Sophisticated, sharp and carefully crafted.

This is a reprint of a novel originally published in 1973, although its themes and message remain timely and not dated.

Robert Merriweather, the latest scion of generations of New England Merriweathers, is a physiologist. At Harvard, so you know he's smart. His wife, Sarah, described as "a stocky little dynamo," has turned from a woman who would have sex with him in the same bed in which her roommate slept into a woman who won't have sex with him at all. She's become embittered, upset that her own intellect has been reduced to the status of "Wife of Robert Merriweather."

The Merriweather marriage is not a happy one.

When Cynthia, a winsome twenty-year-old, shows up for an appointment on a day that Robert is on call, she clearly is taken with a man over twice her age. She's a southerner; tan, blonde, and interested. She pursues him, and the two share a Summer of Love.

All summers eventually turn to fall, though, and in the world of literary archetypes, summer equates to the fullness of life, whereas in autumn, your life is winding down. Can Robert, now rejuvenated by the love and passion that Cynthia has brought to his life, extend his summer?

Richard Stern engages in a piercing examination of what it means to be married, whether to your spouse, your job, your children, or your lover. Literal and metaphorical marriages. Robert and Sarah have been married for over twenty years, and we are never quite sure what brought them together in the first place. Undoubtedly, Robert was attracted to Sarah's intellect. But once the rings were exchanged, he expected her to sublimate that very thing and turn her focus to motherhood and homemaking. Whatever connections they once shared have long since depleted. Theirs is a relationship existing because it has to, because that's what married couples do.

Cynthia represents Robert's chance to find the passion missing from his life. He finds, certainly, a sexual rejuvenation, making love in the afternoon and even sometimes twice a day. They also talk, whether about classic novels or current events, and Robert finds himself enchanted by her. When he has to spend the summer in France for job-related purposes, he brings Cynthia with him. He is flush with love, lust, optimism, and possibility.

His marriage, though. What about that? What about Sarah? And their four children?

Too often, Robert appears almost too stoic, so when he breaks down over the dissolution of his marriage, it's a paradoxically wonderful moment. You get to see him, really SEE him, for the man he is. The unfeeling, removed New Englander has been replaced by a man who feels and feels deeply.

Do not think, though, that Robert is naive when it comes to Cynthia. He recognizes her occasional depression and frustration over their relationship. Like Sarah, Cynthia finds herself jettisoned to Robert's shadow and not taken seriously. She balks at her inferiority, and while Robert tries to soothe her, he doesn't really understand how she feels. In that regard, he does not change at all. Robert also knows that his relationship with Cynthia may not last beyond the fickleness of her youth and his new-found energy, much less the test of time. Yet his life with her - his life without his wife - has led him to, as he observes, feel "charged by everything ... love, family, Cambridge, mentality." Robert, finally, evolves.

This is an evocative book, and is more than just one man's journey through life. To put it that way is to minimize Robert's evolution. He is a man much compartmentalized, and his tendency to dissemble his life has led him to a massive disconnect. Cynthia may be a catalyst for change, but we know - as does Robert - that the possibility was there all along.