ralentina reviewed Come to Me by Amy Bloom
Flawed loves
4 stars
I first read this book about 3 years ago, but remember absolutely nothing about it, except for the first story, Love is Not a Pie. Somehow that story - about a child discovering her mum was in what we would, in 2018, call a polyamorous relationship with a family friend. I think love is not a pie is a fantastic expression that clarified the point of polyamory for me at an unconscious level, without the need for preaches. I'm not even sure it's how Amy Bloom meant it: on this second read, she seems to be saying that we can love different person differently, rather than that we can share love endlessly.
At any rate, it's a mystery how I completely removed all the other stories, only retaining a vague sense that I 'enjoyed' them. Enjoying is also a misleading word: each one is portraying a problematic relationship, without sensationalism …
I first read this book about 3 years ago, but remember absolutely nothing about it, except for the first story, Love is Not a Pie. Somehow that story - about a child discovering her mum was in what we would, in 2018, call a polyamorous relationship with a family friend. I think love is not a pie is a fantastic expression that clarified the point of polyamory for me at an unconscious level, without the need for preaches. I'm not even sure it's how Amy Bloom meant it: on this second read, she seems to be saying that we can love different person differently, rather than that we can share love endlessly.
At any rate, it's a mystery how I completely removed all the other stories, only retaining a vague sense that I 'enjoyed' them. Enjoying is also a misleading word: each one is portraying a problematic relationship, without sensationalism but also without excessive romanticism. A step mother giving in to her son's avances, a young woman tending to her 60-something dying lover, a wife's betrayal of her devoted husband. I particularly enjoyed the two set of stories called 'Three Stories' - each generation of characters is so vivid.
I picked it up after enjoying White Houses, which Tascha gave to me as a present because, apparently, Come To Me is the first book she borrowed from me. As a result, I had in my mind there would be a Lesbian theme to many stories, which is not the case.