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This retelling is a richly detailed and engrossing portrait of Stevenson’s characters, but Daniel Levine’s Hyde is not the first novel to re-spin Stevenson’s original. Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin told the tale from the point-of-view of Jekyll’s household maid.
To Aaron’s and the reader’s surprise, Dorothy is not out of the story just yet, but walks in and out of various scenes in Aaron’s life. Aaron is amazed at the reaction of others to her appearances (or is it just the way Aaron acts and looks when she is around). The reader can be amused and at the end encouraged at how Aaron lets his life flow on to a quite satisfactory resolution to these strange happenings.
Aaron is an editor in his family publishing house (Nandina is boss) where there is much activity on the series of beginner’s books helping the novice start a new activity. If The Beginner’s Goodbye should enter that series, it would be a hit. This book is a bit of refreshment for those of us who still see our deceased spouse walking around the corner at the end of the hall or driving her car into the parking lot as if returning from a shopping trip.