When I first read Adult Education, it felt almost not like a book, like the rhythm of Becca and Uli's friendship was simply alive. Becca struggles to get it right, and when she does, it's bittersweet, the way growing up really is. The writing is seductively hip, the story absorbing, and these days serves as a study in 1970's feminism. One of the nicest presents I ever got from my best friend was an extra copy of the book from an out-of-print sale, so that I could pass it on freely. It's nice to see an old friend back again.

This is the first book that I have read by this author. It started out very nice, building the characters and I was looking forward to Susanne and Robert getting together. . . Robert seemed wonderful at first, but then he really disapointed me. The ending disapointed me... The book disapointed me. . . I guess I had better stick with authors that I know.

Since this is a story of "intense love found late in life," as an earlier reviewer states (above), it would be nice if Suzanne, the main character, had gleaned some perspective about balancing her sexuality with the rest of her life, but she has not. Also disappointing, for all its erotica, Suzanne rarely asks for what she wants but is constantly "guided" by her lover, Robert, whom she describes as a "strong gentle guide to her own wicked pleasure" (111) and, earlier, as teaching her "everything"--"how to look, to watch his face, and see the pleasure a woman gives a man" (105). While THE DANGEROUS AGE has a strong plot line and is engaging on one level and might be a good beach read, the erotic elements are too male-centered and cliche to make for seriously good reading.

The Dangerous Age is one of those rare, one-night, all-night reads. I could not put it down. Suzanne, like her literary predecessors, Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina, is a woman whom others assume has it all...all except the one thing that makes life worth living: an intimate partner, a true love. What I most respected about this book was the author's honesty, her willingness to plumb the depths of a mature woman's sexuality down to the details of what is whispered (and revealed) in bed. We surely see a surfeit of twenty and thirty-somethings in bed, but the beauty of The Dangerous Age is that in a society obsessed with youth, it dares label a mother of grown children fully, sexually alive. Read on one level, that of its sensual descriptions of travel and food, the book reminded me of Under the Tuscan Sun; on another, because of its compact size and its focus on one passionate couple, it made me think of Eric Segal's Love Story. But my hunch is that this book will be around for many years, that women, and, yes, men (because the male lead is extremely real) will find it to be a worthwhile and stirring portrait of an intense love found late in life.