Review: I can hardly remember what it’s like to be 23 or 32 anymore
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 19, 2014
The Surgeon’s ApprenticeRichard Longfellow3.5 starsA delightful little slip of a book, made even more appealing to me because it is British and thus I read it with imagined accents, only adding to my pleasure.Alex and Will, the medical student and the surgeon. A decade apart in professional experience, but on the same page in terms of emotional and sexual experience.Now, I can hardly remember what it’s like to be 23 or 32 anymore, but even with coming-out memories locked in the 1970s it was mildly unbelievable to me that neither of these very appealing young men would have been so, um, unpracticed.But, that’s romance writing for you.Indeed, there were very compelling reasons in both protagonists’ backstories. And, after all, they ARE British, and thus reticent and diffident and all those lovely self-effacing words.But, most importantly, both men are likable. Lovable,even. Alex is smart, but, as he says himself, a little ditzy (not, in my mind, a British word, but he uses it himself) and just a wee bit fey. Will, also smart, is scared. Hiding both behind and from his masculine sexiness, some of his fears are well-founded; others are entirely in his mind.For a short novella without huge amounts of angst or conflict, there is a goodly fund of action and emotional unfolding. I guess my largest complaint for Mr. Longfellow is that he really should have made this into a full-length novel, because the characters and the situation are very much worth it. There were depths upon which he chose not to expand, and it left me feeling a little superficial, a little bit as if everything happened too fast and too easily.I readily recommend this lovely book, but acknowledge in all candor that I wish it had been more, because there was more there.I do want to read more of Mr. Longfellow’s work.