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Dec 17, 2015DorisWaggoner rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Stegner's late novel is a quiet view of a long friendship between two couples. Framed by a single day, looking back over years of this friendship, its ups and downs, life's ups and downs, it's a stunning achievement. It's told from the point of view of Larry, a novelist, who sees the world through the people who inhabit it. He is also a lover of nature, who in the first few pages describes a walk down the road he "loves best in the world." This walk parallels the walk he and his wife Sally have taken over the decades with their friends Sid and Charity. He couldn't have foreseen in their beginning either how their lives would turn out, or how he would feel about any of it. No young writer could have created these characters or written this book. I think it's best appreciated by readers with some life experience under their belts too. Gorgeous writing.