The Twoweeks

By Larry Duberstein

Cal and Lara are happily married, though (problematically) not to one another. And though they came of age in the sexual wilderness of the 1960's, neither is seeking to expand any sexual horizons now, 10 years later.Nevertheless, they find themselves in what each presumes to be an altogether trite situation--committed to monogamy and fidelity, yet so powerfully drawn together that their "Fall" seems inevitable.The way out proposed by Lara, a "Twoweeks" carved out of their normal, predictable lives, is intended of course to take two weeks and be done with. What happens to these attractive, lively, storm-tossed souls before, during, and after The Twoweeks is the subject of Larry Duberstein's engaging new novel.Duberstein's first novel, The Marriage Hearse, while rife with surface irony and wit, was described by The New York Times Book Review as "above all a love story and a rather touching one at that." The same can be said of Duberstein's 8th novel, The Twoweeks, though it travels an arc of over 30 years, where The Marriage Hearse takes place in the course of a single white night. The Twoweeks too is "above all a love story" and, like most good ones, it is as much about the dilemmas of love as the romance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Permanent Press
• Release date: Nov 15, 2011
• ISBN: 9781579623005

Larry Duberstein

There will be more soon on Larry Duberstein’s extraordinary new novel Five Bullets, forthcoming in November. Mr. Duberstein is the author of 9 previous volumes of fiction, including The Marriage Hearse (New York Times New & Noteworthy), Carnovsky’s Retreat (New American Writing Award), The Alibi Breakfast (Publishers Weekly starred notice), The Handsome Sailor (New York Times Notable Book) and The Day The Bozarts Died (BookSense Notable Book).   In his other incarnation as a human being, Larry is the father of three beautiful daughters, an accomplished woodworker and builder, an avid tennis and basketball player, and the person who walks Alice Brownstein, the wonder dog.

Reviews for The Twoweeks

[ericfitz08 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It was okay. A cute story, damn good writing, but the premise was stretched awful thin at points and it doesn't quite stick the landing

[hankesj · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Hmm. Where to start with this one. The premise and blurb made the book sound incredibly interesting but after I was about 50 pages in, I realized I'd almost forgotten half of what I'd read. There wasn't great character development OR plot development. The writing was a bit choppy and I just couldn't find myself getting really interested. By the end of the novel, I felt like the book could have been SO much stronger if the author would have just taken some time to really expand everything. Characters, plot, setting, dialogue, etc.

[booksintheburbs · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was a difficult book to truly understand and covered an unusual subject matter. While there were parts of the story that were interesting, in the end, I just wanted more character development.

[rmckeown_9 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This peculiar novel comes from the overwhelmingly reliable Permanent Press. It is roughly divided into four parts. But first some background.Cal and Winnie are married and have two kids. Call loves Winnie, Winnie loves Cal, and Cal is absolutely devoted to his children. Lara and Winnie are friends. Lara and Ian are married but have no children. Cal and Lara bump into each other, and Cal notices her beauty. He is smitten. Duberstein writes, [I only have an uncorrected proof, but as soon as I get a trade copy, I will post a quote.] (25). Cal and Lara decide to take two weeks together to work out of their system the mutual attraction that had been building. Lara tells Ian, but Call does not tell Winnie.Numerous stories crossed my mind while reading The Twoweeks by Larry Duberstein. These stories involve people married or involved with the wrong partner. Someone new comes along, and suddenly chaos breaks out. Think The English Patient, Bridges of Madison County, Shakespeare in Love, and The End of the Affair by Graham Green.Part one involves Lara reading a journal of The Twoweeks, but Cal interrupts her and insists the “backstory” is important and relevant. Part two reveals the journal, frequently interspersed with comments mainly from Cal explaining, revising, or adding details in the journal. Part three describes separately Lara and Cal’s reaction in the immediate aftermath of the two weeks. Part four has a narrator outside the novel. Here all is revealed.Duberstein’s prose is down to earth and conversational – lots of dialogue between Cal and Lara, and between Cal and himself and Lara and herself. The reader delves deeply into the psychology of these two characters, and clearly reveals the trauma and heart ache associated with finding oneself in a marriage when someone “better” or “more suited” comes along. Having been in such a relationship myself not too many years ago, I had a great deal of empathy for Cal and Lara, as well as a lot of sympathy for Ian and Winnie. The major complicating factor in this novel, is of course, the children.The bottom line? Small press fiction is every bit as wonderful as mainstream publishing, The Twoweeks is Larry Duberstein’s eighth novel along with two collections of short stories. I see a future spent hunting for the rest of his works. 5 stars--Jim, 5/19/12

