From Publishers Weekly
Celebrated novelist Godwin (Father Melancholy's Daughter) lost her companion of nearly 30 years, the composer Robert Starer, two years ago, and this book is a devoted, quirky, wry and surprisingly powerful fictionalization of aspects of their life together as working artists. It takes its text, as Godwin might like to say (her last novel was, after all, Evensong) from the cocktail hour the pair observed, well, religiously, at the end of their working day, exchanging their jokes, their thoughts, their sense of themselves and their friends and neighbors. It swiftly and seamlessly moves into husband Rudy's long illness, nobly borne, and wife Christina's profound sense of loss after his death, tempered frequently by flashes of hilarity and sweet sense. The book has an elusive tone, somber but never mawkish, with a delight in words and the ways people use and abuse them that is typical of this urbane author. For a book that can be read in an hour, it is remarkably dense, and can only whet the appetite for the new novel Godwin is said to be working on. The drawings that accompany the text, as illustrations of some of Rudy and Christina's household artifacts, are clean-lined but repetitious.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Now that her composer husband is dead, Christina dreads "evenings at five"-the hour that the couple set aside for heart-to-hearts. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
She's a writer. He's a composer. Married for many years, they've forged a passionate and mutually inspiring intimacy, spending their days working at opposite ends of the house until each evening at five, when they meet for cocktails. Rudy, a witty, cosmopolitan, and outspoken man, always sits in his special chair, while Christina, this gentle but canny tale's narrator, drapes herself on the cat-ravaged black-leather couch. So begins celebrated novelist Godwin's latest work, a slim, expertly fashioned, and subtly philosophical fiction about a profound bond that commenced with a lightning-like jolt, causing the already married Rudy to abandon his family and Christina to walk away from a tenure-track teaching gig, and ended just as cataclysmically with Rudy's unexpected death. As Christina navigates an onslaught of memories and attempts to close the enormous tear in her heretofore tightly knit universe, her now solitary cocktail hour extends far into the night, but she is rescued from her wild grief by the tender intervention of friends from church, who help her regain her precious composure. As Godwin ponders the significance of private rituals, artistic commitment, a spiritual practice, and love, she accomplishes more in this smart, arch, and charming little illustrated novel than many of her peers do in far heftier volumes. Godwin has written 10 libretti for musical works by the late Robert Starer, to whom this novel is dedicated. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
“With deep truth and immediacy, Gail Godwin illuminates an indivisible marriage—its experience, passion, thought, and wit; and its sundering into loss, longing, and remembrance. For such closeness, there should be a word beyond love.”
—SHIRLEY HAZZARD

“With words alone, Gail Godwin has created an important piece of music about a love which death can only increase and deepen. Yes, and Frances Halsband’s illustrations are a haunting countermelody.”
—KURT VONNEGUT

“Evenings at Five reads like a novel, but it’s a fictionalization of a real event. Gail Godwin uses all the weapons of art to deal with her own all-too-real grief, and the result is a rigorous exercise in restraint, control, irony, memory.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“A LITTLE MASTERPIECE . . .
DEXTEROUS, STRONGLY FELT, MULTI-LEVEL WRITING.”
—Asheville Citizen-Times

“[A] heartrending book . . . Brilliantly webbed scenes fill its pages . . . Godwin writes with enormous clarity and unvarnished prose. She writes, in other words, not to approach the truth but to forcefully ascertain it.”
—Book magazine

“Possibly her truest book . . . There is a quiet dignity here that pulls you into the two people’s lives. . . . Full of wicked humor and sage and subtle advice, laced with achingly familiar refrains of love and loss, Evenings at Five could well restore a bereaved man’s or woman’s sense of self.”
—The Roanoke Times

“An exquisite portrait of a thirty-year relationship . . . There is a depth and intensity within that many large tomes never capture. . . . Just as Christina ultimately knows she has to move on, one assumes Godwin needed to write Evenings at Five to move on and work on another outstanding novel.”
—South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“QUIRKY, WRY, AND SURPRISINGLY POWERFUL . . .
with a delight in words and the ways people use and abuse them that is typical of this urbane author.”
—Publishers Weekly

