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A Dual Inheritance: A Novel
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A Dual Inheritance: A Novel
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A Dual Inheritance: A Novel
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A Dual Inheritance: A Novel

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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For readers of Rules of Civility and The Marriage Plot, Joanna Hershon's A Dual Inheritance is an engrossing novel of passion, friendship, betrayal, and class-and their reverberations across generations.
 
Autumn 1962: Ed Cantowitz and Hugh Shipley meet in their final year at Harvard. Ed is far removed from Hugh's privileged upbringing as a Boston Brahmin, yet his drive and ambition outpace Hugh's ambivalence about his own life. These two young men form an unlikely friendship, bolstered by a fierce shared desire to transcend their circumstances. But in just a few short years, not only do their paths diverge-one rising on Wall Street, the other becoming a kind of global humanitarian-but their friendship ends abruptly, with only one of them understanding why.
 
Can a friendship define your view of the world? Spanning from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the present-day stock market collapse, with locations as diverse as Dar es Salaam, Boston, Shenzhen, and Fishers Island, A Dual Inheritance asks this question, as it follows not only these two men, but the complicated women in their vastly different lives. And as Ed and Hugh grow farther and farther apart, they remain uniquely-even surprisingly-connected.
 
Praise for A Dual Inheritance
 
"A big, captivating sweep of a romance . . . a searching exploration of class and destiny in late-twentieth-century America."-Jennifer Egan

"The best book about male friendship written this young century."-Details
 
"[A] warm, smart, enjoyably complex novel . . . Both Hugh and Ed are lonely searchers . . . and [Hershon's] skill in rendering each of them as flawed individuals is what makes the novel so readable and so rich. . . . A Dual Inheritance is an old-fashioned social novel that feels fresh because of its deft, clear-eyed approach to still-unspoken rules about ethnicity, money and identity."-San Francisco Chronicle
 
"An absorbing, fully-realized novel . . . [Hershon] renders the book's many locales with a nuanced appreciation for the way environment emerges out of the confluence of physical detail and social experience. . . . A Dual Inheritance never lets its readers forget they are reading a well-crafted novel, and as a well-crafted novel, it fully satisfies."-The Boston Globe

"This marvelous novel is a mix of heartache and history. . . . Think of Anne Tyler and Tom Wolfe, both."-Victor LaValle, author of The Devil in Silver

"[An] engrossing saga."-Vogue
 
"Hershon artfully guides us through the lives of Ed and Hugh, college buddies who meet at Harvard in the '60s, shifting between their perspectives through adulthood to detail their lingering impact on one another's lives in such a way that it'll make you take a second look at all of your relationships."-GQ
 
"Let this story of two Harvard men's unexpected friendship and its sudden end transport you through time (beginning on Harvard's campus in 1962) and place."-The Huffington Post
 
"A richly composed . . . portrait of familial gravity and the wobbly orbits that bring us together again and again."-Kirkus Reviews
 
"This thought-provoking generational tale is a heartfelt and beautiful story of an unlikely friendship that fades at times, but never seems to go away.”—Long Island Press

From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 7, 2013
ISBN9780385360562
Unavailable
A Dual Inheritance: A Novel

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Reviews for A Dual Inheritance

