Red Wine - Softcover

Mayland, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965658597 ISBN 13: 9780965658591

Publisher: New Amer Pr, 1997

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From Kirkus Reviews:

A slender first novel chronicles--in romantic European settings--the life of a young man undone by his parents' divorce. Not only is there the divorce, but Bob's jerk of a father is refusing to pay for his son to continue at Webster, a private college in Maine. This is deeply depressing news, and Bob, in Europe to work with other Websterites at various tennis tournaments, starts drinking heavily. On the way to Rome, he's thrown together with co-worker and fellow student Linda. At first he behaves like a complete boor, but Linda, the archetypical forgiving woman, is soon standing by her man. Bob is attracted to Linda, though he feels he's an inadequate slob and not worthy of her. Linda perseveres, seeing him through a nasty hangover, a couple of barroom brawls, etc. Eventually, they go to Athens, where they become lovers. And Bob can't believe his luck. After all, ``depression is not something to be taken lightly--it is a force of deceptive power.'' Linda remains loving and understanding whether in a tent on an island or in the bedroom of a country inn. The idyll soon ends, however. The two vow to keep in touch, but Bob starts drinking as soon as Linda's flight leaves. Linda is pulling for him, though, and there's the suggestion that he may still get his life together. Angst lite. -- Copyright �1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist:

A new generation of young Americans journeys to Europe in Mayland's touching first novel. Employed as gofers for a series of European tennis tournaments sponsored by a major U.S. consumer products firm, two college students talk, wrangle, and tentatively move toward love. Narrator Bob is from Nebraska, a troubled child of divorce who drinks far too much and isn't sure whether either of his battling parents will pay his tuition for the coming year at Webster College in Maine. Linda, a year behind Bob at the school, is from Delaware; she seems more confident, more comfortable in her own skin, to the point where she initially intimidates her midwestern companion. With plenty of free time, the couple explore Italy, Greece, and the Aegean Islands, growing closer, letting down some of the walls each has built. A poignant tale of love on the cusp between adolescence and adulthood. Mary Carroll

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