Comeback Love by Peter Golden

Title: Comeback Love
Author: Peter Golden
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Release Date: April 3rd, 2012
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Acquired: From Publisher
Age Group: Adult

More than thirty-five years ago, Gordon Meyers, an aspiring writer with a low number in the draft lottery, packed his belongings and reluctantly drove away, leaving behind Glenna Rising, the sexy, sharp-witted med student he couldn’t imagine living without.

Now, decades later, Gordon is a former globe-trotting consultant with a grown son, an ex-wife, and an overwhelming desire to see Glenna again. Though she’s stunned when Gordon walks into her Manhattan office, Glenna agrees to accompany him for a drink. As the two head out into the snow-swept city, they rediscover the passion that once drew them together—before it tore them apart. And as the evening unfolds, Gordon will finally reveal the true reason for his return. . . . 

When Gordan met Glenna it was instant attraction. A story of two lovers discovering each other goes wrong in many ways and thirty plus years later Gordan has returned into Glenna's life, after seeking her out. Slowly the ties between the present and the past are drawn together as both of them question 'what if' and if the past could ever be relived.

I honestly don't know what had originally drawn me to this book. When I was first asked to participate in the blog tour, this one instantly jumped out at me. And it had nothing to do with the direct plot line: I have never had a man leave me and thirty years return (I haven't even lived thirty years!) but I did like this correlation between the past and the present.

I think that a lot of us are guilty at one point or another in letting our past actions be the driving force to the present, and in a lot of ways start to overshadow the future. I think that's what happened to Gordan, in my opinion. While he had moved on, he had a son, he didn't really move on. He returned to her, Glenna. But, and this might sound a little weird, I liked that this was told from a male's perspective. For a long time I have always read very heavily emotional books from a female's point of view, and I can connect. I could connect in a lot of ways with Gordan, somewhat, even though he's a guy.

The thing about Gordan is that even when he was a young college student, in someways, he was always looking back. And now thirty-five years later he still is. The parallel's between the past and the present were in a lot of ways surprising, but I wouldn't doubt at all if that was the author's intent. I think that Gordan had a lot of work, and reader's can see that just as well as Glenna. 

Glenna, I could never connect with her. She was very out there and in a lot of ways an open book. And the past Glenna, I honestly felt, was too far into the future for me. Or maybe I'm stuck in Hollywood's version of what the 1960-70's look like, but Glenna, to me, was a little ahead. And Gordan's feelings for her were very intense.

This book was very interesting and a little out of what I'm use to, but I'm glad I read this book. Even though I could connect with Gordan, I have to give this a four because like I said before, he had a lot of work as a person to develop and see that he wasn't the only who was hurting. Golden did an excellent job with this book though, and I would recommend this book to just about anyone.

Blog Tour: Comeback Love by Peter Golden

Comeback Love
 Peter Golden

More than thirty-five years ago, Gordon Meyers, an aspiring writer with a low number in the draft lottery, packed his belongings and reluctantly drove away, leaving behind Glenna Rising, the sexy, sharp-witted med student he couldn’t imagine living without.

Now, decades later, Gordon is a former globe-trotting consultant with a grown son, an ex-wife, and an overwhelming desire to see Glenna again. Though she’s stunned when Gordon walks into her Manhattan office, Glenna agrees to accompany him for a drink. As the two head out into the snow-swept city, they rediscover the passion that once drew them together—before it tore them apart. And as the evening unfolds, Gordon will finally reveal the true reason for his return. . . .  

Ideas have a funny way of showing up. In the case of Comeback Love, it wasn’t so much inspiration descending on me, but rather I got to the point in my life where I wanted to explore the years that had shaped both my wife and me, and how that era continued to play a part in our marriage.

At the time, I was working on a history of the Cold War. I had recently completed an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, and I was reading over the manuscript and saw the words “Soviet Union” and “USSR,” terms that by 2005 had about as much reality as the Land of Oz. So I wondered then what was the most profound change in the United States after the Second World War? And my answer was: the changing status and roles of women.

So I began to write the story of Gordon Meyers, a 50-something year-old man who tracks down Glenna Rising, a woman he loved and lost during the 1960s, when he was an aspiring writer and she was in medical school. The novel began to shift between past and present, a tact I took so I could show the difference between then and now. I also knew that the reader would want to know why Gordon really came back to see Glenna and how things would play out at the end.

            The process was simple—not easy, simple. I sat in a chair between eight and ten hours a day for six months and then the novel was done. It took me three months to rewrite it, but I had sold it by then, and I was thrilled to be doing the work.

My goal was modest. I believe that writing, at its best, informs us or moves us or both. It gives us a wider view of the world, makes us more compassionate and lets us know that we are not alone. That’s all I wanted to do, and I hope it’s enough for readers.

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Books:

O Powerful Western Star

Quiet Diplomat
I Rest My Case

Comeback Love

Peter Golden is an award-winning journalist and the author of six full-length works of non-fiction and fiction. Some of his work has appeared in the Detroit Free Press Magazine, Albany Times Union, New Jersey Monthly, Microsoft’s eDirections, Beyond Computing, Electronic Business, Midstream, The Forward and Capital Region Magazine. His debut novel Comeback Love (Atria Books, April 2012) tells the story of a man and his romantic quest to find the women he loved and lost years before in the 1960s. Golden grew up in South Orange and Maplewood, New Jersey, and lives today outside Albany, New York with his wife and son.