peter rietbergen

Certainly not an "easy read", but thought-provoking, and very well written.

The best fun I had with a GA story in months. A definite must-read.

A tale that is recognisable for all (of us) who attended public school. Survival takes many forms.

We do not know where Patrick lives. Or hoe. But maybe a young adult like D should leave his parents by now....

Absolutely spot-on. Great stuff.

Not entirely "by the way" but rather by way of a "Thank you": there are, I think, few stories on GA that had their - your - readers thinking as much about (im-) possibilities as this one did. Quite a feat.

I was wrong. This IS a happy end, far better than any conventional m/m or f/m would have been. Thanks.

Can life really be so idyllic, full of people who all exude warmth? After all, this is a plantation, on an island that is being colonised by (the) Americans!

So no more "redi ad me"....???

It's continuing to be thoroughly enjoyable, though I can't even begin to think how this could have a happy end. I only hope it's not a Copperfield one for yes, Dora is boring....

A few times, there is an Evan mistake. He should be changed into Emmer....

A rom-com from one of my favourite authors. I'm addicted already.

I am still trying to follow what happens. C says he never "imagined" - what does imagine mean, in this context? - growing old but always imagined "remembering" and "dying". I've been under the impression C always was reborn and started living, but only started remembering when, at Penmere, he met M, of course he "always" imagined/knew he would die: though few of us remember past lives, we all know we will die. So...?

GA opened with a message that the story had been permanently removed. That would deprive many of us of a truly remarkable tale. What happened?

The fun continues unabated.

I cannot promise that I will always choose you. But that is the problem: even now C does. He came back to Penmere. As he always did. To put it otherwise. The way this tale has been set up, constructed, suggests that there never may have been a "free choice". It suggests that whatever M does, or does not do: his presence in any of C's past lives always was the catalyst of C's returning memories. In short, the choice is, methinks, not C's alone, it Marcus'/Marco's, too. It is he who returns to Penmere. With one aim only: to find a new C. And because C returns - we do not know if he always lives there, or sometimes left, in at least some of his past lives, as seems the case - the wheel starts spinning again. For though C might have decided not to act upon engaging with the N he meets, not to act upon the memories those meetings trigger, i e. not return to loving M again, nothing suggests that he ever decided to go his own way. Indeed, he is not doing so, now, beyond telling himself, and V and N that this time all is different.

So many wet eyes. So many professions of sorry and sorrow. So many reconciliations. So many happy endings, with tears again. But isn't it completely unrealistic? For life is not like this. Real people cannot be so forgiving. All hatred doesn't evaporate under a cloud of balloons. Having finished reading this tale, I must confess that I'd like to see the author 's considerable talent put to the service of a story that, at least to me, would be more convincing, though less fairy-tale like.

This was, is enormous fun. It's both farcical and real. Thanks for making me laugh so much.

If the rain passed through Vale, erasing him, releasing him from his guilt, releasing Christopher, too: what will happen to M hunarco!

The portrait doesn't need to be publicly shown. But Richard needs to publicly show that his understanding of himself heralds a phase of changing himself.

Marco's answer is ambiguous: I would go on. Does it mean living his own life, freezing himself of the curse of searching for a new C, another C. ?

I've been rethinking this. Maybe I am a bit dim. Doesn't this thing, about C now having made a free choice - by returning to Penmere after a day away -, only work of we assume that in previous lives he never left it? If, on the contrary, yet he did - we have no real information - why were his previous returns not a free choice?

Yes. Or: no? For it always has been my impression that Marco never died, but was forced, after C died - as he always did - to start looking for a reborn C, always ending up in the world around the Tor. Now it seems they can both die. Doesn't that change the entire dynamic? - as well as the way we have been told (to understand) the story?

The ball seems a definite turning point - but we're cleverly left in the dark where the turn will take us.

Given what we now know... It seems that M is the catalyst. So ...if C, after (inevitably) dying in his present life, is reborn again, as it seems he must, but does not meet "his" Marco, his memories might not be triggered....