Adieu — Michael Gilbert

“It began as a struggle. All great love affairs do.” So begins James London's retelling of the romance that cost him his sanity. James's narrative starts when he spies Joey Silverton in a dingy campus bar. The attraction is immediate. James is a literature teacher who desires to be an artist while Joey is an art major who desires some stability in her otherwise spontaneous approach to life. What starts as a beautiful romance turns into an obsessive tragedy filled with despair, infidelity, suicidal ideations, a possible pregnancy and one question; can their love endure? Adieu: The Eternal Verity is a novel that strips away conventional beliefs about romantic relationships, leaving only the core elements of human fears, insecurities and generalized neuroses exposed. Love encompasses the best and the worst elements of human nature. Both extremes are present in Adieu. Nobody is happy all the time, but can these characters derive enough happiness to keep their love alive? This novel will require readers to redefine the very notion of love and hopefully cherish the experience rather than let the experience destroy them.