Light Years

Gee (The Burning Book charts movingly the year-long estrangement between Lottie and Harold Segall, an English couple whose marriage has degenerated into a series of venomous quarrels. The compatibility once shared by this dissimilar pair has been eroded mainly by Lottie, a wealthy narcissist whose histrionics infuriate her husband. Exasperated, mild-mannered Harold impetuously deserts her and moves into an isolated apartment building. Almost immediately, his rancor is replaced by excruciating loneliness which only Lottie's presence could remedy. She simultaneously pines for Harold, yet vanity prevents her from initiating a reconciliation. Instead, Lottie relies upon her bewildered teenage son, and she indulges in a meaningless affair while Harold unsuccessfully courts a charming ingenue. Additional traumatic events intensify the Segalls' misery, finally compelling them to choose between a reunion or a divorce. Gee sensitively evokes the resilience of love amidst turmoil, and she effectively demonstrates the relative insignificance of our emotional crises by prefacing some chapters with descriptions of the universe's vastness. March 5