TABLE FOR TWO

Young love takes a beating, or at least a spirited whisking.

Aspiring chef Eric and Anna, a Welsh management intern, both 20, cross paths when she walks into the restaurant where he works. Soon after, they begin an affair beautifully and sensuously described by debut author Christopher. All is passion, playfulness and innocence, and the romance is fully developed with all the accompanying intimacies, joys and missteps. But all is not well. Eric’s confession that he fathered a child and gave it up for adoption disturbs Anna, whose childhood was hardly idyllic either. Abruptly, she announces, the first of many times, that she doesn’t want to see him anymore. Despite her misgivings, the two reconcile, marry and move to Eric’s home state of Oregon and later travel to Wales. But the relationship experiences serious bumps, and Eric returns alone to the States. Over six years, the two part and reunite, only to split again, throughout such diverse settings as the Pacific Northwest, Miami and New York. Whenever Anna calls or appears, Eric quickly caves, abandons his plans and puts his career at risk in the hope of recapturing the magic of their early days together. Their on-again, off-again relationship is so realistically portrayed that, after a few breakups, it becomes agonizingly predictable. Although Anna and Eric pursue their respective careers, they are never fully defined in their relationship to the world; at times both come off as painfully self-absorbed. But perhaps it’s relationship absorption, as if their true intercourse is a journey in and out of the youthful fantasy of love. The novel ends on an upbeat note, delivering a sense of relief that the ball lobbed back and forth between the two is at rest. Eric is left with a deep appreciation of his first great passion and recognition of the one with whom he will share a table for two.

A fine tale about the highlights and pitfalls of first love.