Reunion (Paperback)

Reunion is the story of a college professor/poet named Charles who goes back to his thirtieth college reunion. While there, he experiences a vivid flashback to his senior year in college when he was in love with a ballerina named Juliana. Through the flashback we get to experience this brief, fiery affair from beginning to end. It is a wonderful experience.

It is not a wonderful experience in the way one might expect, however. Really, it is a rather ordinary love affair of a 22-year-old complete with the intense range of emotions from passion and doubt to jealously and joy. And it is in its ordinariness that this novel is so special. Because, excepting the end where a few surprises muddle the works, its ordinariness allows Lightman an extraordinary truthfulness.

Charles is perhaps a more real character than any I've read. I felt I understood this man--his reactions to his current lover, his former classmates, his memories. I felt that he was having the same kind of emotional experiences that I have had. And though Charles' story is his own, his emotions are universal. This is a very difficult effect to produce and Lightman does it brilliantly here.

Of course, this is a brief novel but, in this case, perhaps that is best. The quick read helps convey the intensity of the experience, particularly the flashbacks. And though the protagonist is a man, I think the universality of the emotions will speak to any reader. I highly recommend this book.

Every few years, I get a little gift: a new novel from Alan Lightman. He doesn't publish fiction often, but when he does it is invariably worth reading. Best of all, each book is different from the others, while all are good.

Lightman's style is one of elegant language and a unique perspective. In each of his books, I find enjoyment simply in the words he uses, and how they flow together to form his narrative. In this, "Reunion" is no different -- Lightman's use of language is beautiful in and of itself.

In terms of the story itself, "Reunion" is about a man in his fifties who attends his 30th college graduation class reunion. In his own words, he lives a "comfortable" life -- he's divorced, with one child, and basically unremarkable, but "comfortable" nonetheless. At his reunion, he sees some people he remembers from college and meets a few new people. However, the real "reunion" of the story is when the main character (Charles) confronts his memories of the intense love affair he shared with a ballet dancer in his last year of school.

To be honest, this is a story that most of us have read before. It is Lightman's perspective on the story, and his keen sense of observation, which elevate "Reunion" above the trite and pithy messages of other, similar, stories. Lightman offers ideas and viewpoints which are rare in modern fiction -- perhaps even unique to this novel. As such, "Reunion" is a rare and valuable book.

Particularly memorable about "Reunion" is the way Lightman conveys Charles experiencing his memories. In several instances, he sees and hears what happened in different ways -- the idealized version that is what he thought would happen at the time, and the more human version which is probably closer to what really happened. The reader is left to question whether either "version" of Charles' memories is what really happened, or if true events were some unknown mixture of both versions. The subjectivity of memory is one of the major topics of the novel.

"Reunion" is a story about love, to be sure... and a touchingly bittersweet one at that. However, it is also about the changes and compromises that come with age, about the natural fallacy that personal perspective brings to events, and about the fragility of our memories. While it may not be my favorite of Lightman's books (that label still belongs to "Einstein's Dreams"), it is ceratinly an example of why I always look forward to a new Alan Lightman novel.