“If asked to list my ten favorite American fiction writers, Gail Godwin would be among them. In this, her latest . . . she evokes in a short book the long married life of two artists. Evenings at Five is a strong tale of love-after-death.”
—NED ROREM

“The New York Times bestselling author of Evensong has scored again. . . . The novel, which can be read in one sitting, is an excellent showcase of Godwin’s talent. Those not already Godwin fans are apt to be converted.”
—The Sunday Oklahoman

“Gail Godwin has written a book about the heaviest matters of loss, grief, and loneliness with a touch so light that I was as often deeply amused by it as I was deeply moved.”
—FREDERICK BUECHNER

“The most balanced heart-rending book you ever read on the nature of loss, loneliness, and grief.”
—Desert News

“INTIMATE AND TOUCHING.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A fierce evocation of what—at some time or another—everyone is bound to endure. . . . An amazing little volume that contains an explosive emotional wallop.”
—ROBB FORMAN DEW

“An unflinching account of love, loss, grief, and the struggle toward consolation. It should touch every reader with its emotional power.”
—ELIZABETH SPENCER

“No one does the nitty-gritty of soul-searching like Gail Godwin. . . . [She] is one of the few contemporary novelists willing to tackle the ticklish (to modern writers) topic of religion in real life. In a novel inspired by her own experience, she does it again, beautifully.”
—BookPage

“Godwin accomplishes more in this smart, arch, and charming little illustrated novel than many of her peers do in far heftier volumes.”
—Booklist



Review
?With deep truth and immediacy, Gail Godwin illuminates an indivisible marriage?its experience, passion, thought, and wit; and its sundering into loss, longing, and remembrance. For such closeness, there should be a word beyond love.?
?SHIRLEY HAZZARD

?With words alone, Gail Godwin has created an important piece of music about a love which death can only increase and deepen. Yes, and Frances Halsband?s illustrations are a haunting countermelody.?
?KURT VONNEGUT

?Evenings at Five reads like a novel, but it?s a fictionalization of a real event. Gail Godwin uses all the weapons of art to deal with her own all-too-real grief, and the result is a rigorous exercise in restraint, control, irony, memory.?
?The Washington Post Book World

?A LITTLE MASTERPIECE . . .
DEXTEROUS, STRONGLY FELT, MULTI-LEVEL WRITING.?
?Asheville Citizen-Times

?[A] heartrending book . . . Brilliantly webbed scenes fill its pages . . . Godwin writes with enormous clarity and unvarnished prose. She writes, in other words, not to approach the truth but to forcefully ascertain it.?
?Book magazine

?Possibly her truest book . . . There is a quiet dignity here that pulls you into the two people?s lives. . . . Full of wicked humor and sage and subtle advice, laced with achingly familiar refrains of love and loss, Evenings at Five could well restore a bereaved man?s or woman?s sense of self.?
?The Roanoke Times

?An exquisite portrait of a thirty-year relationship . . . There is a depth and intensity within that many large tomes never capture. . . . Just as Christina ultimately knows she has to move on, one assumes Godwin needed to write Evenings at Five to move on and work on another outstanding novel.?
?South Florida Sun-Sentinel

?QUIRKY, WRY, AND SURPRISINGLY POWERFUL . . .
with a delight in words and the ways people use and abuse them that is typical of this urbane author.?
?Publishers Weekly

?If asked to list my ten favorite American fiction writers, Gail Godwin would be among them. In this, her latest . . . she evokes in a short book the long married life of two artists. Evenings at Five is a strong tale of love-after-death.?
?NED ROREM

?The New York Times bestselling author of Evensong has scored again. . . . The novel, which can be read in one sitting, is an excellent showcase of Godwin?s talent. Those not already Godwin fans are apt to be converted.?
?The Sunday Oklahoman

?Gail Godwin has written a book about the heaviest matters of loss, grief, and loneliness with a touch so light that I was as often deeply amused by it as I was deeply moved.?
?FREDERICK BUECHNER

