Diane Meier, The Season of Second Chances

The Season of Second Chances

Diane Meier

Holt, Mar 302010, $25.00

ISBN: 9780805090819

Forty-eight years old Columbia University literature professor Joy Harkness leaves the city for a position at Amherst to escape her solitary lifestyle and her dozen years of torture at Morningside Heights for what might prove a fascinating program. She sees herself giving up little for a new start.

Joy euphorically moves to Western Massachusetts where she buys what would be kindly called a fixer upper. She hires much younger handyman Teddy Hennessy to work on her Victorian. As she eludes the campus coyotes, Joy and Teddy begin to date, but his martinet mom objects.

The Season of Scond Chances is an interesting character study of a forlorn academia as the lead jumps at starting over. The ironically named Joy begins to find herself at Amherst because the locals will not allow her space to crawl back into her solitary shell of distrust. Although Teddy's mom comes across as a stereotype of Mommy Dearest over the top of the Berkshires, readers will appreciate the middle age professor seeking her groove.

Harriet Klausner