Rating: 3.3070177192982455 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

57 ratings31 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the process of moving, this early review book I received got lost but has since resurfaced. The author does an exceptional job of representing the social and other markers of the 1960's >forward, and also describing the disparities, based on their family/social backgrounds, these friends face from their first encounter at Harvard, and through the subsequent years as they journey through their lives. It was a very enjoyably, engrossing read. The author has a sometimes long-winded, but still most engaging writing style.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In 1962, two young Harvard students become friends. Hugh Shipley is from an old, prestigious family and has the effortless grace that money brings. Ed Cantowitz is the son of a Jewish laborer striving to make a successful life from himself. They become close friends. Joanna Hershon's novel follows the two men through their lives, in a sweeping story that takes them through their marriages, careers and children's lives.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Joanna Hershon is a very good writer, but I have to admit I struggled through this novel. I never really felt anything for the characters like I think I was supposed too. It's about two guys, Ed Cantowitz and Hugh Shipley, who meet and become friends in school in the 60s, both fall for Helen. After their friendship ends we follow them over the next 40 something years, predictably their daughters become friends. Nothing in the novel ever gripped me, I never connected with anything. Still I will say that the prose is good and story could of got melodramatic but it never does.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I received this as an Early Review title nearly a year ago and I'm so sorry I didn't read it sooner! Fortunately, the novel was just released in paperback so, hopefully, a couple more reviews will encourage more sales because this book deserves more attention than it seems to have received. A Dual Inheritance is a truly excellent, extraordinarily well written and wise novel about two young men from very different backgrounds and social sets who meet at Harvard in the early 1960s, become fast friends, then fall away from each other. The novel covers a period of 50 years and describes the lives, loves, marriages and essential beliefs of this disparate pair. I said it above and I'll say it again -- this is extremely well written. I was often reading in open mouthed admiration of the elegance of a sentence and the wisdom contained in just a few words. Another reviewer here said it best: "Hershon writes in long and complicated sentences that nevertheless remain witty, readable, and perfectly controlled, ..." Highly recommended!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a really wonderful and thought-provoking read. It presents a beautiful portrait of an unlikely friendship, and how that friendship grows, dulls, and rekindles. I began to think of the important relationships in my life; a book that allows you to reflect like that is certainly something special.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A story that spans several decades of a friendship between two Harvard students, the long falling-out between them, the friendship between their daughters, and the eventual reunion of the two men when they are nearing seventy. During all of that time, one does international relief work, the other amasses and loses a fortune, their respective marriages flourish and fall apart, and their daughters become best friends. The themes of family, loyalty, betrayal, importance of money, secrets, honesty, and mostly friendship, plus characters whom we care about, make this an entertaining and worthy read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Joanna Hershon's A Dual Inheritance is an ambitious, wide-spanning novel that follows the lives of two friends, Ed and Hugh, that meet in college. I found this book to be engrossing from the start. The characters, despite their many flaws, were likable and interesting, if unlike any real person I've known. Though long, I liked that the book traced Ed and Hugh's lives to a point where the consequences of their decisions became apparent. The writing was solid, too, and the plot steered clear of any cheap thrills. All-in-all, an enjoyable read, four stars.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This was an Early Reviewers book that got lost under a stack of newspapers. I started it a long time ago and really enjoyed the beginning of the book. It began as the story of a friendship between two very opposite men, Ed Cantowitz and Hugh Sibley, and of course the woman that they both love, Helen Ordway. I enjoyed the early relationship between Ed and Hugh and was optimistic about the book. When the two men graduated from Harvard - Hugh off to Africa to save the world - Ed to a Wall Street investment career - their paths crossed again but never in a particularly diverting way and the book deteriorated for me. I don't know that much about writing and the process of having a book edited, but I believe this book needed some major changes. It rambled too much and lost momentum. I think with editing it might be a fabulous book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was an ambitious and engaging but ultimately forgettable book about unlikely college friends whose daughters become even more unlikely prep-school friends. Things happen to all of them, and sometimes these things seem shocking, but not one of the things seems particularly significant in a narrative sense - the characters are like well-rendered pinballs, clanging off obstacles of various shapes and sizes and producing deafening but meaningless noises as they do. This is not to say it's unlovely. Hershon's writing is lovely, and she's able to render emotions particularly evocatively, but something just feels