Newsman MacNeil follows 1992's much-lauded Burden of Desire (1992) with this smoothly told if soap-operatic tale of a long and sweaty affair between a Canadian diplomat and a Caribbean fashion model. David Lyon is Canada's Consul General in New York, a 52-year- old career diplomat who's just been asked by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to consider an appointment as Minister of External Affairs. While Lyon mulls over the offer, a phone call alerts him that a boat, registered to one Francesca D'Anielli and bearing a letter addressed to him, has been found floundering off the coast of Finland. The call triggers a flood of memories about his ten- year affair, now ten years past, with Francesca, whom he'd met on a fact-finding mission for then PM Pierre Trudeau. David was a young diplomat on the move: handling a plum posting in Washington, married to the heavy-thighed and infinitely compassionate daughter of a great diplomat, and the father of two young children. (He was also politically insightful, and his dissections of Canada's Trudeau years make for the book's most interesting sections.) Enter Francesca, not yet 20, the slim and gorgeous daughter of British expatriates. David, spouting drivel about having locked himself into domesticity too early, began sleeping with her. As his career proceeded to postings in Canada, Zambia, Finland, she became a flight attendant, flying the globe to meet him, then a fashion model. Their happiest time together was a sailing trip in Finland, where they made a drunken promise to return on Francesca's 40th birthday. And though David called it quits, she keeps their pledge and, hoping meanwhile to carry out a silly plot to shock David, sails from the coast of Finland alone. This could easily have been the Bridges of Ottawa County, but MacNeil's strong voice drives his stock characters through their long deception and shows some true insight into human longing. A lightweight but enjoyable read. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-385-46952-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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