?The most balanced heart-rending book you ever read on the nature of loss, loneliness, and grief.?
?Desert News

?INTIMATE AND TOUCHING.?
?Kirkus Reviews

?A fierce evocation of what?at some time or another?everyone is bound to endure. . . . An amazing little volume that contains an explosive emotional wallop.?
?ROBB FORMAN DEW

?An unflinching account of love, loss, grief, and the struggle toward consolation. It should touch every reader with its emotional power.?
?ELIZABETH SPENCER

?No one does the nitty-gritty of soul-searching like Gail Godwin. . . . [She] is one of the few contemporary novelists willing to tackle the ticklish (to modern writers) topic of religion in real life. In a novel inspired by her own experience, she does it again, beautifully.?
?BookPage

?Godwin accomplishes more in this smart, arch, and charming little illustrated novel than many of her peers do in far heftier volumes.?
?Booklist

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Every evening at five o'clock, Christina and Rudy began the ritual commonly known as Happy Hour, sharing drinks along with a love of language and music (she is an author, he a composer, after all), a delight in intense conversation, a fascination with popes, and nearly thirty years of life together. Now, seven months after Rudy's unexpected death, Christina reflects on their vibrant bond - with all its quirks, habits, and unguarded moments - as well as her passionate sorrow and her attempts to reposition herself and her new place in the very real world they shared.

SYNOPSIS

Every evening at five o'clock, Christina and Rudy stopped work and began the ritual commonly known as Happy Hour. Rudy mixed Christina's drink with loving precision, the cavalier slosh of Bombay Sapphire over ice shards, before settling across from her in his Stickley chair with his glass of Scotch.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Evenings at Five sound pretentious, and there are moments (many of them concerning that cat) that threaten to turn treacly, but for the most part Godwin expresses her heroine's vulnerable state of mind with tact and delicacy. — Jonathan Hartl

The Washington Post

Evenings at Five reads like a novel, but it's a fictionalization of a real event. Gail Godwin uses all the weapons of art to deal with her own all-too-real grief, and the result is a rigorous exercise in restraint, control, irony, memory. — Carolyn See

Publishers Weekly

Celebrated novelist Godwin (Father Melancholy's Daughter) lost her companion of nearly 30 years, the composer Robert Starer, two years ago, and this book is a devoted, quirky, wry and surprisingly powerful fictionalization of aspects of their life together as working artists. It takes its text, as Godwin might like to say (her last novel was, after all, Evensong) from the cocktail hour the pair observed, well, religiously, at the end of their working day, exchanging their jokes, their thoughts, their sense of themselves and their friends and neighbors. It swiftly and seamlessly moves into husband Rudy's long illness, nobly borne, and wife Christina's profound sense of loss after his death, tempered frequently by flashes of hilarity and sweet sense. The book has an elusive tone, somber but never mawkish, with a delight in words and the ways people use and abuse them that is typical of this urbane author. For a book that can be read in an hour, it is remarkably dense, and can only whet the appetite for the new novel Godwin is said to be working on. The drawings that accompany the text, as illustrations of some of Rudy and Christina's household artifacts, are clean-lined but repetitious. (Apr.) Forecast: This is an odd hybrid of a book, but it is likely to appeal to Godwin's large following, opening as it does a window on her private life; it could also be sold as a gift book. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A snippet of a story, drenched in autobiography and illustrated with cozy line drawings, comes from the well-respected popular author of Father Melancholy's Daughter and Evensong. Novelist Christina and composer Rudy had shared a life for almost 30 years before his death. They had met at Yaddo, the artist's retreat in Saratoga Springs, and threw away everything in their existing lives, except their work, to be together. The intimate details of their cocktail hour and his final years of illness, as well as Christina's new life alone, are wrenchingly portrayed. The reality of the characters is so close to the skin that this view inside their lives at a sorrowful time is almost too sad. Fans of Godwin's other fiction will be fascinated by this minor piece. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/02.]-Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews