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The Consequences of Longing
Sometimes there's a kind of panic that takes over a man when he realizes he won't live forever and some secret part of his mind begins to catalogue all his sins and failures.
Male angst. Who cares?
Perhaps wives should.
The cozy, comfortable and modest little life of a happy couple, Jenny and Clifford Nelson, unravels when Clifford, a 40-something commuter airline pilot, develops heart trouble and loses his job. Something about the harrowing surgery he endures, and his newly acute awareness of mortality, turns the memory of an old girlfriend — the first girl he ever loved — into an obsession: he must learn what became of her. When he finds out, the news appalls him but does not end his craving for one more moment in her arms.
His search for her reveals a secret Clifford has been keeping from himself all along — a secret about life and loss that adolescent longings merely cloak.
Told both from Jenny's point of view and Clifford's, "The Consequences of Longing" is about the mysteries and clouds that cloak our lives and loves. Jenny, a woman with memories she works to hide, is the stronger figure — and yet somehow she is the most frail and vulnerable. And Clifford proves to have hidden much as well. Guilt for his older brother's disastrous life reveals itself as his own crisis unfolds.
This is an unusual midlife story with which both men and women can connect.
Available on Kindle and Smashwords and in paperback from Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont and through Barnes & Noble.
Male angst. Who cares?
Perhaps wives should.
The cozy, comfortable and modest little life of a happy couple, Jenny and Clifford Nelson, unravels when Clifford, a 40-something commuter airline pilot, develops heart trouble and loses his job. Something about the harrowing surgery he endures, and his newly acute awareness of mortality, turns the memory of an old girlfriend — the first girl he ever loved — into an obsession: he must learn what became of her. When he finds out, the news appalls him but does not end his craving for one more moment in her arms.
His search for her reveals a secret Clifford has been keeping from himself all along — a secret about life and loss that adolescent longings merely cloak.
Told both from Jenny's point of view and Clifford's, "The Consequences of Longing" is about the mysteries and clouds that cloak our lives and loves. Jenny, a woman with memories she works to hide, is the stronger figure — and yet somehow she is the most frail and vulnerable. And Clifford proves to have hidden much as well. Guilt for his older brother's disastrous life reveals itself as his own crisis unfolds.
This is an unusual midlife story with which both men and women can connect.
Available on Kindle and Smashwords and in paperback from Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont and through Barnes & Noble.
- GenresLiterary Fiction
318 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2009
1 person is currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Peter Boody
2 books8 followersMany years as editor at a quality broadsheet weekly newspaper in a cosmopolitan and complex community. Former staff editor Flying magazine. Now contract flight instructor and freelance reporter/writer. Married. Author of 4 novels (two published independently).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 29, 2024
I'm the author so I will make a superhuman effort to be totally honest. I'm proud of this book though I am now a little wary of it. (My wife is more exuberant in her feelings. She dislikes it and I understand why even though it is not about us.)
I wrote it some years ago, starting about six years after I had a heart bypass at the age of 43 -- a startling event, or so it seemed to me at the time. I was still young enough to think I'd live forever and that the world couldn't possibly go on without me in it.
I found an agent for it who loved it, she said, but failed to find a publisher despite some nibbles. I subsequently worked on it again about three years ago in order to bring it out in paperback at a bookstore in Vermont that had a print-on-demand machine (now made obsolete by Kindle).
I must say writing it and making it as close to perfect as I could was better than therapy and a lot cheaper. If I had obsessions driving me crazy, as does the protagonist, Clifford Nelson, they faded away after I put this project down. I was able to move on.
Every scene is fiction and the characters are all from my imagination but I cannot deny that the broad outline of the novel is autobiographical. In terms of craft, I think this is a well written and finely constructed book. It went through professional editing and proofing and I did a a lot of rewriting and restructuring before it was "finished."
I wanted "COL" to be absolutely and totally true in its scenes, its characters, its action and dialogue; I wanted it to hit home for those who know the kind of longing Clifford Nelson feels.
It's an odd book for these times, I suppose, when even literary fiction seems calculated. I think COL is totally honest in bringing Clifford and Jenny's story to life and that's where its power lies.
I wrote it some years ago, starting about six years after I had a heart bypass at the age of 43 -- a startling event, or so it seemed to me at the time. I was still young enough to think I'd live forever and that the world couldn't possibly go on without me in it.
I found an agent for it who loved it, she said, but failed to find a publisher despite some nibbles. I subsequently worked on it again about three years ago in order to bring it out in paperback at a bookstore in Vermont that had a print-on-demand machine (now made obsolete by Kindle).
I must say writing it and making it as close to perfect as I could was better than therapy and a lot cheaper. If I had obsessions driving me crazy, as does the protagonist, Clifford Nelson, they faded away after I put this project down. I was able to move on.
Every scene is fiction and the characters are all from my imagination but I cannot deny that the broad outline of the novel is autobiographical. In terms of craft, I think this is a well written and finely constructed book. It went through professional editing and proofing and I did a a lot of rewriting and restructuring before it was "finished."
I wanted "COL" to be absolutely and totally true in its scenes, its characters, its action and dialogue; I wanted it to hit home for those who know the kind of longing Clifford Nelson feels.
It's an odd book for these times, I suppose, when even literary fiction seems calculated. I think COL is totally honest in bringing Clifford and Jenny's story to life and that's where its power lies.
October 27, 2012
I've read two books by this author, each quite different from the other but for one thing: the quality of the writing. In "Thomas Jefferson, Rachel and Me," Peter Boody's storyline grabbed me immediately. It's a wacky adventure with a reincarnated, time-traveling, third president, mixed with historical insight as well as self-discovery for both TJ and his newfound 21st century friends. Boody's "The Consequences of Longing" is a smaller tale, the stuff of literary fiction rather than adventure novels, but it's every bit as captivating. It's the writing that grabs you, makes you want to hear more.
Clifford and Jenny are a reasonably happy married couple as their story unfolds, but then Clifford suffers heart problems and slowly, strangely, begins to unravel. Nick-of-time surgery saves his life but leaves him in a panic and without his airline pilot's license, but not before he sees a vision in the clouds above Martha's Vineyard, the face of Anne, his first real girlfriend. For most of us, memories of our youth are harmless, but for Clifford they become destructive, as we realize from dual narratives from his and Jenny's perspectives. And it works. It may be the story of one man's troubles with self-pity and obsession, but there are some beautiful scenes that'll make you smile and understand, and want to read them again. And the same goes for the ending -- a real ending that works. I used to read a lot of literary fiction. Mr. Boody's brilliant story of love, loss, and delusion has inspired me to look again.
Clifford and Jenny are a reasonably happy married couple as their story unfolds, but then Clifford suffers heart problems and slowly, strangely, begins to unravel. Nick-of-time surgery saves his life but leaves him in a panic and without his airline pilot's license, but not before he sees a vision in the clouds above Martha's Vineyard, the face of Anne, his first real girlfriend. For most of us, memories of our youth are harmless, but for Clifford they become destructive, as we realize from dual narratives from his and Jenny's perspectives. And it works. It may be the story of one man's troubles with self-pity and obsession, but there are some beautiful scenes that'll make you smile and understand, and want to read them again. And the same goes for the ending -- a real ending that works. I used to read a lot of literary fiction. Mr. Boody's brilliant story of love, loss, and delusion has inspired me to look again.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews