Shine on, Bright and Dangerous Object Book

An elegant escape and a great beach book. I've always admired Laurie Colwin and the unique world she carved out in the novels she wrote in the 1970s and 80s before her death in 1992 at the age of 48, and this is one of her best. Writing about the romantic experiences of mostly happy, well-adjusted young New Yorkers, she's like Woody Allen without the neurosis. There is a warmth, a gentleness and gentility to her work, so unlike the many angry anti-Establishment novels from the same period. No wonder she got noticed, and deservedly so.

It could be cloying stuff in lesser hands. Banking the fire in her spacious New York apartment, shopping in stationery stores, gazing at the snow falling outside the coffee shop in the Museum of Modern Art, Olly Bax, Colwin's protagonist in this book, always manages to be interesting and likeable despite her privilege and comfort. As she copes with the death of her wealthy young husband in a sailing accident, we root for her to recover her spirit and discover her need for love again. Introspective, non-formulaic, unabashedly romantic--Colwin makes it all work with humor, vibrant scenes, a great sense of place, sharply drawn characters, and always smart observations about love, loss and family.

I love this one paragraph alone: "When I met him, he seemed to me like some bright, dangerous object on a dark road that you go toward because it shines at you. Up close, you see it is a phosphorescent marker, or a white stone, or a patch of luminescent tape, but before you see what it is, all you see is brightness facing you out of the night, and if you are alone on the road, it is beautiful and frightening." On this single paragraph the novel rests.

Though she died very young, Colwin left behind a substantial body of work--novels (many with happy endings--imagine!), short stories and essays about cooking and casual entertaining--that is well worth reading today, in my humble opinion. She was, and still is, an original.