Tender

I had looked forward to reading this book with such eagerness because I had been captivated by McKeon's first novel, Solace. Disappointingly, I did not find the same lyrical beauty in this, her second novel as I did in the first. The tenderness of the title teeters on the brink of obsession and finally falls into that abyss. Catherine meets James when she heads to university at Dublin's Trinity College. The friendship that develops between them is complicated by James's struggle to find his place as a homosexual male within the circle of friendships they have created in Dublin. Sexuality aside, Catherine and James forge deep bonds of friendship, a sort of anam cara relationship. Catherine's love for James brings her pain as she struggles to maintain her role as the friend of his heart without giving in to her longing to be more.