Leaving Before It's Over

June 28, 2010
Page (The Last Summer of Her Other Life) delivers an intimate if overbusy family drama of lost and rebuilt connections. Roy Vines has never regretted his decision to leave his family and inheritance behind by marrying second wife Rosalind. But when Rosalind gets sick, he must temporarily leave her and their two children to turn to his parents for money, and, worse, see his estranged twin brother, Mont. The consequences of his trip grow when Roy is forced to take Luke, his son from his first marriage, home with him for the summer before Luke's freshman year at college. Luke has always believed Roy abandoned his mother to run off with Rosalind, but the truth, of course, is much more complicated and could tear the family apart all over again. The story shines when focused on the children and the sense of family rather than on the needlessly messy plot, and while the characters outside Roy's immediate family are caricatures, Rosalind and the children are remarkably portrayed.