Times-Echo Book Review, May 21, 2026

You worried a lot about Mark Dalton.

His cocaine habit was out of control and getting worse. You surely couldn’t fault his wife, Ellen; who could blame her for not wanting a baby now? But then Mark got through his troubles and was able to help his sister, Erica, when she became addicted to painkillers, whew! And if that makes sense to you, then “Love in the Afternoon, and Evening” by Charlotte Druckman and Mayukh Sen could be your new obsession.

When she was a small child, Druckman steadfastly watched daytime dramas with the woman who was her caretaker. Druckman didn’t always understand soaps then, but she didn’t want to miss them, either. Then, oops, when her parents went out on Friday nights, she got hooked on nighttime soaps, too.

Sen was likewise just a kid when he began watching soap operas.

So-called because their first sponsors were soap-making companies, soap operas began on radio before making the transition to television in the late-1940s, mostly thanks to Irna Phillips, who laid the foundation for all daytime dramas that came later.

There are, of course, many tropes that soaps have always relied upon: the wayward teenage girl with a heart of gold, the white-collar drug addict, the scheming gold digger with money on her mind, surprise pregnancies, surprise siblings, amnesia, bad dreams and divorces.

Lots and lots of divorces. Would a soap be a soap without them?

We may never know: While the genre still lives in small pockets of TV and streaming, most soaps are gone, victims of low ratings and audience appetites. Still, though the genre as a whole isn’t what it was two generations ago, the authors say that, technically speaking, all TV shows are soaps somehow.

And, yes, we kept coming back to them — perhaps because we feel some sort of devotion or a sense of community, or we crave the ongoing story-arc serial format. Or maybe it’s because of the make-believe lives the characters lead, the over-the-top-ness of them, and the escape they offer viewers.

Speaking as fans since childhood, authors Charlotte Druckman and Mayukh Sen talk directly here to anyone who misses lunch with Erica or Jessie, evening snacks with J.R. or Fallon and the “OMG, DID YOU SEE THAT??” conversation later. They offer this love letter that’s combines personal memoir, essay and interview, adding interesting nuggets of trivia and perfectly done dredging-up of long-forgotten plotlines.

That’s fun, but “Love in the Afternoon, and Evening” also strays sometimes, from shows and actors to behind-the-scenes people and stretchy fluff. And, too, the authors focus mostly on the soaps from just two TV networks, because those soaps resonated with them. That’s great for some fans, but it could make others feel kinda cheated.

Even so, this is a book that will bring back memories, and it’ll send you down a rabbit hole of characters, plots, guest-stars, heartbreak and the gleefully delicious sort of scandal you found every weekday and Friday night. Like any good soap, “Love in the Afternoon, and Evening” is addicting.

— The Bookworm Sez