This week’s selection was recommended to me by a fellow Her Campus writer! The Future of Love by Shirley Abbott features a multigenerational cast of characters living in New York
City. I have to admit, with the school year winding down and finals looming, I was getting less enthusiastic about the “52 books” goal. But The Future of Love, with its quick-moving plot and refreshingly realistic characters, was just what the doctor ordered.
Set in New York City, the novel is narrated by Mark Adler, a recently unemployed father, his wife Maggie, and her recently widowed mother, Antonia. Abbott focuses a great deal on adultery in this story – while Mark seeks out an extramarital relationship with his daughter’s preschool teacher, Antonia struggles to justify her affair with a married man. Some of my favorite parts of the book involved the generational gap between Antonia and Maggie – for example, Antonia can’t understand her daughter’s obsession with organic produce and environmental cleanliness, her “determination not to dirty up the world or be dirtied up by it.”
The only obvious flaw I found in this novel was its insertion of the 9/11 attacks. Abbott has clearly employed this American tragedy as a plot device, taking away from much of its meaning. However, the event does its job – the aftermath of the attacks provides a nuanced firsthand depiction of post-9/11 New York.