Almost Paradise

I first read this book over twenty years ago. Found it on a back shelf during a recent move. Reread it and love it every bit as much now as I did then. Yes, the ending is heart-breaking, but the characters are intriguing and the sex is scintillating. This may be an atypical Isaacs book, but it's in my top 3 favorites!

My mom read this book around 15 years ago, absolutely loved it, and handed it down to me. I have read it almost every year since then, probably ten times. I am 31 now, and it is still my favorite book after all these years (and I read alot!). I don't make a habit of re-reading books, but every year or so, when I can't find a book that interests me, I pick up my dog-eared copy. Every time I begin reading it again, my husband says to me "How can you read that book again and again, year after year???" I'll tell you how: this book is so rich, so full of life, that every time I read it I am just as entertained as I was the first time I picked it up. The characters are so vividly detailed, the story so well told, it's just enchanting. In fact, I recommended this book to a coworker, and when she didn't like it, my mom and I joked that she wasn't worth keeping as a friend! Seriously, I just adore this book. Another reviewer referred to it as a love story, which is misleading - it is so much more than that. This is no supermarket romance novel; it spans 300 years in the life of two compelling, wonderful, dysfunctional families. It's funny, sad, even heartbreaking at times. Issacs weaves a tapestry so colorful and detailed, it's impossible to put down, whether you are reading it for the first or the fifteenth time. It's characters and details haunt you. You will remember it long after you've read it. By the way, I tried to read Susan Issacs other books and I was disapointed in them all, not because they aren't good books, but because they are not like Almost Paradise. I think I was spoiled on her other books because I read the "best" one first, and no other can compare to it, in my mind. It is by far her best, her "Sgt. Pepper", so to speak, and sadly, she never wrote another like it. I highly, highly recommend it.

With astounding detail and even more potent wit, Susan Issacs creates the worlds of Jane and Nicholas so completely that you are immersed into it willingly. I have read this book twice -- a glutton for sentiment and melancholy -- and loved it equally both times. I always wondered why a big Hollywood movie was not made from it -- it seems like a natural, though of course a movie version would change the twist-in-your-heart ending, which on the page resonates with power and emotion. I loved this book and love this characters still.

I started reading Susan Isaacs' 'After All These Years' on vacation with my family and they had to know everything that was happening throughout the book. I have loved her mystery writing. But I just this day read Almost Paradise and couldn't put it down. It predates her mystery novels but not the history of the generations Susan puts into her books which is why I love her writing. But that is not all. How she has so much knowledge of human behavior is beyond me. I think she must have lived all the lives she writes about because no one could know that much about so many lives. I need more books, Susan! Lynn

This is my favorite book of all time. I reread it at least once a year and the feeling I have is the same one I had when I read it the first time. Hold the people you love close and remember what's really important in life.I admired Susan Issacs for not taking the easy way out. The fact that Nick is a Robert Redford caliber movie star would have made an interesting story in itself. But it's just his job and the real story is the marriage and families of Nick and Jane.And, as usual, the secondary characters are so interesting it made me want to know more about them. Although with this book, their stories are told in almost as much detail as Nick and Jane's stories. There is someone to love and hate on every page. Jane's wonderful mother and her horrible dad; Dorothy, the really evil stepmother, her brother Rhodes, Nick's parents and grandparents and a whole slew of people in between. In particular, I loved her brother Rhodes. He is not portrayed as a sterotypical homosexual, but as a kind, loving man that cares deeply for his sister and her family and he just happens to be gay. And the fact that his life runs on more or less the same course with Jane's only makes the story more interesting. And he really made me laugh. In general, I like anyone that makes me laugh.I can't recommend this book highly enough. The only warning I would issue is to be prepared to devote a major block of time on this read, because once you start, you won't want to put it down. As mentioned earlier, I read this book at least once a year. And as I reach the part where Nick and Jane's marriage begins to unravel, I always feel the same way. It makes me hold my husband close and remember to appreciate each day.After all, no one's life is paradise, but it can be almost paradise.