Almost Like Being in Love

Just about the happiest book I have ever encountered, plus I am a sucker for any kind of epistolary novel. The guys are all fabulous, the girls are all swell, and even when characters break up they remain BFFs. Little to no mention of any homophobia (seriously, two gay teenagers in a 1990s boarding school and nobody bats an eyelash?) and AIDS is mentioned only in passing. Lots of LOL lines and sweet romance of both the homosexual and heterosexual variety. I could have lived without the wisecracking 12 year old boy, but that's a minor complaint. Recommended for anyone who wants the literary equivalent of a lighthearted 1950s musical.

What happens when we go to college?" I asked him nervously. "Is that the end of us?"
He glanced up from my chest and frowned as only Travis could frown.
"Do you love me?"
"Down to my toes."
"Then shut up."

I've been saying on here for a while that I wanted something with epistolary elements. I can't explain it,it just sounds good right now. I started this, and I was a bit confused through the first chapter by the format. Once I figured it out (e-reader formatting, I'm guessing) I didn't put this book down. I didn't stop laughing, I didn't stop crying. And I also held my breath a HELL of a lot. This is one of those reviews when I probably don't have the words. The run in the morning dew on an August morning feeling, the smell of your show more glove in softball, the joy and sorrows of those first loves and missed connections.

"We make families of our own," Travis whispered in my arms on the last night we spent together. "It starts with you and me and then it spreads. And whatever happens, there'll always be a part of me that's part of you. No matter what."

I always struggle emotionally with the missed connection type of stories. I think it's easy to see a million pieces of your past in them and sometimes that just hurts so good. What happens when you meet the your first love in your senior year of high school, go off to college across the country (like, 2988.2 miles away), and start living your lives. What happens when you've never really said good bye and suddenly after 20 years of being a lawyer and an American history professor, you realize someone's got a piece of you and you're feeling a bit unresolved. And what if, after all that time, you've had between 1 and 12 other love stories.

My whole life I've tried to remember the things he taught me. Not just about Ethel Merman and the Japanese American internment, but about finding the truth in everything you touch. Being Travis was a full-time job, yet that never kept him from teaching me how to be Craig.

Emails, journal entries, court cases, memos, written tests--I loved the way this story unfolded. And while the romance elements were swoony and lovely and heart bursting, there's no bitterness, there's barely sadness--It's joyful, Kluger gives us an additional cast and their relationships to adore. Take Gordon, travis's best friend since rooming in high school. He's a gem and a cheerleader to Travis's singularity, even starting in the late 70s in school:
TRAVIS: I never said I like boys!
GORDO: Ever beat off to Penthouse?
TRAVIS: No.
GORDO: Ever collect baseball cards?
TRAVIS: No.
GORDO: How old is Barbra Streisand?
TRAVIS: 36. Three weeks ago.
GORDO: What do you need? A fucking blueprint?


Of course, Travis- the big-hearted, courageous, genius whirlwind, Travis, falls for a jock. And frankly, Craig is equally lovely.
"I just can't figure this out," I said, kissing him yet again.
"It's easy," he replied, kissing back. "You love me."
"Oh, right."


I was bowled over by how authentic and warm these characters felt. There were times I didn't even know what I was rooting for (ok, ok, I usually did) Somehow, even Travis's students were lovely and we only saw test answers from them. The dynamic between him and Gordon. AJ, Clayton, and Charleen. All wonderful. Noah-a 9 year old spitfire.

I was afraid this would happen. When T falls in love, he does it with the whole world at once. Compared to him, Jane Austen was romantically challenged.

It's a romance. It's a love story. It's a story about love. Also, loved it..down to my toes. show less

What would you do if 20 years after parting with your first love, you realize you're still hopelessly in love with him and no one else will ever measure up? This is exactly the situation Travis faces and decides that he can't move on unless he finds Craig and sees him one more time. It might be a rekindling in that moment or they might just say 'hey' and part, but he figures it's worth a shot.

The construction of this book is interesting. It's a series of journal entries, letters, memos, and other correspondence to tell the story of how Craig and Travis came together and how they eventually come to cross paths again 20 years later. Overall, I very much enjoyed the story, I just felt like the format got in the way at times and muddled the show more story just a bit. show less

In 1978, during their senior year of high school, all-star jock Craig McKenna and the brainy Travis Puckett somehow manage to meet and waste most of that last year of school falling in love, Travis encouraging Craig to keep up with his singing and to believe in himself and Craig putting up with Travis' idiosyncrasies like knowing the birth date and the former address of Judy Garland as well as making lists. During that summer, they trick their parents into allowing them to find an apartment together, to spend as much time together before each heads to college in a different town. But the Summer ends too soon, with promises of writing constantly to one another, which lasts for a while, slowing to a trickle until the letters stop show more altogether on both sides.

Twenty years later, Travis -- a college history professor who somehow has managed to get the football team interested in American History -- still hasn't gotten over his feelings for Craig and compares his would-be suitors to him. He finally decides once and for all to make up for the time he lost to search for his first real love. With the help of his college roommate Gordo, Travis sets off cross country, his only lead being Craig's mother in St. Louis.

