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Seven Loves is a compelling story about the impact random people make on you throughout your life. Each chapter of this moving novel is about a different person who has somehow influenced the life of the main character, May Nilsson.
May is a schoolteacher who equates each person in her life to the many styles of students she teaches. Throughout this book, she shares her own life story from the perspective of each person who has made an impression on who she is—from a cute, flirty, klutz co-worker, to a substance-abusing son, to her only affair, to her politically-involved unconventional mother. Through her relationship with each person to whom she introduces to us throughout the book, she helps readers understand how she developed and grew into the person she became.
Each person we meet gives us the highlights of May’s life, both the highest of highs for her and the lowest of lows. For instance, her affair in the early days of her marriage affects much of her growth. Shortly after her affair, May discovers she’s pregnant, and she’s uncertain if the child is her husband’s or her lover’s. After her husband dies, May longs for his companionship, but she’s left alone to deal with the death of her son and the new life she’s forced to lead since retiring from teaching. May’s co-worker intrigues her and draws May back to happier times before she has a heart attack that sends her to a retirement home. May’s life is vividly cultivated through her interactions with each of these characters.
This is a loving story that really deals with the way many different people, choices, and situations in our lives shape not only who we are but also what becomes of us. Each of the seven chapters deals with one of May’s loves and brings the reader, in a skip-about method, to better understand who she was and why. I enjoyed it, and I encourage you to pick it up for a quick, yet heartbreaking read.
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