The Last Blind Date: A Real-Life Love Story by Linda Yellin (Gallery Books, $15.00, 316 pages)
As I was finishing the Prologue (“Some Pertinent Information You Should Know Up Front”) of The Last Blind Date, I was thinking that this was going to be one entertaining popular fiction novel about love and romance. Also, a very funny one… It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I noticed the subtitle on this book, “A Real-Life Love Story.” Oh, so this is not a novel but a memoir. Interesting.
Linda Yellin’s book arrives at the right time for those impacted by either Seasonal Affective Disorder – the aptly abbreviated SAD – or the holiday period blues. Or maybe you’ve just done too much shopping or quaffed too much eggnog and you need something to bring your spirits up. Belly up to the bar run by Ms. Yellin, a Boomer who offers healthy servings of humorous observations about life and living. (Yes, she’s a baby boomer and you will find yourself asking, “How old could she be if she can remember watching Sky King on TV as a child?”)
In our household the mark of an engaging read is the number of times that I read excerpts to my wife or vice-versa. In this case, I interrupted many episodes of Law and Order to read passages such as this one:
Commenting on other women’s relationships has always felt dicey for me… I never know when to scream Red flag! and when to keep my trap shut. I figure if you tell a friend she’s dating a jerk, don’t expect to be a bridesmaid if she marries the jerk. Then, again, couldn’t at least one of Eva Braun’s girlfriends have sat her down and said, “Eva, sweetheart – trust me. You can do better.”
What is the book about? Glad you asked. Yellin lost her first husband to cancer, lives in Chicago and had pretty much given up hopes of ever being happy again when she’s set up on a blind date with a resident of New York City. This is her true tale of how she found the right man, even if by blind accident, and became his second wife and the stepmother to this two children and their robot dog, Eddy. (Yes, everyone needs at least one robot in their happily ever after home.)
The Last Blind Date is also about the culture shock experienced by a Midwesterner moving to the Big Apple, where everyone wears black and comments on one’s “strange” accent. It’s also a story of learning to love what you already have, and appreciating the fantastic experience of being a parent:
…along the way she’d break some hearts of her own, followed by lonely nights when she doubted herself and wondered why love came quickly for others but not for her. Until there was finally a matching up of souls, and it seemed that every event in her life had led up to this one man, and she realized that if love were any easier, any less fateful – it wouldn’t feel like magic.
That’s Yellin writing about her stepdaughter Phoebe, but once you finish Blind Date, you’ll realize that it’s also about Yellin herself and her long, strange road to meeting and marrying her husband Randy. Read this book and play Don Henley’s song, The Last Worthless Evening. You’ll be so glad you did.
Highly recommended.
Joseph Arellano
A review copy was provided by the publisher. The Last Blind Date was released on October 4, 2011. Linda Yellin is also the author of the novel Such a Lovely Couple.
Joseph's Reviews 