Nora Johnson
Last Updated on June 7, 2022, by eNotes Editorial. Word Count: 179
[In "Love Is One of the Choices,"] Caroline and Maggie, seniors at a Manhattan private school, both children of divorced parents, have simultaneous love affairs—Caroline with Justin, the 28-year-old married (but separated) science teacher for whom she baby-sits, and Maggie with Todd, a boy from another school, whom she meets...
(The entire section contains 179 words.)
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[In "Love Is One of the Choices,"] Caroline and Maggie, seniors at a Manhattan private school, both children of divorced parents, have simultaneous love affairs—Caroline with Justin, the 28-year-old married (but separated) science teacher for whom she baby-sits, and Maggie with Todd, a boy from another school, whom she meets during a debating contest. Maggie, a raging feminist, fights the pull toward committed love that draws Caroline so dangerously.
The writing is pleasant enough but irritatingly simplistic…. What happens to the young people is moderately interesting, but I really wanted to know more about the briefly-dealt-with parents who have chosen to bring up teenagers in the city and must decide about things such as sex in the apartment, for themselves and their children…. But if I were 18 and at Brearley again, I think I'd like this book. The issues that once preoccupied 21-year-olds have moved back four years and are described here openly and rather engagingly, and the adult world doesn't seem too forbidding.
Nora Johnson, "Love and Madness," in The New York Times Book Review, March 25, 1979, p. 28.∗