The Gravity of Love by Brian Duren
Brian Duren’s newest novel, THE GRAVITY OF LOVE, opens with the case of a missing person. Ginny, learning she has terminal cancer, takes a detour before returning home to her adult children and second husband to reflect on her love for and life with her first husband, John, the father to her children. In her memories, it was the love affair of her life and when John died, she was lost to her grief. Now, facing her own death, she relives the early years of their courtship and marriage.
The couple had three children, David, Patty, and Linda. David was estranged from his father, who was demanding and abusive towards his only son. He left a mark on David.
“He’s been dead for twenty-three years, but I still feel fear, feel worthless and empty – empty of love – and know I’ll feel that until the day I die.”
David left home without looking back. But now his mother was dying, and he wanted his new wife and his only son to know his mother. She had protected him and loved him fiercely – almost enough to make up for the hole his father left in his heart.
THE GRAVITY OF LOVE is about grief and loss, but it’s also about love and redemption, about how we can go back and recover our lost selves. It’s a reminder that the love of one person can mend the heartbreak caused by another. It’s about resilience and creating a new life for yourself and the people you love. With multiple chapters told from the points of view of David and Ginny, readers see both sides of this nuanced story.
THE GRAVITY OF LOVE is not a page turner, it’s not a thriller or a whodunit, or even a love story in the classic sense of the genre, but it is a reflective contemplation on what it means to love and be loved and the people we call family.