missing, here, and I think it's that instead of changing her characters she just changes the world around them. When the novel spans something like thirty years, that's not terribly hard to do. I enjoyed the book, though, and I wouldn't dis-recommend it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    'A Dual Inheritance' refers to the notion that human behavior is a product of genetic evolution and cultural evolution, and that proves to be an apt title for this book. Over the course of 5 decades and at least two continents, this book follows the story of two unlikely Harvard classmates and friends, Hugh Shipley and Ed Cantowitz, their loves and their children. They have very different backgrounds, and their lives are in very real ways lived as a reaction to those backgrounds, Ed running toward material success and social prominence; Hugh, born to money and privilege, running away from them to save the world and maybe himself.Gershon kept me reading all through this multigenerational tale of love, obsession and social class set in New York, Africa and Haiti, as well as in the rarefied old money locations inhabited by Hugh and Helen.I would recommend this book especially to those who loved Rules of Civility.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This book sounded so much better than it turned out to be. I didn't like the huge gap in the men's friendship - based on the description, I thought that their friendship would span the length of the book. They actually don't end up being friends for very long. It just moved so slowly - I just wanted something, anything to happen - and then when finally something exciting happened, the author seemed to shy away from it - no description of Helen and Ed's time together, just his recollections of it and again when there might be something more between Ed's daughter and Hugh, nothing really happens. It reminded me somewhat of the Interestings, but that one was much better.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I received this book through LTER. After scanning the other reviews here I'd have to say I liked this book more than most of the other readers. The book held my interest for the duration, I didn't think it was long or boring, and I enjoyed both the writing and the story line. Most of us probably have had at least one friendship like Ed and Hugh's. One where we seem to have almost nothing in common with someone we become close to. And also one where at some point the friendship becomes severed for a lengthy period for no clear reason. Was it beyond coincidental that the daughters meet and become best friends? Sure, but who cares. I wanted to know where these people would end up. I liked that it didn't get tied up in a neat ending. Life is like that. Harvard, NYC, Africa, Haiti, China, Fishers Island. Sociology-economic struggles, humanitarianism, greed, coming of age, romance. I thought the book offered a lot and I recommend it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "A Duel Inheritance" is a very well-written and thoughtful novel that follows two Harvard classmates through their next forty years. One is from a privileged, old-money Boston family, the other from a working-class Jewish environment. Social and economic differences are weaved into the narrative but in an enjoyable easy to read manner. I really enjoyed this novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I received "A Dual Inheritance" by Joanna Hershon as part of the early reader's program. I enjoyed Hershon's writing style but I wanted to become more engaged with the characters. They each had their moments when I thought I had been grabbed into their story, but with a twist I would retreat to plodding though the book. The idea of the book covering the unlikely friendship of Ed and Hugh at a time when class differences, which remain today but are more comfortably reframed, is a noble one, but I found myself finding the plot with its abundant characters, tedious. As a reader of "The Marriage Plot" as a work that I loved, I had assumed that I would have embraced this book more easily.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book spans nearly five decades, traverses several countries and follows two generations. The first two-thirds follow Hugh, Ed and Helen-- their years through college, and the years following graduation as they learn to navigate adulthood and marriage and family. The last third mostly follows their daughters' as they begin their own lives.Two young men meet while attending Harvard. Hugh Shipley comes from money, which really means nothing to him, and he's driven by a need to change the world somehow-- to make a difference. Ed Cantowitz was raised Jewish by a father who was an ex-boxer and a tough character. Ed covets what he doesn't have, and he desires money. On the surface, these two men couldn't seem more different. And yet they develop a relationship as close as brothers.I think this is probably one of my favorite books ever! The characters were so richly drawn, you truly felt you knew them, understanding their motives and the baggage they carry through life. The story was realistic, and I don't think there was a single moment when I had to suspend disbelief, thinking "Yeah, right."This story starts in 1962, and runs through 2010. It was fascinating to watch their lives progress over the years, to see how they changed, and yet how they remained the same. To see them through the eyes of their daughters. To view their parallel and yet opposing lives. Wonderful writing, straight-forward content, rich characters. A simply brilliant novel!My final word: This book was a full, rich story. Unadorned and engrossing, it gives a realistic portrayal of the lives of two men. I was constantly amazed at the details thrown in for the character development. Little twists and turns. Even things left out that leave you filling the blanks with little bits that you imagine happened-- things alluded to but never clarified. (There's a nice twist that my mind has decided to fill in, even though it was never even really alluded to.) What can I say? I just loved this book!