Kirjahaku

Based on an event from the author's life, this is a story about an unusual mid-life crisis triggered by the discovery of an aunt who was mistreated for mental illness in the 1940's and 1950's. Coming to terms with his own family history leads to a journey of self-discovery that tests not only current relationships, but new ones as well. This novel about secrets and revenge is told with a comic touch and will have you reading until the wee hours of the morning.

At the age of 30, Tess has had three jobs and three significant relationships with two men and one woman - each lasting three years. Drifting through life, confused about her sexuality, Tess decides to live a life of celibacy and to open up a restaurant devoted to soup. Tess has a talent for making soups with strong medicinal and spiritual qualities - something passed down from her great-great grandmother, a descendant of one of the alleged Salem witches. In the second week of the restaurant's opening, an elderly professor of English, Roger Beanstock, comes in at closing time. Beany, haunted by his own past has lived a celibate life devoted to his work. He visits the restaurant every Thursday night for the next year to share soup and wine with Tess, which she calls the Year of Soup, before taking his life. Shortly after Beany's death, Tess meets Jim at the restaurant, a furniture maker with his own reasons for keeping to himself. It is through a series of letters that "Beany" has left for Tess that she learns the truth about the Professor, is able to come to terms with her own sexuality, and discover Jim's own tragic secret that will change both of their lives.

On the 50th anniversary of Nabokov's Lolita, Howard Reiss decides to reverse the story. In the Texture of Love, Molly, a young woman graduating college shows up at the door of Eric, a 65-year old family friend and recent widower. Her obsession, perhaps more acceptable by society's standard than Humbert's in Lolita, still manages to take hold of their lives . . . confirming again the painstaking and pain-giving selfishness of certain kinds of passion.

Some secrets are forever