In an age of the spin-off and the follow-up, maybe it isn't too surprising that Erich Segal has decided to give us "Son of Love Story." It's also no great revelation that it is a predictable book and easy to knock. Like its predecessor, Oliver's Story is mawkishly corny but infinititely more whining. (p. 73)

The reader, ironically, discovers a strange kind of truth. Witness some dialogue:

Please (Oliver says) understand. We aren't "living together." Although it's been a summer of excitement. It's true we eat together, talk together, laugh (and disagree) together, sleep together under the same roof (i.e., my basement). But neither party has acknowledged an arrangement.

This sounds like the kind of capricious absurdity found in fables, but it isn't. There are people who think like this. Perhaps Mr. Segal has unwittingly given us a mirror for the times. The book is filled with "right-on...