Almost Like Being in Love: A Novel
By Steve Kluger
4.5/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.
Flash forward twenty years.
Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown. Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who's wondered what ever happened to that first great love.
Steve Kluger
Steve Kluger has written extensively on subjects as far-ranging as World War II, rock 'n' roll, and the Titanic, and as close to the heart as baseball and the Boston Red Sox. He lives in Santa Monica, California.
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Almost Like Being in Love: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLast Days of Summer: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Almost Like Being in Love
41 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of my all time favorites.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5its nice to in love
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was a cute and warm romance. I found the beginning very hard to follow, though, and the voices pretty similar throughout. It was fun to read, and a nice distraction. This one would be great for an afternoon on an airplane, or a day a the beach. The resolution redeems the book entirely.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I read for the second time Almost Like Being in Love. I first read it years ago. I fell in love with the book then, and I am still in love with the book. I think I know why I loved the book the first time I read it. Among the many depressing gay themed movies and novels, this book stood out. There was no gay-bashing, fearful life as a closet gay, desperate seek for parents' acceptance of sexual orientation etc. And no tragic death ending for the main gay characters.This book was written in a way that there was hope for gays to fall in love, to be in love and to stay in love like any other couples. It was a breath of fresh air, to be reading a book that dealt with the romance and humor of being in love. I am still grateful to Kluger for doing that.Yes, at times,the writing became a little complicated for me. At times, the sarcastic tones, although funny, were not helping me to digest the flow of the story fast enough. Still, this book was worth the time it took to complete reading. That 'looking up' part? Got me nearly choked up. Well, I needed that. After laughing through some plots, it was a nice turn of emotion.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I read this book three years ago and reread it after having read Kluger's My Most Excellent Year. The two books are both very enjoyable but share many common elements. Epistolary novel -- check; gay romance and straight romance -- check; likeable youngster in somewhat troubled circumstances -- check; multiple first-person viewpoints -- check; information about baseball, American history, and musical theater -- check. And so forth. But if you liked this book be sure and read My Most Excellent Year -- it's even better.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the best romantic comedy I ever read. I love this story to pieces! The writing is snarky and delightful. The characters are all loveable and amazing. The premise is not new but the author make it so much fun to read with the wacky casts.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In 1978, during their senior year of high school, all-star jock Craig McKenna and the brainy Travis Puckett somehow manage to meet and waste most of that last year of school falling in love, Travis encouraging Craig to keep up with his singing and to believe in himself and Craig putting up with Travis' idiosyncrasies like knowing the birth date and the former address of Judy Garland as well as making lists. During that summer, they trick their parents into allowing them to find an apartment together, to spend as much time together before each heads to college in a different town. But the Summer ends too soon, with promises of writing constantly to one another, which lasts for a while, slowing to a trickle until the letters stop altogether on both sides.Twenty years later, Travis -- a college history professor who somehow has managed to get the football team interested in American History -- still hasn't gotten over his feelings for Craig and compares his would-be suitors to him. He finally decides once and for all to make up for the time he lost to search for his first real love. With the help of his college roommate Gordo, Travis sets off cross country, his only lead being Craig's mother in St. Louis.Through various bits of correspondence -- news clippings, emails, answers to history test questions, letters, comments on Websites, lists -- Steve Kluger's "Almost Like Being in Love" tells a charming and humorous tale of boy-meets-boy, boy-loses-boy, boy.... (I don't want to spoil it.) At first, I thought the format would interfere with the story, but instead, it enhanced each of the characters and allowed more insight into their personalities. What better way to show just how neurotic a Travis is than to have him ask his students how he should handle the whole Craig situation in the form of an essay question on a history exam? The format also allowed the witty, sarcastic humor of each character to shine through, and I found myself laughing out loud throughout much of the book. Though I will mention that each character has the same sense of humor, which could easily have made this a one-note book, but the wit and humor is at such a constant pace that I didn't mind.For me, this turned out to be a true romantic comedy, and I enjoyed reading every single joke and twist in the tale.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5-Travis and Craig met and fell in love in high school, but drifted apart after attending college on opposite sides of the country. 20 years later, Travis realizes that Craig was the one, and embarks on a cross-country road trip to get to Craig, and help him realize that Travis is the one for him, too. Like Last Days of Summer, it’s compiled of letters but also of journal entries. Not as fabulous as LDOS, but delightful in its own way – the characters are funny and truly likable, and it made me want to fall in love again…
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As soon as you open it, it's immediately obvious that this is not your normal novel. The story is told through journal entries, emails, Interlibrary Loan, phone books and other pseudo-epistolary elements. The story is wonderful, and Travis is a wonderful character. (There were occassional exclamations of "Travis, you dumbass!" from both me and Girl v1.0 when we each read it. Travis is... Oh, Travis.) The story may seem a little slow at first, but it picks up quickly. I read it all in one sitting.Verdict: Buy this book, OMG. It's a road trip novel with true love and organized pimentos. READ IT.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book is completely charming. One of the main characters is a neurotic history professor; the other is an activist lawyer. They're both endearing, and they both adore baseball (a plus in my book). It's the story of how they fall in love, lose track of each other, and find each other again years later. This is a pretty quick read, told in the form of letters, lists, and journal entries; a style that usually makes me crazy, but works well for these characters. It only loses points for me because the end feels rather rushed -- it skips from the climax to some time later and, while it's still beautiful and heart-warming, I wish there was more about how the relationships played out in the time that was skipped.