Through various bits of correspondence -- news clippings, emails, answers to history test questions, letters, comments on Websites, lists -- Steve Kluger's "Almost Like Being in Love" tells a charming and humorous tale of boy-meets-boy, boy-loses-boy, boy.... (I don't want to spoil it.) At first, I thought the format would interfere with the story, but instead, it enhanced each of the characters and allowed more insight into their personalities. What better way to show just how neurotic a Travis is than to have him ask his students how he should handle the whole Craig situation in the form of an essay question on a history exam? The format also allowed the witty, sarcastic humor of each character to shine through, and I found myself laughing out loud throughout much of the book. Though I will mention that each character has the same sense of humor, which could easily have made this a one-note book, but the wit and humor is at such a constant pace that I didn't mind.

For me, this turned out to be a true romantic comedy, and I enjoyed reading every single joke and twist in the tale. show less

No question about it: I LOVED THIS BOOK. Lately, I've been marking off the pages where I like certain passages. I think I could have marked almost every page of ALBiL. I kid you not. Right from the get go this book had me laughing out loud. Ask Nath, I think I emailed her around page 8 saying I loved it already. LOL

Usually I'm not a fan of epistolary format, but Steve Kluger really knows his stuff. It wasn't just plain old letters between Travis and Craig, there were a variety of ways that this story was moved forward: lists, journal entries, e-mail, etc. And it was between a variety of people close to Travis and Craig, and these characters practically flew off the page!

You know how I know a book is a keeper? When I want to be inside show more the book - I want to be in that world the author creates. And Steve did that. Also, he made me cry. When a book makes me cry, I know it's something special.

I don't really want to go into what happens in this book but just know that right from page one, this book hooks you in. It makes you laugh and cry and I highly recommend Almost Like Being In Love. It is now one of my top favorite romances EVER, and that list is not a big one.

ALBiL gets an 5 stars from me. show less

When I find a book I truly enjoy, I often end up hunting down my husband and reading passages to him. Some books are so good that a reader must really just share to enjoy them fully. Almost Like Being in Love, with its laugh-out-loud joie de vivre me looking for my husband multiple times a day just to share the bubbling joy I was feeling.


Travis and Craig found each other in high school, but went to different colleges. Like so many of us with close, close friends and lovers, they promised to stay in touch, only to have life and lack of proximity separate them.

No, that’s not the plot, but the prelude to the wonderful story Kluger unfolds through lists and diary pages and other unconventional methods of letting a tale unfold like the show more petals of a flower.

Twenty years after college, neither man thinks his life is bad. In fact, university history instructor Travis is so caught up in the academic lifestyle he’s honed for himself that he surprises his friends and colleagues, not to mention himself, when he stops to take stock and realizes that what his life is missing is Craig.

Finding Craig with whom he’s totally lost touch, however, isn’t easy. The private, shy Travis knows he will have to step into the abyss of America and probably have to wallow in embarrassment and wrong turns to locate the love of his life.

Craig, however, who is in a serious relationship that’s about to turn into marriage, isn’t really looking past his current boyfriend. He doesn’t know why he’s reluctant about marriage, but when he gets the first inkling that someone from his past is searching for him, he hopes it will be Travis.

Kluger takes readers on a walk down a path that loops around, back to the road not taken, the road that should have been taken. Readers who’ve had a pivotal moment in their lives, boldly gone one way and later wondered what would have happened had they gone the other route will deeply enjoy this book.

Travis, for all his neuroses and twitches, lends an air of manic fun to the story, sometimes in laugh-out-loud scenes that readers will want to share with those around them. He’s never sure he’s doing the right thing in trying to find Craig, but he’s determined. He’s smart, inventive, and sincere, all the attributes that make up a wonderful friend.

Craig, on the other hand, for all his personal success, is a drifter. He’s drifted into his career, drifted into his present relationship, and is drifting through his adult years. He’s not unhappy, but not terribly happy either. He’s the friend readers will want to give a strongly worded wake-up call because they and Craig know there’s more out there for him, a life of giddy happiness.

In some circles, this book is considered a gay classic and rightly so. It’s the quintessential what-if fairytale, the daydream that makes up the ultimate satisfying romance. show less

I read for the second time Almost Like Being in Love. I first read it years ago. I fell in love with the book then, and I am still in love with the book. I think I know why I loved the book the first time I read it. Among the many depressing gay themed movies and novels, this book stood out. There was no gay-bashing, fearful life as a closet gay, desperate seek for parents' acceptance of sexual orientation etc. And no tragic death ending for the main gay characters.

This book was written in a way that there was hope for gays to fall in love, to be in love and to stay in love like any other couples. It was a breath of fresh air, to be reading a book that dealt with the romance and humor of being in love. I am still grateful to Kluger for show more doing that.

Yes, at times,the writing became a little complicated for me. At times, the sarcastic tones, although funny, were not helping me to digest the flow of the story fast enough. Still, this book was worth the time it took to complete reading.

That 'looking up' part? Got me nearly choked up. Well, I needed that. After laughing through some plots, it was a nice turn of emotion. show less