Reviewed by Antonella Townsend
This is not the time to be reading dystopian novels, too close to reality. Best to choose a romantic romp, a roller coaster full of guilt, grief, loads of self-doubt, dream relationships found, lost, and found again. And Love Overdue, written by Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus, fits the profile perfectly.
Written in the first person and segmented into four school terms, Lauren Green’s past and present is told in alternating chapters headed ‘Then’ and ‘Now’. There was a lot of heartbreak in the ‘Then’ which turns up in the ‘Now’.
Lauren has abandoned her dream of being a celebrated author, and now has a successful, steady career as the vice principal of North Caulfield Primary School. However, her personal life is not following the same trajectory – it’s messy. A very public, highly embarrassing break up with Tom, a co-worker, has resulted in moving back home to live with her parents. To make matters worse, her parents and her beloved grandfather, Zaida, loved Tom. Tom was the ‘good Jewish boy’ of their dreams but, unfortunately, not of Lauren’s dreams. Despite being fun, charming, silly and whimsical, Lauren did not want to commit to having Tom’s much wanted children. Living at home entailed residing with a ‘menagerie of chaos’, Injured possums, birds, snakes, a bushy-tailed fox, and, at one time, a Shetland pony in the garden. Lauren is sleeping in her old room, which is now The Aquarium, housing tropical fish, hermit crabs and a couple of turtles. Her parents had launched their travelling veterinary clinic some twenty years ago, which readers are told was an attempt to ‘outrun their past’. The novel is peppered with subtle hooks to arouse reader curiosity.
And if all of the above isn’t enough to unhinge Lauren’s composure, she is forced to encounter the subject of a heart-breaking scenario from her teenage years. ‘Then’ Jamie Saltuna was the standard drop-dead-gorgeous bad boy, who breaks her heart just when she needed him most. In a ‘Now’ chapter he turns up as a respectable and successful business man, and father of a troubled child in North Caulfield Primary School. Still drop dead gorgeous. Lauren recognises him immediately but he does not register any prior knowledge and carries on as if a stranger to her. This would be upsetting.
The above is the foundation of many themes that Berg and Kalus explore: surviving marital breakdown with dignity, parenting, being single when all your friends are happily having babies, second chances are worth pursuing, keep dreams alive no matter how distant they appear to be, and, guilt and grief weigh you down. And, perhaps giving readers a nudge to walk down their own memory lanes checking if achievable dreams have been forgotten.
This might not be the most memorable book in the history of literature, nevertheless, it is an enjoyable way to spend a relaxing weekend.
by Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus
(2025)
Allen & Unwin
Paperback
ISBN: 9781761470660
$22.99; 384pp