Love in the Present Tense 
asked by samoan on November 16, 2006 6:07 PM
For five years Pearl has managed to keep the past from catching up to her and her bright, frail five-year-old son. Life has given her every reason to mistrust people, but circumstances force her to trust her neighbor Mitch with watching Leonard while she goes off to work. Then one day Pearl drops her son off…and never returns.
They are an unlikely pair: Mitch is a young, unattached business owner, and Leonard is a precocious, five-year-old boy. But together they must find a way to move forward in the wake of Pearl’s unexplained disappearance. Their bond as parent and child shifts and endures, even as Mitch must eventually surrender Leonard to a two-parent home.
Is it possible to love the people who can’t always be there for us? The answers will surprise and move you. As their lives unfold, profound questions emerge about the nature of love and family. Ultimately, this novel’s richest reward is watching Mitch and Leonard grow up together, through the power and the magic of the human heart.
They are an unlikely pair: Mitch is a young, unattached business owner, and Leonard is a precocious, five-year-old boy. But together they must find a way to move forward in the wake of Pearl’s unexplained disappearance. Their bond as parent and child shifts and endures, even as Mitch must eventually surrender Leonard to a two-parent home.
Is it possible to love the people who can’t always be there for us? The answers will surprise and move you. As their lives unfold, profound questions emerge about the nature of love and family. Ultimately, this novel’s richest reward is watching Mitch and Leonard grow up together, through the power and the magic of the human heart.
Reviews
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This is a brilliant book. It has everything you could want. The writer is fantastic & tells a really good story. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a good read, with a good story-line & not a fairy-tell ending.
reviewed by bulldogs on November 29, 2006 9:34 AM
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This is by the same author as Pay it Forward. If you enjoyed that book, you will undoubtedly enjoy this one.
It is just a little off putting at first to jump around between characters and years, but once you get the rhythm it becomes much easier to read and the characters are so interesting that
you quickly adjust to the timeline and changing people.
Very pleasant read.
It is just a little off putting at first to jump around between characters and years, but once you get the rhythm it becomes much easier to read and the characters are so interesting that
you quickly adjust to the timeline and changing people.
Very pleasant read.
reviewed by dannyboy on November 29, 2006 3:23 PM
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With each successive novel -- Pay It Forward, Electric God, Walter's Purple Heart, and now, Love In The Present Tense -- author Catherine Ryan Hyde transcends the role of storyteller and becomes more of an enlightened guide to finding love in an age where war and other horrors dominate.
Never flinching from reality, "Love In The Present Tense" begins with an act of violence -- in no way gratuitous, for it's that very act that serves as the catalyst for each character's individual journey to finding love -- and flows smoothly along to its satisfying conclusion.
Never before have Hyde's characters rang with such reality and depth, warmth and kindness. Yes, she's adept at working the reader's emotions, but not without reason. She tempts us to care about her flawed characters -- especially Pearl, the troubled thirteen year old who gives birth to the premature and wholly precocious Leonard (and who would easily give the kid from "Jerry Maguire" a run for his money any day...) -- and then takes us by the hand as they make their discoveries.
"Love In The Present Tense" is a refreshing and beautiful depiction of the various ways in which love manifests, and how each of us influence love in our own ways, by our actions, and by our words.
Beneath it all, Hyde is surely saying, is our humanity. And that is the best "forever love" we could ever hope for.
Never flinching from reality, "Love In The Present Tense" begins with an act of violence -- in no way gratuitous, for it's that very act that serves as the catalyst for each character's individual journey to finding love -- and flows smoothly along to its satisfying conclusion.
Never before have Hyde's characters rang with such reality and depth, warmth and kindness. Yes, she's adept at working the reader's emotions, but not without reason. She tempts us to care about her flawed characters -- especially Pearl, the troubled thirteen year old who gives birth to the premature and wholly precocious Leonard (and who would easily give the kid from "Jerry Maguire" a run for his money any day...) -- and then takes us by the hand as they make their discoveries.
"Love In The Present Tense" is a refreshing and beautiful depiction of the various ways in which love manifests, and how each of us influence love in our own ways, by our actions, and by our words.
Beneath it all, Hyde is surely saying, is our humanity. And that is the best "forever love" we could ever hope for.
reviewed by hooked on November 29, 2006 7:07 PM