I'll Be Seeing You

In this epistolary debut novel, Hayes and Nyhan, who have never met directly, tell the story of Glory Whitehall and Rita Vincenzo, two pen pals who have never met in person as they begin a correspondence that sustains them both through WWII. The authors have composed letters that, if found in your grandmother's attic, would make you want to stay up all night reading through the cross-outs and the water blots with a head full of questions for the morning. However, the limits of a letter writer's self-knowledge, or perhaps a desire for self-protection, preclude the sort of no holds barred disclosure the story lines beg for: "Was it really that easy to kiss your husband's competition while he was away, Glory?" "Tell us more about how you came to accept the girl who, at first, wasn't good enough for your son, Rita." Aside from the climactic sequence, the epistolary format never fully gels, as too many episodes call for a narrator's omniscience. Nevertheless, Nyhan and Hayes show us that letters from a cherished friend have a particular role to play in shepherding us through life's loves and losses. (June)