Richard Lyon

This story raises lots of interesting questions about relationships in general beyond the two delightfully quirky characters involved. Whatever it is that holds relationships together beyond initial infatuation, it is not moonlight and roses. It's really hard to define when the various forms of give and take move from "healthy" mutual support to "unhealthy" co-dependency. Personally I figured out a long time ago that I am not a relationship person. The long term relationships that I have observed from the outside have usually looked to me like they cost a lot to maintain. Of course nobody can fully appreciate the reality of any particular relationship from outside. It's only the people involved who can really decide if they are better off with it or without it. This was a most enjoyable read. It's was a nice chance of pace from conventional romance.

This is a very elegantly written story. What I liked most was the use of the failing memory as a prism to view a lifetime of ambiguous relationships and painful memories. It gives one a sense of seeing things through smoke and shadows.