Courtship, travelogue, nature observations, and fish stories cover
the map in this unfocused debut. Roorbach (English/Univ. of Maine
at Farmington) pegs his narrative on bis courtship of his wife,
Juliet. He was 29 and she 20 when they met in the Hot Tin Roof
disco in Martha's Vineyard. During a tumultuous eight-year
relationship, they often broke up, but had their best moments
together traveling - or so says the author, who conducts us from
Belgium to Paris and Norway, across Canada, Martha's Vineyard, the
Midwest, New Mexico, Colorado, Mt. St. Helens, and Jamaica. Along
the way, several chapters on fishing (scant mention of Juliet here)
are tossed in, followed by assorted nature essays. Juliet's wooing
makes for some of Roorbach's more engaging writing, but also for
some of his most unfortunate - "My Venus in Blue Jeans wore a paper
Burger King crown and sang nonstop as we rolled past the
cornfields." This sort of superficial treatment undercuts belief in
the passion of the author's pursuit; when he discovers, for
example, that Juliet has been cheating on him with regularity, he
glosses over with the observation that "my black eyes fairly
dripped with tears." As a couple, Roorbach and Juliet strike many
cute poses ("She stood naked and shivering, hugging herself, while
I screwed the drilled Folger's cap onto our vessel, then sighed as
I dumped hot river water over her in a perfect shower....We were
clean. We were warm") but possess all the depth of celluloid. In
his chapters on nature, which could well be the nucleus of another
book, Roorbach's observations of turkeys, hummingbirds, sunfish,
and so forth are careful and intelligent, but uninformed by natural
history or ecology. Nicely penned in places, but hamstrung by
incessant meandering. (Kirkus Reviews)
They met in a bar on Martha's Vineyard. Bill was instantly smitten
-- her cool beauty, her insouciance, her sassy youth -- but Juliet
was unimpressed. Even so, a courtship began, and for the next eight
summers, in sublime settings across North America, Bill Roorbach
and Juliet Karelsen made circuitous progress toward a lasting love,
and finally, marriage. In charming fashion, Summers with Juliet
tells this tale, but it also chronicles a second awakening, as
Juliet rekindles in Bill his childhood enchantment with nature. Now
marvelous creatures abound: giant ocean sunfish and wild turkeys,
bellicose hummingbirds and canny trout, all of them images and
explications of the many facets of Juliet. Landscapes hold new
mysteries, too, and the author vividly, describes his exuberant
road trips with Juliet around the country, from the River of
Promise in Montana, to the Gulf Coast of Florida. And at last, they
come to a wooded lake in New Hampshire and the singular June day
when "love's all there, sweeter than the cake".
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