[daisygrl09 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lara is married to Ian, Cal is married to Winifred. They are all friends. Lara and Cal are attracted to each other and decide to engage in a two week "fling". Lara's husband Ian is aware of the decision, Winnie, not so much, They embark on their fling and by the end of the two weeks have fallen in love. Going back to their lives, they have difficulty resuming the way things were. After many months, Cal contacts Lara and they eventually start having one-night-stands to try and get it out of their system. On it goes. At the end of the book, Lara and Cal are married and Ian and Winifred have moved on and married others, too, I didn't really like the way the book bounced around between present and past. I found it a little hard to follow.

[bobbieharv · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I'm sorry, but I had a real problem with this book: the structure, the characters, the plot, the writing - in fact I can't think of much I did like about it. Let's start at the beginning, where in the first chapter we're suddenly introduced to 8 characters, only one of whom will turn out to be a leading character, which is a good thing because I was having a hard time keeping them all straight, much less figuring out why I should care about them in the first place, when they say things like "a throg [as in Throg's Neck Bridge] is a frog with a speech defect," and when one "dives recklessly" and in the next paragraph another one "ruffles the boy's shaggy black curls."And then, in the next chapter, we suddenly meet the main characters, one of whom was the grandfather of those irritating children in the first chapter, but he's not a grandfather yet because he has to have an affair with someone called Lara, who's also called Laura a few pages later. And why should I care about these two? I've not been properly introduced and suddenly they're off on a two week affair, described in all its minutiae: tedious descriptions of Revere Beach and what they ate and how hot it was and I'm sorry but I just don't care about these two people I don't know!Odd, because now I'm reading Anne Enright's new book "The Forgotten Waltz"; very similar theme, an affair with descriptions of where they went and what they did and it's completely mesmerizing and beautiful. What's the difference between randomness that the reader could care less about and art? I'm not sure, but I know it when I read it.

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

you would think that sneaking out of your normal life fortwo weeks to be free with another person would make a good book but just a few pages in i am greatly confused on who is who and when ghe setting is.....was.....it seems timeline is jumping and the different people are telling each chapter and i have a hard time keeping track. not my cup of tea.

[jmyers24_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

While The Twoweeks makes some interesting observations on life and the pursuit of happiness, the constant angst and introspection of the two lovers, each married to someone else, becomes pretty irritating after the first several chapters. Lara, a poet, is a close friend of Cal's wife, Winnie, when Lara and Cal become irresistibly attracted to each other. Lara then offers Cal, an aspiring actor, two weeks in which her husband will graciously take himself out of the country in hopes that Lara will get Cal out of her system. Cal is supposed to tell Winnie about the arrangement, but doesn't. Their story is told in flashbacks as Cal and Lara relive The Twoweeks (as they call it) through a discussion of the journal entries Lara made during that time. The tension in the novel derives from not knowing exactly how their attraction has played out over time. Such tension might work if it were just one element in a larger, more complex plot with other characters and stories to provide relief from the constant drone of the “Should I...? Shouldn't I.....” mental dialogue; but when it is the only element on offer, it definitely loses its snap. When the end finally does arrive, it seems an insufficient reward for the reader's investment.

[dablackwood · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This novel was a complete disappointment. I liked the idea - two lovers remembering a two week time they spent together when they were married to other people. It seemed like it would be a good story. But, it was boring. I had to force myself to pick it up. I didn't care about the characters, Cal and Lara, and was very confused by the changes in point of view as well as time. All in all this book was pretty awful.

[marcyjill · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I was excited to receive this book because it has such a great premise, but unfortunately I found it very disappointing. It was slow, dispassionate and somewhat confusing. I never felt involved and therefore after about half the book I finally just put it down without finishing it.