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A Dual Inheritance is a well-written novel, with interesting themes and observations. It was, however, a bit difficult for me to get into, as from the very beginning, and perhaps this is intentional, the two main characters are more like caricatures, or stereotypes, and I found myself cringing a bit. The author moves quickly into back story, presumably to give some nuance to the characters, but I found this to be more annoying than helpful. I also found the comparison (by the publisher) of the book to Towles' brilliant Rules of Civility was way off base. It seems the only thing this book has in common with that one is wealthy characters. Rules of Civility was much more Gatsbian, but also a bit lighter in a way, than Hershon's book, and, for me, far more enjoyable and lively.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was an interesting book about two young men, Hugh and Ed whose stories take us across their lives and their children. Hugh and Ed meet in college and are very different. Hugh comes from a privileged background and is suave and polished. Ed must fight and earn everything. They form a fast friendship and become close friends until one of them can no longer be friends without disclosing why. Each make right and wrong choices over the course of their lives that shape who they are and who their children become. The characters are engaging and you find yourself drawn into the story both cheering on and hating the characters respectively. A great generational story and engaging story. Would make for an excellent book club selection. Reader received a complimentary copy from the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Review based on ARC.Like many other readers of this book, I really did want to love it. I have recently been through Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and Rules of Civility, both of which I thought were really quite great. And coming away from those and into another book introduced in the same vein -- the glamorization of historical wealth and/or the striving of characters to reach it and the pitfalls along the way -- this one just fell short.The characters are interesting *enough,* the plot is interesting *enough,* and the writing is certainly good *enough,* it just didn't wrap me up into the stories the way other recently read books did.So, about this one... The main characters are poor jewish ambitious materially minded Ed Cantowitz and rich disillusioned laid back save-the-world Hugh Shipley. And of course they become best friends. And of course they fall for the same girl. And of course their lives are intertwined, even in ways that are not expected. And none of that was particularly ground-breaking, nor did I need it to be. But the story of it all.... well, I need more than just interesting facts and interesting characters. The story needs to come alive. And for me, with this one, it had a difficult time of it. There were moments, certainly, but in the end I didn't really feel for the characters.The first portion of the book covers Ed and Hugh's first few years as friends at Harvard in the 60s, and it is interesting enough. The 60s and 70s are such an interesting timeframe. But Ed and Hugh's differences seem to be at the forefront of Hershon's focus, rather than their friendship and the interesting conversations they could have had, the interesting perspectives they could have gained from one another, or the interesting experiences they could have gained from their friendship. As someone who has had friends just about as polar opposite from myself as you can get--I know that the relationships have the potential to have depth and interest.And yes, I know that the times, they were a-different back then, but some things are true about friendships: the differences fade away. And yes, they resurface from time to time, sometimes in very painful ways, but I felt like Hershon just couldn't get *past* the differences. I get it, Ed was poor and unprivileged, and Hugh was rich and privileged. I get it, Hugh was attractive and soft-spoken and Ed was short, stocky, and aggressive. But they both had a hopeful outlook on life and they both had a love of the "new" and I felt like not enough was done to play up these similarities.Overall, it was a fine book, and I really enjoyed the story after it changed perspectives to Ed and Hugh's daughters, years later, best friends in boarding school. Although the transition felt disjointed and awkward, the relationships and their evolution were interesting to me. In the end, I felt that the book made a great effort, but that the payoff was not as rewarding as I had hoped. It was a little depressing, a little agressive, and dragged a little at times. Having it compared to Rules of Civility does Dual Inheritance a disservice. They have different energies, different focuses, and different purposes. But I would recommend the book -- to people who want to read something more dense, who are interested in the more depressing sides of lives, and who have the time and energy to devote to a book that covers 5 decades and many characters' lives in about 500 pages.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I received this book through the LTER program, and let's just say it was a bit of a struggle to get through. Personally, I had a difficult time developing any interest in the characters or plot. This book never grabbed me and was a dull slog to read.To be fair, I received and tried to read this book while I was extremely busy with other things. The fact that it didn't interest me at all from the get-go, and the fact that it is LONG, led me to resent reading it at all. I will revisit it in a few months when life slows down and I have more time to devote to reading. Maybe my opinion will change upon a reread.