This is a tale of a happily married couple who are forced to live
separately when the wife takes a job thousands of miles away from
home. The story is told through the couple's letter - a device
which cleverly illustrates the growing emotional, as well as
geographical, distance between them. Shields, whose previous novels
demonstrate how well she handles domestic themes, wrote the letters
of Chas, the husband left behind suddenly in charge of running a
household, while Howard wrote the letters of Jock, his wife who
finds herself in the public arena as a legal adviser to a
Government Committee. Such a role-reversal enables the authors to
examine the wider issues of gender stereotypes and expectations
alongside the personal concerns of Jock and Chas, as they both
develop previously unsuspected skills. The novel gives a
fascinating portrayal of both sides of a relationship undergoing a
communication breakdown, in which the couple realize that they
cannot share assumptions about their future but who are willing to
make a frank evaluation of themselves. The writing is skillful
enough to discuss a range of thought-provoking subjects, from the
politics of poverty to the poetry of the primordial soul, but told
in the everyday language of an ordinary couple. (Kirkus UK)
In an original collaboration two award-winning authors, Carol
Shields and Blanche Howard, have written an immensely enjoyable
novel which give us both sides of a story about the breakdown of
traditional roles, rules and communication in a marriage. A
CELIBATE SEASON is the story of a married couple, Jocelyn and
Charles, (Jock and Chas) and their self-imposed separation of ten
months when Jock accepts a job in a city more than three thousand
miles away from her family. As "breadwinner" and suddenly "single"
again Jock is confronted with local politics, loneliness and
advances from the opposite sex. Meanwhile back at home, Chas, an
unemployed architect, is now a "single parent" who has to
reacquaint himself with his teenage children, Mia and Greg, learn
to run a household and shift his career priorities. Throw in an
attractive young housekeeper, a mother-in-law who enjoys her wine,
a touch of teenage angst, some unexpected home renovations and a
disastrous Christmas dinner and you have modern family life.
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