An impressionistic reflection on displacement that’s hampered by sometimes-confusing prose.
The lives of several expatriates intertwine in 1960s Toronto in Arnold’s (Interlude in Ravenna, 2010, etc.) latest novel.
Sebastian Marisch moved to Canada from East Germany shortly after World War II. Now, in the 1960s, Marisch lives in an apartment building that’s full of nostalgic conversation. The building’s owners are Yugoslavian, and another tenant is Hungarian, and they often reminisce about what they left behind. So, too, does the sultry, aloof Petra, whom Marisch feels “personifies the ideal German woman,” unlike American girls who “take a pre-charted course through life” and “turn into cheerleaders.” A love triangle forms between Marisch, Petra and Natalie, an Israeli psychology major at the University of Toronto, where Marisch is a political science graduate student. Jazz serves as the soundtrack to Marisch’s life, and it provides a backdrop to his reflections on his personal travails and the political landscape. Like the music he listens to, Marisch’s musings can be pointed and lyrical; he riffs as jazz musicians do, as he ponders art, history, American and European values, and other subjects, creating a collage of references. During his reveries, he draws comparisons between the people and situations of his life and those in avant-garde films. He describes one such film, in which “past and present alternate,” as having “more style than content,” and the same can be said of Arnold’s unstructured novel, which includes hypothetical situations created by Marisch’s laughing gas–induced fantasies. The characters are similarly hazy—Natalie, for instance, has even fewer distinct personality traits than the enigmatic Petra—and the prose can be clumsy (“He considers himself not being an outdoors man”; “When buy brandy, buy a German product”). At their best, however, Marisch’s observations can be as thought-provoking as the music he favors.
An impressionistic reflection on displacement that’s hampered by sometimes-confusing prose.Pub Date: March 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-1494245900
Page Count: 120
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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