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I received this advance reader copy and as I began reading, the book literally starting falling apart. Despite my best effort to not let loose pages influence my opinion, I wasn't personally captivated by this story. I did think that Joanna Hershon has created interesting characters in Ed Cantowitz and Hugh Shipley, unlikely friends with many differences in background and temperament. And the scope of the novel is admirable as well as the quality of the writing. For readers who enjoy stories about family, class, personal motivation, and global settings, this should be a satisfying novel.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I've been reading this book off and on since I received it from the early reviewers giveaway a month or so ago... and it's been a long, strange trip. The novel covers roughly five decades of the lives of two Harvard friends, Ed Cantowitz and Hugh Shipley, and it seemed like it took me that long to read it. The book is split into several different eras in the life of these men, each separated by 5-10 years. So every time I really started to build a connection with what was happening and become engaged with the plot.... the book would drop everything and toss me years into the future. At which point I would usually drop everything and toss the book back onto my nightstand. The characters of Ed and Hugh are interesting, but their lives and choices are just not up to the herculean task of carrying off this jolting storyline. And then in the 2nd half of the book, both of their daughters are introduced as characters, and now the reader is expected to juggle twice as many characters, two of whom know next to nothing about the first half of the book. In the end, no great epiphanies appeared to neatly wrap up this novel. In that respect it really did feel like I'd spent the last several weeks hearing the oddly disjointed story of some people's lives. And, while they were all well-rounded and interesting people, they were not the sort of people whose lives I would normally want to spend that long hearing about. The book was good, but not great. Ultimately, kinda forgettable.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In A DUAL INHERITANCE: A NOVEL by Joanna Hershon the reader meets the main characters, Ed Cantowitz and Hugh Shipley, when they're at Harvard, and the novel follows their lives for almost fifty years. The title of the book comes from the dual inheritance theory which is helpfully defined before the opening chapter: "Dual inheritance theory (DIT), also known as gene-culture coevolution, was developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s to explain how human behavior is a product of two different and interacting evolutionary processes: genetic evolution and cultural evolution." Based on the title and the placement of the description, one expects that the book will be an examination of nature vs. nurture, class structure, and perhaps the benefits of a good education, ambition, and intelligence. In the case of this novel, all of that should take place through the lens of the unlikely friendship between Hugh, a Kennedy-esque slacker who hates his family background and all that comes with it, and Ed, a Jewish guy who is at school on a scholarship and very aware that he's an atypical Harvard student. I really wanted to like this book, and I had high hopes for it after the first fifty or so pages. Hershon's writing is basically good, and although she has the tendency to be exhaustively descriptive, I was willing to overlook that at first. However, as the story went on, the long sentences became plodding, and the good writing and oft-excellent insights were buried in tedious paragraphs that made me think of the one book by Jonathan Franzen I had the misfortune to read.My hope was that the characters would save the day for the novel. From the opening paragraph, I wanted to like Hugh and Ed. They were both underdogs in their own ways, and I love an underdog. By the end of the book, if I could be bothered to care about them at all, it was only to dislike them. The female characters annoyed me as well, and the choices made by Ed, Hugh, and the women in their lives were oftentimes so ridiculous I could only assume that the author hoped to give those characters depth and make them more interesting with those choices. However, any attempts to flesh out the characters were lost on me, and by the end of the book they were two dimensional at best or nebulous at worst.Two and half stars may seem a bit much for a book that I obviously didn't like; however, I wanted to like it, and I stuck with it until the end, so there's something to be said for that.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This was my first book received from the "Early Reviewers" lottery - so imagine how excited I was to get reading! The shine soon wore off as I struggled to get through this book. Two men, Ed and Hugh, each from opposite backgrounds save for the common loss of their mothers (Ed poor, Hugh rich), become "friends" while at Harvard. There is no reason that these two are friends and I questioned whether or not in real life, they would be if the circumstances mirrored. Then, they are not friends.....and then become re-acquainted through their respective daughters meeting up at school. Quite frankly, I found the story utterly boring and I struggled to get through most of it. Why is this 450+ pages? As a reader, I want to be gripped by a story from the get-go....I want to feel like I cannot put the book down. Granted, not all I have read, have this effect, but I want to feel like I'm not wasting precious time when I could be reading something really great. I would have stopped reading this book had it not been for the Early Reviewers group. Sorry - but for me it is a "pass, move onto the next book".
