AUTHOR

A Lover More Condoling

Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1968

The problem Sara Reiner has refused to face all her life is that other people maintain she has a problem. Her husband died many years ago during the Normandy invasion, and her friends reason it’s high time she either married again or, now that she’s holidaying in France, took a lover. Poor widow! Her friend Diane, for instance, knows all the ropes and wants to help. So does her sister Anne. As for the males, Raoul is out of the question. Henri is old, and cultured. Walker is her brother-in-law. Amory? It never occurred to her. Guy? He tries too hard. The list isn’t endless.

Meanwhile, Sara Reiner has to contend with the bewildering social life of Paris and the quiet life at Lormes-Sur-Oise. The Canadian widow, who doesn’t feel like a widow, has to get used to visiting sumptuous chateaux and repairing ancient churches. Then there is an amateur production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to stage, during which, unexpectantly, the power fails.

A Lover More Condoling is a wry, amusing novel about young spinsterhood.