Book Review: "Family Happiness" by Leo Tolstoy

He is the master, and this is a masterpiece.  It is about the birth and death of love--or is it about the metamorhpasis?  No young people should read this novella, for it will disillusion them.  It is for the older folks, like me, who can nod in recognition.

More than just a typical love story, this also has the hero much older than the heroine.  She is just a teen when they meet and fall in love.  He has wisdom on his side.  He remembers his own youth and the path he had to travel to reach middle age. She is just beginning with the journey, and he lets her make the mistakes she has to make to grow up.

The story is very sad, but very true.  Not that everyone will experience such a journey.  Tolstoy's experience with love and marriage was actually quite worse.  Mine was much better.

I am so glad I had already gotten through that point when I met Kevin.  I fear that, rather than let me make the mistakes, Kevin, who is quite a bit older than me, would have joined me in reliving them.

A very fine, fine story for older people.