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The novel begins at Harvard in 1962. Ed Cantowitz, a Jewish student from the rough part of town, and Hugh Shipley, a young man born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth meet and become unlikely friends. Ed, motivated to overcome his rough upbringing, is studying business with the intent of becoming wealthy. Hugh, seemingly uncomfortable with his family-gained position and privilege, aspires to create documentaries and plans to travel to Africa after graduation.The novel follows Ed, Hugh and their families through the decades up until 2010.The strength in this novel is the connection between these two disparate characters, what draws them together, what sets them apart, and how they see the world differently. The focus later on in the novel on their grown daughters, while attempting to keep the connection going, is a distraction and takes away from the narrative.A truly good book that should have been great. It's still a worthy read. Recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a delicious and very smart novel. Hershon writes in long and complicated sentences that nevertheless remain witty, readable, and perfectly controlled, like a modern and more lighthearted Henry James. She offers up an anthropological study (miming the anthropology practiced by one of the main characters) of two friends from very different cultural and economic classes. I love this book!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I was very excited to receive this book as my first from the early reviewers selections. The first few pages introduced us to two seniors from Harvard University who form an unlikely friendship. They have absolutely nothing in common. The story continues as the two part ways after school, but are reunited several years later. The story seemed promising at first, but then just dragged on and on. I really tried hard to finish, but just could not push myself any further. Too many books, so little time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A Dual InheritanceByJoanna HershonMy"in a nutshell" summary...Ed and Hugh...college friends...until they aren't.My thoughts after reading this book...We have Ed and Hugh...both attending Harvard. Ed...Jewish...poor...Hugh...not Jewish and wealthy. They are supposed to be friends but it doesn't seem as though they are...they are amazingly different. Ed seems worried about appearances...and has issues with his father while Hugh sort of wants to save the world. The book follows the lives of these two odd best friends from the moment they became friends to the moment they stopped being friends. Ed's quest is acquiring wealth while Hugh's quest is saving others. Their lives don't really intersect until their daughters eventually meet years later...after much has happened to both of them...prison , divorce, and personal tragedy.What I Sort Of Loved About This Book...I enjoyed the story of Ed and Hugh. Ed...not a product of wealth seeing country clubs and Fisher Island and old money for the first time. Hugh...always rather lost and unconventional...never doing what he was expected to do.What I Did Not Love...Oh my...at times this book just dragged on...at other times I loved every word! It wasn't exciting enough for me. That's what I think now that I have finished it.Final thoughts...I found this book to be an interesting story of the intertwined lives of two men...who met in college and reconnected in an unusual way later on in life.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This novel, which follows the story of two men who were good friends in college but took very different paths in their adult lives, is well-written but a bit slow at the beginning. I became more engaged with the story and the characters as they developed as adults, but the lack of connection with them at the beginning left me feeling a bit frustrated, even impatient, as I moved through the story. It wasn't until the main characters' daughters appeared as adults that I felt I connected with any characters in this story. Hershon is a talented writer, and I can't say that I disliked the book, but I never felt fully engaged with the story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Two men: one ambitious and the other a humanitarian. Their lives intertwine over 50 years and by their love of the same woman. This story is about ambition, class differences, love, and generational connections. Frankly, I couldn't put the book down due to the well drawn characters.. The only complaint was the predictability of the plot. I always knew what was coming up next. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable and compelling read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I received this book from TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon is a book that is definitely for you if you enjoyed books like Tigers in Red Weather and/or Rules of Civility. The book spans from 1962-2010, and has a lot of that old American wealth, but with some twists.Here’s a brief synopsis: Autumn 1962: Ed Cantowitz and Hugh Shipley meet in their final year at Harvard. Ed is far removed from Hugh’s privileged upbringing as a Boston Brahmin, yet his drive and ambition outpace Hugh’s ambivalence about his own life. These two young men form an unlikely friendship, bolstered by a fierce shared desire to transcend their circumstances. But in just a few short years, not only do their paths diverge—one rising on Wall Street, the other becoming a kind of global humanitarian—but their friendship ends abruptly, with only one of them understanding why. A Dual Inheritance is a book that spoke to me. Ed is Jewish, from a poor background, and feels like all of his problems will be solved if only he had more money. Hugh, on the other hand, is from a very well-known family and only wants to shed his financial obligations to help make the world a better place.But will they really find what makes them happy?There’s also another side story dealing with a female friendship, but I can’t say anything for fear of giving something away.A Dual Inheritance is an easy read and one that kept me interested throughout the whole book.Thanks for reading,Rebecca @ Love at First Book