ENTERTAINMENT REALM

A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams. William Morrow| June 2016| 241 pages | $14.99| ISBN: 978-0-06-240353-7

RATING: 3.5/5*

My summer reading doesn’t vary all that much from my reading the rest of the year. Who are these summer readers? People who only read in the summer, on a beach, outside or on vacation? People who only want to engage in activities that do not require much thought? I read A Certain Age quickly. Now a few weeks later I cannot recall details without consulting the book’s jacket. I’m thinking that this then classifies as a beach read.

New Yorker Theresa Marshall falls in love with her much younger paramour Captain Octavian Rofrano who becomes enchanted with a young woman, Sophie Fortescue, engaged to his lover’s brother. Theresa won’t divorce her husband because she’s comfortable and they have an understanding. Sophie is one of new money. Author Beatriz Williams explains: “Money. They had loads of money now: exactly how much, Father wouldn’t say. Virginia had a better idea, but she wasn’t talking either. All Sophie knew was that her sister’s pocketbook contained five hundred dollars, a sum almost beyond the reach of her imagination a single year ago, and that these five hundred dazzling dollars represented no more than a crumb or two of the daily bread that was now theirs, thanks to the ingenious simplicity of Father’s pneumatic oxifying drill.”

It is that time when one married more often for money and position than love. The novel swings back and forth between the two women as the love triangle becomes increasingly more complicated. Theresa amuses with her attitude and general joie do vive. Author Williams writes: “Naturally I put the whole episode behind me and plunged into a relentless week of—well, of whatever it is I did, before the Boy and I became lovers. I visited friends, I read books, I swam in the ocean, I went to every damned cocktail party between West Hampton and Montauk Point. I believe I compete in a horse show—if memory serves—on my favorite mare, Tiptoe. We won second place over the jumps. The ribbon’s hanging in the stable somewhere.”

–review by Amy Steele

 FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from William Morrow.