No Last Words

The day before Robert died was an otherwise perfect June day in Connecticut: warm but not hot, with a bit of a breeze, flawless blue sky, puffy white clouds-the sort of weather a sailor loves, and Robert was a sailor.

So begins Tara Kelly's moving memoir of her life with Robert Willis, her husband, father of their children, restauranteur, sailor, bon vivant, and alcoholic. From an enchanted start in Manhattan to a townhouse in Brooklyn, from an island in Maine and back to rural Connecticut, in fast cars, sleek boats, and on horseback, Tara and Robert seemed to live a charmed life. But beneath the glittering exterior was the struggle of money, alcohol, and ultimately self-control and hard-won sobriety. When this couple seems to have reached an impasse, separation brings renewed love, and then tragedy brings new challenges.

Tara Kelly's memoir is a clear-eyed excavation of the lives lived together and apart by two charismatic modern Americans, a story told in love and compassion for herself and others, a story "...never unsympathetic, and refreshingly free from sentimentality and the temptation to settle old scores" (Michael Korda). A story readers will savor and remember.