Jim Nash
From the age of 16 to 40, the narrator never overcame his undying unrequited love for his first love whom he knew since age 5 and he measured all other women against her which led to them constantly falling short in his estimation although many were as extraordinary in their own right as his first but he could not see that and always thought he could do better whether they were rich or nobility or exotic foreigners or artists or practioners of Buddhism or married. The narrative reveals the selfishness of romantic love, the difficulty in maintaining lasting love and relationships and the addiction that sex can become. The story takes place over three continents as the narrator grew up in Italy and Greece and worked in Iran and in various cities in the USA. Finally in his 50's he falls into the hands of Daphne, a physically beautiful Greek woman half his age in Canada, who is desperate to divorce and starts out desperate for his love but ends up almost destroying him financially and psychologically after gaining his love and in the end not loving him at all, but exploiting him and then telling him it was all a mistake after he helped her obtain her BA, her MA and her divorce and after he had gained the affection of her mother, her sister and her daughter and had travelled to Greece to spend time with her and her family. He finally met his match in that she was the queen of pain and aways had the biggest owie. She was very intelligent academically but completely superficial in her pursuit of luxury and fashion and as the daughter of a rich merchant constantly worried about her image and social status. It was an attraction of opposites in many ways. Like an old vampire he clung to her youth. It was as if karma finally caught up to him for all the women he had abandoned and betrayed during his lifetime including his head strong wife who had become an alcoholic and a recluse cutting him off from his friends and relatives and Europe and from his painting, writing and crerativity and sense of self worth. He also has two handicapped children whom he cares for out of a sense of duty but longs for his old single life and a different country. The loss of Daphne's love and her abandonment of him produces a psychological transformation in him like going through the stages of grief and turning him from a self declared spiritual person into a cynic learning to live with his unfufilled need for romantic love and recognizing his own hypocrisy and world weariness. His quest for love took him to great heights of emotion and worldly achievement followed by canyons of despair like a manic depressive riding the waves...the book is illustrated with many color and black and white photos and has a travelorama quality to it as part of the ride.
