Scrabble players rejoice when their tiles and the arrangement of the board align for maximum scoring potential. So, too, will they rejoice at The Last Letters of Sally and Walter by Cammie McGovern (Say What You Will; Hard Landings), a triple-word score of a novel set in an independent senior living community.
Walter is the well-meaning but awkward organizer of Golden Grove's Scrabble club, which newcomer Sally decides to try one night after dinner. "She wasn't sure what she expected, but surely not this: one man seated alone at the center table in the library beside a battered maroon game box." If only to be polite, Sally agrees to play and finds Walter a formidable competitor. Her friend Connie's warning was apt: "Walter was a little intense. But he was also interesting."
When Sally startles Walter with an aptitude for the game, a true friendship blossoms. The game opens them to real conversation--about their marriages, their relationships with and fears for their adult children, and their concerns about the toll aging is taking on their bodies--but Sally resists anything more, worried her progressing Parkinson's disease makes her an undue burden. Ultimately, however, she realizes: "What they needed was connection to others. To look up in the darkness, see a band of light, and be able to say, Oh thank God. There you are." A lively exploration of love's tender persistence even in the face of physical obstacles, McGovern's novel is a win that reminds readers, "We must play while we can. For as long as possible." --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian