Cristina Lee Marvelli

Love During Oyster Season Cristina Lee Marvelli

LOVE DURING OYSTER SEASON is a contemporary American novel/memoire set against the backdrop of Chicago?s glamorous lakefront. A naïve young couple, Deandra and Mark, begin married life with lingering memories of their wild youth safely tucked away. Deandra is an idealistic academic lost in her research papers. Mark works in the production end of the entertainment business, a fascinating world of talent, neuroses and bad habits. He secretly acquires some of those bad habits, then gets caught in an affair with his wife?s best girlfriend Charlie, who is rich, well bred, funny, with an encyclopedic mind?and Charlie ends up holding all the strings.

Every baby boomer will relate to this poignant memoir of the dreams of a small circle of friends who leave the Vietnam War behind, stepping into the fast lane of life. What clever Charlie with the genius IQ doesn?t realize is that her betrayal of Deandra, admittedly the nicest girlfriend she?s ever had, this colossal betrayal overlaps the months of oyster season and she?s about to be found out at her own dinner party. Meanwhile, lovely Deandra has such a forgiving nature that Mark now thinks he?s finally home free, however, looming forces far more powerful than all of them dictate a different course. Finally, in the courtrooms of power, a twisted web slips over everyone?s lives.

Written as a memoire of a life almost lived, begun like a dream sequence of lingering, seemingly unimportant recollections, this fast-paced story quickly speeds up. From a fascinating puzzle of the tender renderings of a heart, the whole picture comes into view in an explosive disaster. The final pages provide two epilogues, one the happy Hollywood ending that Americans prefer, the other for the foreign film crowd, those not as disturbed by the imperfections of this life, who don?t mind English subtitles that aren?t exactly accurate.