In chapters that alternate between their present older age (60’s) and their younger years, we learn about their romances and their struggles. One family is much wealthier than the other and helps the former out with a loan that they pay off over time. It is one of the great secrets kept between couples…The hunt for love is always on, and in some tragic, truthful, stunning way it forever eludes us.” No outsider ever knows the interior landscape of a marriage. The introduction tells us that “Crossing to Safety is a love story…in the sense that it explores private lives. The hunt for the Holy Grail of tenure and discussions of suitable academic work that will get tenure is one theme - poetry? novels? literary criticism? Each year the two couples get together at a summer family compound in Vermont owned by the wealthier couple. It’s an academic novel in a sense – both men start out as English professors at the University of Wisconsin in the difficult years of the late 1930’s – the end of the Depression, heading into WW II. The story follows two couples through life. Despite some dark passages, it’s a delight to read and I’m adding it as one of my all-time favorites.
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