This is the latest in 
a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could.
Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that I tend to shy away from fluffy novels, often heading towards the darker end of the fiction spectrum although not too dark, particularly in recent years. Unashamedly romantic, The Republic of Love might seem an uncharacteristic choice but I loved it.
Shields’s novel tells the story of Tom and Fay both of whom have a chequered romantic past. Fay finds it hard to commit herself. She has her parents’ idyllic marriage as a model, a marriage which seems almost to be a mirage of happiness, one she can’t quite believe she can attain for herself. And Tom? Well, Tom already has three marriages behind him. Ill matched as these two may seem, they fall in love but, as we all know, the course of true love never did run smooth.
Not the best known of Shields’s novels but it was the first of hers I read and I have a soft spot for it.
What about you, any blasts from the past you’d like to share?
You can find more posts like this here.
