Erich Segal - Oliver's Story

-Plot-
Years have gone by. Oliver is still single. He often meets Phil (his father-in-law) and they do different things together. Phil’s favourite topic of conversation is to convince Oliver to remarry as soon as possible. But he is the only social contact he really has (apart from his parents with whom he had reconciled). Business is going well.

Then he meets a girl called Joanna Stein, but there is no real closer relationship developing between them.

Jogging through the park he later gets to know Marcie Binnendale (rich owner of a big clothing shop chain) and there is enormous passion coming up by the time. They begin to love each other. Oliver’s feelings have come back. He feels great and never wants to lose Marcie. The couple spends very much time together (they have different excursions, trips, sports, dinners, romantic evenings…). Everything seems splendid. But then well-known differences and problems happen between them, which do not come up immediately but develop and slowly and get more important by the time: Marcie is very busy and Oliver is very busy. She has to travel all around the world to present her collections. So they often cannot see each other for a week or even more, which is not too beneficial for their love.

On top of it Oliver learns (during a common travel to Hong Kong) that the Binnendales’ purveyors (which are employed by Marcie) employ very young children (and influence them to work). The adult workers agree upon sharing the pay if they all may work. All this is called sweatshop labour. Oliver – years ago – (still at Harvard) had learned that the Barretts’ money came from sweatshop labour, too (since then he had dissociated with the Barretts’ business). Because of this he separates (very painfully: “You are a cold and heartless bitch”) from Marcie (as she finds this business practice normal: “Everyone does it.”)

In the end Oliver becomes senior partner in his father’s company as his father is going to retire. He comes to the conclusion that he would be alive if Jenny were still alive.

Download ebook in .pdf format: Eric Segal – Oliver’s Story

Download ebook in .pdf format: Eric Segal – Oliver’s Story

Erich Segal

When I was looking ’some’ good book to read in my spare time, my friend recommended Erich Segal’s Love Story, and since the day I read it, it has been my favourite book. And this is so sad to know that my favourite author has no longer among us.

Love Story author Erich Segal has died from a heart attack at home in London aged 72, his daughter has said.

Segal was a classics professor at Yale University when he wrote the book, which became an Oscar-winning 1970 film starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw.

Francesca Segal said her father, who died on Sunday, had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for many years.

New York-born Segal also wrote the screenplay for the Beatles’ animated film Yellow Submarine.

Screenplay nomination

At his funeral in London on Tuesday, Ms Segal said during the eulogy: “That he fought to breathe, fought to live, every second of the last 30 years of illness with such mind-blowing obduracy, is a testament to the core of who he was, a blind obsessionality that saw him pursue his teaching, his writing, his running and my mother, with just the same tenacity.

“He was the most dogged man any of us will ever know.”

Love Story, which had the tagline “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”, was nominated for seven Oscars – including Segal’s screenplay – and won one for best original score.

Segal, who was an honorary fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, is survived by his wife Karen James and daughters Francesca, 29, and Miranda, 20. (- via bbc.co.uk)