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Careless: A Novel
What would you do for true love?
Sarah is Nathaniel's first love: whip-smart, sophisticated, funny, and gorgeous. Nathaniel falls for her the first time they meet. Over the course of a summer, they spend every day together, arguing, flirting, learning to slow dance, to hold hands, to kiss, to fall in love. But then Nathaniel uncovers a shocking secret that upends his universe.
Does true love trump conventional morality? Does the end justify the means? Set in 1976, Careless is the story of two people desperate to escape their harrowing childhoods, who meet and, against all odds, find a place in each other's heart.
Sarah is Nathaniel's first love: whip-smart, sophisticated, funny, and gorgeous. Nathaniel falls for her the first time they meet. Over the course of a summer, they spend every day together, arguing, flirting, learning to slow dance, to hold hands, to kiss, to fall in love. But then Nathaniel uncovers a shocking secret that upends his universe.
Does true love trump conventional morality? Does the end justify the means? Set in 1976, Careless is the story of two people desperate to escape their harrowing childhoods, who meet and, against all odds, find a place in each other's heart.
216 pages, Paperback
Published December 15, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 22, 2021
It's hard to write a review of this book without revealing spoilers, so if you've already bought it or plan to, you may want to wait and read this review later. (Careless is not a mystery novel, and the big reveal is on page 36, so.... the spoiler here is not terribly consequential to your enjoyment of the book.)
Ready? OK.
Careless is a story of forbidden love, written in a breezy, witty style.
The year is 1976. Nathan is 22 and finishing college. Sarah is 13 and just starting high school. Nathan wants to be a professional DJ. Sarah wants to be... older? Her motivations are less clear. (I supposed when you're 13 or 14, they kind of are.)
And yes, they fall in love... or something. Lust? Fantasy? Something else? It's up to the reader to puzzle it out. That alone might cause some readers to either throw the book away in disgust or frantically flip through the pages looking for the sex scenes. In either case, they will be disappointed.
This is not Lolita, nor is it porn. It's a morally ambiguous story of an affair between a mature-beyond-her-years teen and a more-than-normally-immature young man.
Having lived through that era, I can vouch for the fact that the 1970s were quite a different time. In the post 1960s pre-Moral Majority age, attitudes toward relationships were much looser. You can see it in the books and films of that time. Relationships that dipped above and below the legal age of consent were not that uncommon. I can think of a handful of people I knew personally who were involved on either side of those.
Now in the Jeffrey Epstein era, this all feels much different.
Despite clear acknowledgement that what he was doing risked imprisonment, as well as warnings from friends and family, Nathan surges forward, propelled by the belief that his love for Sarah outweighs all else. And, of course, complications ensue.
The title is well chosen. Careless describes both the carefree nature of Nathan and Sarah's relationship, as well as the lack of care they show in pursuing it. It also describes the narrator's attitude toward the complex moral questions that arise from his story.
It's up to the reader to determine how they feel about all this. And that's ultimately the point, I think.
Ready? OK.
Careless is a story of forbidden love, written in a breezy, witty style.
The year is 1976. Nathan is 22 and finishing college. Sarah is 13 and just starting high school. Nathan wants to be a professional DJ. Sarah wants to be... older? Her motivations are less clear. (I supposed when you're 13 or 14, they kind of are.)
And yes, they fall in love... or something. Lust? Fantasy? Something else? It's up to the reader to puzzle it out. That alone might cause some readers to either throw the book away in disgust or frantically flip through the pages looking for the sex scenes. In either case, they will be disappointed.
This is not Lolita, nor is it porn. It's a morally ambiguous story of an affair between a mature-beyond-her-years teen and a more-than-normally-immature young man.
Having lived through that era, I can vouch for the fact that the 1970s were quite a different time. In the post 1960s pre-Moral Majority age, attitudes toward relationships were much looser. You can see it in the books and films of that time. Relationships that dipped above and below the legal age of consent were not that uncommon. I can think of a handful of people I knew personally who were involved on either side of those.
Now in the Jeffrey Epstein era, this all feels much different.
Despite clear acknowledgement that what he was doing risked imprisonment, as well as warnings from friends and family, Nathan surges forward, propelled by the belief that his love for Sarah outweighs all else. And, of course, complications ensue.
The title is well chosen. Careless describes both the carefree nature of Nathan and Sarah's relationship, as well as the lack of care they show in pursuing it. It also describes the narrator's attitude toward the complex moral questions that arise from his story.
It's up to the reader to determine how they feel about all this. And that's ultimately the point, I think.
April 14, 2022
Witty, sly, and melancholic, Careless takes us on a tour of muddled love, circa 1976. Nathaniel, an aspiring disc jockey, falls hard for the wise-cracking Sarah, daughter of a family friend. Soon he has abandoned his college girlfriend of four years to lavish more and more time on this enchanting flirtation. Through movie dates and tennis lessons, Sarah and Nathaniel find themselves bound ever tighter in what appears to be a mutual spiral. Then Sarah reveals a secret that could prove the undoing of this young love. Nathaniel’s reaction raises questions about the conventions of sex and romance, and readers will be called to judge. Written in a spare, precise, often comedic style, Careless never flags in its momentum. Very suddenly you’ll find yourself at the surprising end.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews