A Forty Year Kiss by Nickolas Butler

 

A Forty Year Kiss is a mug of hot chocolate on a cold winter day. Charlie returns to Wisconsin forty years after his divorce from Vivian hoping to rekindle their love after inheriting a farm he plans to fix up. Vivian never left the town where they’d lived. She remarried, cared for her husband until he died, and had a daughter she now lives with while babysitting her granddaughters. She also has a secret. Charlie drinks too much, but when he’s with Vivian he yearns to quit. This is an old-fashioned, Kent Haruf-style, upper Midwest love story about good people trying to do the right thing. 

Butler is masterful in the art of portraying older characters without stereotyping them. Charlie and Vivian are in their sixties and Butler shows them as complete beings not out-of-touch, old fogies. Fans of Lyle and Peg Hovde, the wonderful couple in Butler’s magnificent Little Faith will find the same type of normal Midwestern characters simply trying to do the right thing and live their lives with honor in Charlie and Vivian.

Charlie found Vivian on Facebook. He signed up just to find her. They’d messaged back and forth and talked on the phone a few times. Now, here he was sitting in the Tomahawk Room on Bridge Street in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin waiting for her to walk through the door. 

She walked in. “He was just standing there like a boy. Like a boy grinning on his birthday, or Christmas morning. And now she focused on the images of only a few moments ago. The man waving. She realized that it must have been him. She must have seen him waving, and then standing up from his stool and then sitting back down. Then awkwardly rushing to the door. And now here they were. Standing within inches of one another. As close as they had been in forty years, all of this she processed very quickly, and yet, she still could not believe it. That it was happening. That he was here, standing in front of her, smiling expectantly. He looked extremely happy to see her, his cheeks red with what looked like joy.”

They greeted each other, ordered wine, and talked for a while.

“Now, he turned to her, their knees practically touching, a faint electricity there, or magnetism, between them, and he said, Vivian, listen to me—I’m sorry if I wasted those years of your life. I’ve been thinking a lot about who I was back then and the mistakes I made. But I loved you very much and I’m sorry I was a bad husband.

She stared at him, at this new Charlie. . .”

Thus begins a tale of imperfect people trying to find happiness. What more could you want in a novel? 

Summing it Up: Read A Forty Year Kiss to enjoy a novel that’s as much an ode to the Midwest as it is a celebration of second-chance love and becoming the person you were meant to be. Nickolas Butler is unusual in that he treats his characters fairly. He shows them completely without making excuses for their behaviors or trying to portray them as more than they’re capable of being. That makes them real which makes his novels feel a part of you.

Caveat: I met Nickolas Butler when his first novel debuted and reconnected with him when he participated in the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book and again when he stayed as a guest at the Good Hart Artist Residency while finishing the final draft of a previous book. He’s one of the good guys and his writing exemplifies that.

Rating: 5 Stars

Publication Date: February 4, 2024

Categories: Fiction, Five Stars, Grandma’s Pot Roast, Book Club

Author Website: https://nickolasbutler.com/ 

Author Interview: https://chireviewofbooks.com/2025/02/04/a-forty-year-kiss/ 

What Others are Saying:

Book Reporter: https://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/a-forty-year-kiss/about 

“This charming and empathetic portrayal of the Midwest and its denizens explores late-in-life romance, the pangs of regret, and the possibility of renewal no matter how much time has passed.” —Booklist

“The novel is beautiful and full of complex characters. It is a love story, not only between Charlie and Vivian but also between the novel and the Midwest, as the characters journey between Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, and Spooner, WI, along with Minneapolis and Chicago. Fans of Butler and of romance will be delighted with this novel.” —Library Journal

“A big-hearted, comforting novel about second chances—at love, at recovery, at forgiveness and redemption. Butler treats all his characters with dignity and affection. When we die, we’d all be lucky to come back as a character in a Nickolas Butler novel.” —Ash Davidson, author of Damnation Spring

“Life-affirming and straight up beautiful. Will stoke the good fire in your chest, I absolutely loved it. A must-read.” Matthew Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook

“Thank you, Nickolas Butler, for writing a love story that feels so powerfully real, a story that captures the hope, grace, and joy of new love—but also the mistakes, scar tissue, and regret of past love. It’s a wonder to behold, a novel. Capable of such breadth. This is the kind of book that makes me a better human.” —Nathan Hill, author of The Nix and Wellness

The Snowbirds by Christina Clancy

The Snowbirds by Christina Clancy is a delightful novel of love in midlife. Kim and Grant are in their mid-fifties and have been together for thirty years but have never married. They love each other and their relationship with their grown daughters. Kim doesn’t want to tempt fate, but Grant thinks they should marry and make their love official. When the college where Grant teaches closes and Kim’s gay ex-husband offers them his Palm Springs condo for the winter, Kim convinces Grant to leave their comfortable life in Wisconsin for a few months. She embraces the close-knit desert community while Grant is adrift until he begins hiking with a neighbor. All’s well until Grant goes on a solo hike in the mountains and disappears. Is he lost or has he left Kim? The crisis forces Kim and the reader to consider the vagaries of our relationships and wonder what love and commitment truly mean. 

Search parties form and the media descends so Kim begins hearing from people in her past. “Please let us know if you need anything, they all said.” 

Celia, Kim’s college roommate, contacted her after learning Grant was missing via a “Find Grant” Facebook page. Celia had recently unearthed a video her ex-husband had filmed at a party the night Kim and Grant met. She emailed it to Kim who immediately began watching it.

“There was Grant, his back a little straighter, his belly leaner, his skin fresh and unwrinkled, his hair thicker. And there I was, more attractive than I realized at the time, back when I wished I were delicate and small-boned. I gasped aloud, seeing with my own eyes the bending of our futures. How many couples got to actually see that?

How I wished I could show Grant that there was evidence of that emotional rocket launch that marked our beginning. I was mesmerized by the moment we’d come together, but also by the space that once existed between us, and how I’d been the one to close it. And thirty years later, I’d been the one to open it back up again.” 

What Clancy captures in those few sentences portrays how each of us feels as we look back on the beginnings of our relationships and how we’ve both changed and remained unaffected by time and our lives together. As the book moves between Kim and Grant’s early lives and the frightening days when he’s missing, we readers see ourselves and how we might react if faced with the same quandary. 

Summing it Up: With humor, clever and engaging minor characters (especially Kim’s ex-mother-in-law), lively dialogue, and a light touch, this is a wise, insightful page-turner. Publishers Weekly calls it “sparkling” because it is. When Booklist compares an author to Elizabeth Strout and Anne Tyler, you know her book is one you should read, and this one is just that.

Chicago area friends: New date rescheduled due to weather: Clancy will appear at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville at 2 p.m., Sunday, February 16 for a signing and presentation. 

Caveat: I met Christina Clancy when I moderated a panel with her and author Sarah Stonich at the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book. I later reconnected with her when she returned to the Festival as a moderator herself. She was a resident at the Good Hart Artist Residency where she wrote parts of this novel. I wasn't there at the time, but I love the thought of her writing this book in that setting. Those connections allowed me to see that Christina Clancy is as smart, discerning, and enjoyable as the novels she writes. 

Publication Date: February 4, 2024

Rating: 5 Stars

Category: Dessert, Fiction, Five Stars, Grandma’s Pot Roast, Book Club

Author Website: https://www.christiclancywrites.com/ 

Reading Group Guide: https://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/discusion-guides/9781250284952DG.pdf

Read an Excerpt: https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/snowbirds-9781250284952/Snowbirds_Excerpt.pdf?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0BMQABHaERLIEWMvxwNvVrJLAy7p-9RmXjNx-VTEl1QFvB76MYPAVh6u_M5dhyZA_aem_L8_qgPexkAioOjED6zI6IA 

What Others Are Saying:

Clancy skillfully blends flashbacks with the events of the present to reveal new perspectives on shared history. Readers who enjoy Elizabeth Strout and Anne Tyler will appreciate Clancy's emphasis on the impact of unexpected choices and the realization that it’s never too late to find a new path." —Booklist

In this sparkling latest from Clancy, a 50-something Wisconsin couple reevaluate their lives during a winter in Palm Springs, Calif. It's an enjoyable tale of love in middle age. —Publishers Weekly

“The Snowbirds is a beautifully written and propulsive novel, at once a page-turning mystery of a missing man and a moving portrait of a long-term relationship going through a midlife crisis. With humor, honesty, and keen insight, Clancy explores the struggles and joys of reexamining a 30-year relationship and remaking your life in a new community. I couldn't put it down." —Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls

"The Snowbirds is an insightful, propulsive exploration of modern marriage in middle age, equal parts sharp-eyed and heartwarming. Is it possible to commit to a relationship without losing your identity? What epiphanies might we have while getting lost? Christina Clancy's novel ponders these questions and more with humor and warmth. Set against the vivid, zany backdrop of Palm Springs and its Hollywood history, populated by a delightful cast of locals and transplants, The Snowbirds asks whether it's ever too late to find your partner—and yourself." —Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists

"The Snowbirds is a harrowing look at all the ways we find ourselves lost in relationships and what it takes to be found. Clancy has harnessed the unyielding sunshine of Palm Springs to shine new light on long-term love. Her observations are astounding." —Steven Rowley, New York Times bestselling author of The Guncle

“I loved spending time in Clancy’s Palm Springs, where the local color features a passel of voluble eccentrics as magnificent as the mountain views, and a twisty, harrowing hike of a plot. This life-affirming novel of being lost and found will shake you up." —Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of The Waters

"The Snowbirds is a sharp, often tender portrait of middle age: a period of life when we’re told we should know who we are but are often still trying to find ourselves. Against the intoxicating backdrop of Palm Springs, Clancy brings an incredible cast of characters to life with wit, precision, and empathy." —Rowan Beaird, author of The Divorcées

"Clancy’s latest features a long-time couple at the precipice of a romantic reckoning who head to Palm Springs, where the dry heat and their quirky neighbors only add to the tightrope tension. The perfect read for a cold winter night, and one that raises the fundamental questions of how well do we know our partner, or even ourselves? An absolute treat." —Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Queen

"The Snowbirds is Clancy’s best novel yet, and absolutely impossible to put down—a gripping, immersive story about the importance of community and the unexpressed depths of love within a family." —J. Ryan Stradal, New York Times bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest