BOOK REVIEW: The Season of Second Chances

THE SEASON OF SECOND CHANCES by Diane Meier fits my requirements for a book very well: character growth, good descriptions, and food for thought. The fact that the protagonist loved literature just added that bit of cream on the top.

Joy Harkness has been teaching literature at Columbia for fifteen years. In those fifteen years, she has not become close to anyone; she has not really made any friends and her life centers around her work. Teaching suits her personality; she is entertained by each year’s class and gets a new batch each September, not having to actually relate to any of them on a personal level.

Having read Kerouac, Salinger, and Allen Ginsberg, she had always dreamed of the woman that she would become if she lived in Manhattan, but instead of becoming the energetic woman depicted in the TV ads, she was stuck in the same daily, isolated routine.

When Amherst recruited her to join their faculty and help develop a new system of teaching the classics, she jumped at the chance to move to Massachusetts.

Once there, she finds herself the owner of an ancient house that needs work and love, pursued by middle-aged Romeos, tangled in the personal lives of new friends, and getting romantically involved with the young man who is helping to make her house a true home.

The author allows Joy to narrate her story. Because we see the people around her through Joy’s eyes, we quickly learn to not quite trust her descriptions of them. As Joy grows and sees things in a more realistic way, we learn more about her new, and old, friends.

Near the end of the book, Joy comments that the stories of Emma Bovary, Jay Gatsby, Othello, Hester Prynne, etc. had been so compelling that they allowed her to put off creating her own story. That described Joy extremely well.

At first, I did not think that I would enjoy the book because I could not warm up to Joy, but that was obviously the author’s intention. As Joy changed, so did my feelings about her change. I ended up rooting for her through the bad love affairs and her opening up to new people and situations.
Meier has written a tight book that moves well. Her use of the renovation of the house to show Joy’s growth was cleverly done as were the characters around Joy, both in her new and old life.