Lost and Found Lovers: Facts and Fantasies of Rekindled Romances Book

Ever wonder what might happen if you rediscovered that "special someone" who captured your heart way back when? The 1,001 people who participated in Dr. Nancy Kalish's renowned Lost Love Project did exactly that - and they prove the timeless power of rekindled love. Here for the first time are the full, fascinating results of Dr. Kalish's Lost Love Project, which she began after establishing contact with her own Lost Lover and which has garnered international media attention. The Lost Love Project questionnaire responses - which poured in by letter, phone, fax, and e-mail - are startling in what they reveal about who seeks out their Lost Love, how they do it, and how often these couples create "happy endings." Participants also sent in intensely romantic accounts of their rekindled love stories, which are printed here in the lovers' own words.

Publishers Weekly

Inspired by her meeting anew her college boyfriend, and by a sentimental reading of The Bridges of Madison County, Kalish, a psychology professor at CSU, Sacramento, founded the Lost Love Project, an exploration of rekindled romances. Publicizing the project through various media including radio and newspapers, Kalish heard from numerous potential participants; this roundup of her findings, an uncomfortable blend of academic research and pop-speak, is based on information acquired from more than 1000 questionnaires returned to her, as well as letters. The text itself consists primarily of her correspondents' words linked by Kalish's thoughts. Her findings are sometimes surprising-for instance, that "lovers who had lived together during the first romance were least likely to remain together (54%) after reconnecting." Also surprising, however, are some of her interpretations, based on developmental psychology theories, of her data. Such concepts as separation anxiety in infants and Piaget's theories of conservation and reversibility in the cognitive development of young children seem stretched at times to fit tenuous conclusions. In one chapter and in an appendix, Kalish offers lists of operas, song hits, movies and tales that deal with rediscovered loves-possibly to drive home the point that "renewed love has mass sales appeal." The hundreds of letters from participants often sound alike, and while the sense of rapture in many of them is conveyed cumulatively, this isn't surprising in a study whose subjects are self-selected. Kalish has done hard work here in generating what academic conclusions she can from data that are almost strictly anecdotal, but as rigorous social science this book is questionable. It's going to attract attention, though, as the first major nonfiction treatment of a subject sure to make baby boomers' hearts beat faster-no wonder it's being published on Valentine's Day. Author tour. (Feb.)