Still in Love

by Michael Downing

This hilarious, sometimes harrowing, and ultimately heartening novel is the companion to the critically acclaimed, national bestseller Perfect Agreement

This is your chance to enroll in English 10 at highly rated Hellman College—if you can find a place to sit in the fantastically overcrowded classroom.

Mark Sternum, whom readers first met in Downing’s beloved novel Perfect Agreement, is a veteran teacher. Twenty years older, separated for six months from his longtime lover, and desperate to duck the overtures of double-dealing deans above him and disgruntled adjunct faculty below him, Mark has one ambition every day he is on campus—to close the classroom door and leave the world behind. His escape, however, is complicated by his contentious, complicated wrestling match of a relationship with the Professor, the tenured faculty member with whom Mark has co-taught this creative-writing workshop for ten years.

The spectacle of their rigorous, academic relationship is a chance for students—all of us—to learn what an amazing arena the classroom can be. Replete with engaging writing exercises, harsh criticism, and contrarian advice, Still in Love is the story of one semester in a college classroom. And it is an urgent reminder that we desperately need classrooms, that those singular, sealed-off from-the-world sanctuaries are where we learn to love our lives.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, LGBT

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2019

Reviews

[Cherise Wolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

One semester at a New England college in the over-subscribed creative writing course taught by Mark Sternum, a caring and sensitive educator who loves teaching, replete with writing assignments. Perhaps it doesn’t delve deeply enough in certain aspects that are raised and left behind, but I enjoyed this.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pleasant surprise of a book. Would appeal to most academics, I’d think.

“The Professor was a better drill sergeant and a better sermonizer than Mark, and because he had no interest whatsoever in the students’ lives outside the classroom and rebuffed every attempt Mark made to share any facts about their health or families or personal struggles, the Professor was also a more useful critic of their written work. It wasn’t that the Professor could be objective, or even wanted to be. He was opinionated, provocative, and curious; a reliable, engaged, intelligent, and principled reader; a kind of North Star against which students could reliably gauge their progress on a singular journey. This was all a writer could ask for, and more than most of them would ever get again. The Professor made writers of them.” p93

“Mark hustled the two of them out of his office and watched them amble down the hall, one too short, one too sick. He followed them to the classroom, where he would not heal them or even console them but only close the door, shut out the world in which they found themselves wanting, not to help them escape it but give them a chance to understand all it meant to have limits, to need limits, to choose limits, to be defined by those limits, and to learn to love them.” p132

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Still in Love to be an interesting read. I work in an academic library and my partner left her dreams of being an English professor based on the way adjuncts are treated, so I found the internal workings of the university particularly interesting. However, there’s no real end to any of the plot lines. Do the adjuncts get their union? Does Anton get to finish the semester? Is the Professor a real person, or is he a figment of Mark’s imagination? There’s nothing resolved here. It’s disappointing.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting in parts - particularly if you are interested in teaching and the writing process. Not everyone’s cup of tea though. I found parts a little obtuse.

[Kevin Tuel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this tiresome exercise in self-indulgent condescension more than the English language has words to describe it. The book jacket begins, “This is your chance to enroll in English 10 at highly rated Hellman College,” and that is all this embarrassment of publication ever is. A literal semester of a hoity-toity creative writing course by the most insufferably pretentious academic greater-than-thou professor. A cadre of dramas swirls through his pitiful life. His boyfriend is off solving international crisis. His best friend is interrupting his desire to quit smoking. Too many students want to take his course. Is there a Tiny Violin 101 course at the college? This vanity project by the author feels like a money grab. An insult to the intelligence of the reader. A worthless, useless waste of time with a bizarre twist ending that meant nothing. This is a nothing bagel of a novel that doesn’t deserve the paper it’s printed on.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Downing’s Still in Love is a sharply observed, quietly hilarious, and deeply human story about the fragile balance between intellect, emotion, and the daily theater of academia. Returning to the world of Perfect Agreement, Downing captures the beautiful absurdities of classroom life the fragile egos, the flashes of brilliance, and the small, redemptive moments that remind us why art and teaching matter.

At the heart of the novel is Mark Sternum, whose weary charm and restless spirit anchor the story in equal parts melancholy and wit. Downing’s prose is crisp, his humor precise, and his emotional honesty unmistakable. Beneath the satire lies a poignant reflection on identity, aging, and the quiet courage it takes to keep showing up to the classroom, to love, and to life.

Still in Love is an ode to imperfection, and a reminder that sometimes the greatest lessons aren’t found in what we teach, but in what we’re still learning.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book on several levels. First, as a writing teacher, I loved the unusual assignments, and I would like to tackle each one myself, with and without students. Second, the main character, Mark, is a complicated individual who jumps between extremes in how much work he does and how much he procrastinates, how much he cares about his students and how much another part of him just wants to be hyper critical and aloof, and finally, how deeply he mopes over his partner's absence and yet how much he contemplates ending their relationship. Third, there are many insights into Mark's students, the stories they write, and the politics in academia.

I may need to read this novel several times more to truly appreciate all its aspects and to ferret out some of its ambiguities.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a book for teachers. Although I have never taught Creative Writing or in higher ed—or, for that matter, a class of twelve—I recognized the rhythm and flow of the classroom, the archetypical students, the Professor who goes way above and beyond and loves his students, even the unlovable ones.

Some of the story is more than a little heartbreaking, some is amusing, all of it is wrapped in the rules and perspectives of writing well. Read carefully. You’ll learn.

Hint: pay attention to The Professor.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

It might have everything to do with the fact that I'm a former English teacher, but this novel spoke to me in ways I didn't expect. As a writer, this book made me think about my words and the choices I make when crafting a piece. It was more than a novel, it was a workshop as well. While I stumbled upon this novel perusing the library shelves, I will sprint to find another one of Michael Downing's books to read.

[Geo · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Ode to Teaching might well have been the title to Mark Sternum’s reportage of his semester around the table in his creative writing classroom. Like Perfect Agreement, this book interlaced personal narrative with the class assignment & its response & the critique of that response. Probably more fun for classroom addicts than general readers, but a great read nonetheless. More successful in realizing the full potential of his narratology than PA which became a bit scattered.

[R.D. Pires · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Still in Love' was a nice, well-written story. But it wasn't much more than 'pleasant.' More of a meditation than a novel, we basically end up taking a class with a group of students where no character makes much growth or changes in any significant way. Be prepared for a slice-of-life narrative, and not something with much in the way of a story.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some reason, I am drawn to novels about English professors, set in American universities. After finishing this one, I am marveling at how the author entwined actual creative writing technical exercises with the storyline of the novel. Next I'm hoping to read Michael Downing's earlier novel, "Perfect Agreement."

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too inside baseball for my taste (and I say this as a former English adjunct). I enjoyed the writing exercises and wish the author had shared more of the students’ work. Mark was smug to the point of annoyance at times, but maybe that was intentional.

[Greg Soden · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a teacher, this novel just hit me square in the heart. Loved it. A true ode to the sacredness of the classroom.

[Emilio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved loved LOVED this book! Read it if you love reading, writing, and the wonderful magic that happens in a classroom under a great professor.

[Mark Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found quite a bit of it witty and amusing... but didn't stay in love with it.