in her reading matter.

While they wait in unairconditioned discomfort (the aircon is not working) they share: Paul offers his foolproof way out of being selected; they chat and enjoy each other’s company; during the lunch break, Paul’s recommendation for a Chinese lunch; whatever the topic, they seem to agree; they like each other’s sense of humour; they arrange to meet for coffee the next morning; they exchange phone numbers; details of their lives; career paths not taken.

They discover a “ships-in-the-night” moment from their youth, and discuss their marriages quite frankly, as each inwardly compares the other to their spouse. They do all they can to ensure they can enjoy each other’s company each day, and they discuss the gloomy prospect that they might not see one another again after their week of juror obligation is up.

As their feelings for each other intensify, they describe the effect of their daily encounters: “I’ve felt young and hopeful again– only to realize that I’d stopped being young and hopeful for so long.” They admit to their unsatisfactory marriages: “… the tiny joke time plays on us: it robs the memory of who we were and what we were able to feel once. As you said, we live with people but totally forget why we’ve chosen to live with them.”

And they consider what might happen if they decide to take it a step further: “There are so many things at stake, all of them possibly quite meagre and frail by now, some downright insignificant. But we’ve built our lives with them and they are who we are, who we’ve been made to be, sometimes even against our will. Where would we be without them?” and they wonder if their relationship would still have the texture of “the casual, improvised meeting that allowed them to feel perfectly natural each time they were thrown together by the court system.” Do they, or don’t they? A thought-provoking tale filled with gorgeous prose.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Faber & Faber

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