Bernard Elliot, a poet, and Frances Reardon, a fiction writer, meet at a writers' colony during the summer of 1957 and begin a friendship and correspondence. Bernard, well-born and Harvard-educated, is gregarious, reckless, and passionate; Frances, the precocious daughter of a middle-class Irish family, is circumspect, wry, and more than a little judgmental. What starts as an exploration of faith eventually becomes a romance, a development complicated by Bernard's fall into manic depression and Frances' struggle to decide whether she is strong enough to weather the illness with him for the long term. The novel is anchored by two deeply imagined, fully inhabited characters who give voice to a love story that is as emotionally powerful as it is intellectually spirited.
"Bauer's account of the ups and downs of Frances and Bernard's relationship is by turns beautiful and heartbreaking. Her story is enhanced by the superb narration of Angela Brazil and Stephen Thorne…Both narrators excel at bringing forth the joy and pain in the letters…[their] delivery is natural and expressive, taking Bauer's lovely work and making it a memorable listening experience."
AudioFile
"In Frances and Bernard Ms. Bauer attempts to walk a tricky line, giving her characters enough life of their own to seem more than historical glosses, while borrowing from Lowell and O'Connor's stature so that Bernard and Frances become sufficiently formidable literary figures to carry the show."