[aimless22 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The Twoweeks is a novel about two married people (married to people other than each other) who decide to have a two week long affair. Cal and Lara embark on this precious two weeks like two kids going to camp even though they are only going to Lara's house and staying around home.The first chapter of the book is about their children traveling for the holidays. The second chapter jumps to Cal and Lara discussing her journal of the Twoweeks that she wrote a month after the fact while on vacation with her husband. I also could not quite tell when the story was set or whether or not Lara had actually told her husband what she would do with the two weeks alone that she asked him for. By the time I think the author does reveal that information, I didn't care.I had a real problem with chapter 2. Cal's point of view was first person; Lara's point of view was third person; Cal's point of view changes to third person. It was very confusing to read.I also had a problem with the capitalization used to signify supposedly momentous events - "The Twoweeks", "The Sentence"(37), "The Playground Statement"(40). The capitalizing went away for a while then returned on page 117 with descriptions of Revere Beach - "Swimmable water", "Healthy but at least is not Dangerous."Chapter 4 comprimes the entire journal day by day. It seems that Lara is reading aloud and throughout the chapter, Cal interrupts to clarify, question, or expound on his perception of that particular section of the journal.I disliked knowing that the two would end up together before even hearing about the Twoweeks. I disliked the interruptions by Cal during the journal chapter.I would have rather had the Twoweeks play out as a third person story with inserted journal entries or something like that.Really am not enjoying it and although have made commitment to self to finish it, I am unsure if I can.

[kdkelly92 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was really excited to receive this book and couldn’t wait to start reading it. What a disappointment. The premise was interesting, Lara and Cal, both married but not to each other but so attracted to each other that they have an affair for just two weeks and then go back to real life. They just didn’t seem to have enough passion to risk so much. The story just seemed to drag along at some points and I just wanted it to be done.

[bons_11 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

EARLY REVIEWERS AWARD,I did struggle with this book but not the topic. I did think the subject matter where two married people would be given the opportunity to spend two weeks with one another was a bit intriguing. My mind raised questions from the start on that topic.The author is very promising but the style was a good bit uncomfortable. I liked his choice of descriptions often but sometimes it would go on a bit much. The second or third chapter where Lara is trying to start the reading of the journal and Cal keeps interrupting I found to be annoying. I also, as the reader did not want to know in advance that the couple ended up together. The first chapter where the adult children are traveling was hard to follow up then it abruptly changes entirely in the very next chapter. Also, The Sentence, The Playground Statement is odd at best. Was there real point to this technique? I suppose it was much like the title, The Twoweeks.The Twoweeks is uncomfortable reading.

[galtj_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The topic of this book was so intriguing to me, it really would make a great story. Unfortunately, this book really fell short for me. I did not like the way the story was told by the 2 main characters reading a journal and commenting about it. Also, the set up with the grown children in the beginning was fairly obvious and contrived.

[katharineclifton · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Meh. That's how I felt about this book. I felt the plot construction was unnecessarily complex, bouncing back and forth between point of view and time. Yet the writing at times was lyrical and engaging. At others, flat and disinteresting. I was confused. I loved the premise, I wanted to love the characters. I didn't. Perhaps if it had been told in a smoother, more linear style I could have gotten into it more. But the fact is, that I didn't. It just didn't hook me in. I enjoyed certain passages, the retelling of certain days from the Twoweeks, but overall, it was easy to put this book down and I was never in a rush to pick it up again. I didn't get a true sense of the characters, only glimpses of them, and it wasn't enough to make me truly care about them. It's a miss on a beautifully fraught idea.

[motivatedmomma · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Twoweeks by Larry Duberstein was just a so-so read to me. The premise is that the two main characters , Lara and Cal, take two weeks off from their marriage to engage in their affair and then go back to their regular lives. The story started off with the main characters in the present while the characters tell the “backstory” of the how they met and their recollections of the Twoweeks. I like character development in my stories and I didn’t care for these characters—I didn’t get a true sense of why they were engaging in the affair in the first place-- their spouses were not fleshed out as characters at all and Duberstein’s writing style while insightful at sometimes was unemotional causing me not to get invol . The reliving of The Twoweeks was the most enjoyable part of the book and I felt it would have worked better as a short story or novella with just that as the story line and not the development of the backstory.

[fanoftheoffice · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a cute story, told in alternating voices, of two people who had an affair. The stoy takes place in the 1970s, although it is actually these two individuals reflecting on their affair many years later. You can tell from the way it is written that the author also likely came of age during that time. There is a certain ease to which he describes the culture and mindset of the time. This book would greatly appeal to the Baby Boomer generation, I think, for that fact alone. What happens after the affair is quite interesting. This book was a great read.