Louisa Meets Bear

Louisa Meets Bear

<ul><li><b>Extraordinary . . . When you reach the final page, you'll be sad to leave Gornick's universe behind.<i>   </i>"A"<i> Entertainment Weekly</i></b></li><li><b>One of the most perceptive, compassionate writers of fiction in America...Immensely talented and brave.   <i>NPR</i></b></li><li><b>Chosen as a Fresh Pick for Your Book Club, Oprah.com</b></li><li><b>Brilliantly Constructed... STARRED REVIEW</b><b><i> Publishers Weekly</i></b></li><li><b>Profound Brilliance...STARRED REVIEW<i> Booklist</i></b></li><li><b>Achingly eloquent...<i>MORE Summer Reads Selection</i></b></li><li><b>Exquisite...<i>BBC Best Beach Reads</i></b></li></ul> <div><b><i></i></b><div><b><i></i></b><div><b><i></i></b></div><div><div><b></b></div><div><b><i></i></b></div><div><b><i></i></b></div><div><b><i></i></b></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div><b></b></div><div><b></b></div><div><b></b></div><div><b></b></div></div></div><div><b><i></i></b></div></div>When Louisa and Bear meet at Princeton in 1975, sparks fly. Louisa is the sexually adventurous daughter of a geneticist, Bear the volatile son of a plumber. They dive headfirst into a passionate affair that will alter the course of their lives, changing how they define themselves in the years and relationships that follow. Lisa Gornick's "Louisa Meets Bear "is a gripping novel in interconnected stories from an author whose work "starts off like a brush fire and then engulfs and burns with fury" ("The Huffington Post").<br /><br />Reading "Louisa Meets Bear "is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, as we uncover the subtle and startling connections between new characters and the star-crossed lovers. We meet a daughter who stabs her mother when she learns the truth about her father, a wife who sees herself clearly after finding a man dead on her office floor, a mother who discovers a girl in her teenage son's bed. Each character is striking, each rendered with Gornick's trademark sympathy and psychological acuity. We follow them over the course of a half century, from San Francisco to New York City and from Guatemala to Venice, through pregnancies, tragedies, and revelations, until we return to Louisa and Bear.<br /><br />With flawed and deeply human characters, and piercing insight into the lives of women, "Louisa Meets Bear "grapples with whether we can--or can't--choose how and whom we love.