"Absorbing story"

Belvedere College Professors Olivia and Carl Larkin enjoy teaching, love their two children, Daniel and Sophie, who are away at school, and appreciate life in Willow, Massachusetts that enables them to take weekend jaunts to the Cape. In their fifties, everything seems perfect for this couple until Carl vanishes for no apparent reason though he left behind a weird note that tells Livi nothing except he insists he is okay.

Livi feels abandoned by the man who rescued her when she felt forlorn and vanished in 1978 after her previous husband Noah Emerson died trying to stop a hold-up with her name being his last word. Unbeknownst to Livi while she struggles with Carl's disappearance reminding her of her buried windmill past, her spouse returns to his hometown to face his family past that he hid from his beloved Livi. Where will these solo journeys to yesteryear lead to for this middle age couple struggling for the first time in two decades alone?

Stephanie Gertler provides her audience with a deep character study of two individuals happily married for over two decades, but their secrets that they kept from one another finally surface when Carl can no longer ignore his past. The story line contains two plots somewhat rotated in first person narratives as readers follow the respective treks of Carl and Livi as much on a mental plane as in the physical world. Adding to the depth of looking closely at the sandwich generation is the woes of the octogenarian parents as fans will appreciate souls battling windmills successfully when the heart makes room for others as Noah had understood before he tragically died.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 27, 2004

Summary

From the author of Jimmy's Girl—a writer who "hits the emotional bull's-eye dead center" (Baton Rouge Advocate)— comes a new novel that will remind us all that sometimes you don't know how much you have until it's gone. Known for her gift for reaching straight to the heart, Stephanie Gertler now tells the story of a couple whose seemingly perfect life is toppled in an instant and saved through their bold leap of faith. Olivia and Carl appear to have the perfect life: a son and a daughter, weekends on Cape Cod, and satisfying work as professors at Belvedere College in the picturesque town of Willow, Massachusetts. Until, one day, the seemingly stable, dependable Carl disappears without a trace— leaving behind only a cryptic note. Alone and terrified, Olivia cannot help but relive the long-buried pain she felt when she lost her first husband. While Carl travels back to his childhood hometown to confront the demons he has always hidden from his wife, Olivia takes a journey of her own as she tries to make peace with the memories that have always haunted her. Told with graceful skill and unflinching honesty, The Windmill is a story of the secrets we are entitled to keep in a marriage and those we must share— marking a splendid new level of achievement in this much- admired author.