Fathers and Daughters (which in England has the lovelier title Either Side of Winter) is Rohmerian in the general sense of offering a subtle, melancholic-yet-light exploration of emotions within an intellectual/privileged milieu. But I also suspect that Markovits is consciously referencing Rohmer in this novel -- really, a quartet of interconnected stories about teachers and students at a Riverdale private school, each corresponding to a season (cf. les Contes des Quatres Saisons). In particular, the outstanding Spring and Summer sections are concerned with the filmmaker's quintessential themes of desire and restraint, and (in Spring) even feature some prolonged gazing at knees, as English teacher Mr. Englander is swept into a sweaty revery of lust and memory. In Summer, the perspective shifts to the object of his fantasies -- pretty and prim student Rachel Kranz, who has preoccupations of her own: her dying father, her emotionally extravagant mother, how to express in words the "worlds within" her. (Incidentally, a quality I appreciate in both Rohmer and Markovits is the ability to portray male desire without effacing female characters.)

Parts of Fathers and Daughters are admittedly a bit clunkier than the other Markovits books I've read. In Fall, for example, Miss Bostick, a young teacher whose fraying self assurance will be somewhat revived in a relationship with a rich alumnus, is described a few too many times (i.e., more than once/at all) as an "all American girl"/a "daddy's girl". And in Spring, Mr. Peasbody's personality is perhaps too cartoonishly awful (so much so that it seems perfectly fair when a colleague calls him a "Connecticut Nazi").

But these are just minor quibbles with a truly lovely book. Also impressive is how convincingly Markovits chronicles New York (north of 72nd St): its weather, the genteel clutter of apartments, the changes from one block to another.

Worth reading, if at all possible, on a bench in Riverside Park.