Special Relationship

This is a book that Robyn Sisman around 10 years ago before chick-lit had became a huge phenomenon and it recently got re-released. I've read Robyn's other novels and I loved them. But I have to say that "Special Relationship" just doesn't seem to have that same magic as her other novels do. I had a hard time getting into the book and staying interested in it. It took me over a week to read and finish the novel, which is a rarity for me. It's not like the characters of Jordan, Annie, and Tom were bad and not likeable but it was just lacking something. The backdrop of youth in the era of hippies and the Vietnam war are interesting and is kind of like what the world is experiencing again at this moment. So even though "Special Relationship" is not my favorite Robyn Sisman novel, it's still worth reading if you've read and enjoyed any of her other novels.

In 1992, Jordan Hope runs for the President of the United States, but has one secret that could derail his bid. In 1970 while he attended Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship and played the sax, he met Annie. She was the right woman for him, but she just vanished from his life. Sad he moved on until he recently began a run for the top office in the world. However, Anne, a top London literary agent, is happily married with three offspring. She never forgot her first love and is proud of his accomplishments, but even if he was not a media darling, the evidence of their tryst lives with her, her oldest son Tom. However, following a comment related to a photo of a young Jordan that someone mistook as Tom, the lad realizes he could be the American candidate's twin as they look so alike at twenty. He realizes why Jordan sired him and rushes across the Atlantic to meet his biological dad. While the Secret service makes that seemingly impossible, Anne pursues her son and to warn Jordan using her dying mother as an excuse for saying her goodbyes to her in Chicago. The obvious Clinton (Bill that is) connection aside, SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP is a delightful contemporary tale that provides a fascinating spotlight on the late 1960s and early 1970s through a filtering look back 1992 "lens". Tom is terrific as he stirs the game to meet and confront his father while Anne tries to prevent a cross Atlantic incident that would derail her first lover's political ambition. Jordan adds to the mix of the past coming home to roost (along with a couple of other family secrets) as he never forgot his SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP. Harriet Klausner

This story was published in 1995 but still a good read. What you deemed as the love of your life in your youth would be different by the time you hit middle age. So, goes the theme of this chick lit. The story weaving is good based on the author's own experiences at Oxford as a student though at a different time frame from the one she portrays in this book. The Oxford with history, pomp, pagentry, love sick students, sex, drugs & demonstrations of 68-70 are well detailed thru the life of Annie Paxton, the protagonist. The story moves on to present time where she has a family and a dilemma whether to tell her son the truth about his illegitimacy. Somehow, the subject on taking on two lovers & having an illegetimate son become a threadbare plot as you can predict how the story will flow right till the end. Loses some originality along the way. However, there are some small surprises where the sub-plot involves an older woman and a younger man coupling together where taboos & conventions cast aside to let this illicit relationship take place.

The first ten pages were somehow hard to read, as any novel's. But when I saw Shakespeare's line (There is no art to find the mind's construction in the face)I had a strong reason to continue. The character and charm of Jordan Hope made me think that he resembles Clinton a lot.. Well, I perceive it that way. The descriptions of London and Oxford are intriguing. This is more than a bestseller. I urge everyone to read it. Designed for those who love the 68's.. Fun.. Beatles..