The Seduction of Water
Carol Goodman, 2003
Random House
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345450913
Summary
Iris Greenfeder, ABD (All But Dissertation), has just turned forty, lives in Manhattan, and works three teaching jobs to support herself. Recently she's felt that the "buts" are taking over her life: all but published, all but a professor, all but married (to Jack, her boyfriend of ten years). Yet the sudden impulse to write a story about her mother leads to a shot at literary success.
The piece recounts an eerie Irish fairy tale her mother used to tell her at bedtime—and nestled inside it is the sad story of her mother's death..." "More than fifty years ago, Iris's mother, Katherine Morrissey, arrived at the Catskills's grand Hotel Equinox penniless, with almost no belongings. Kay was hired as a maid but refused to speak of her past or her family. One year later, she married Ben Greenfeder, the hotel's manager. During the hotel's off-season, Kay wrote the first two fantasy novels of a planned trilogy.
There never was a third book. When Iris was nine, her mother left one day for a writer's conference—and never came back. Kay died that very night in a hotel fire on Coney Island, registered as another man's wife." "Now Hedda Wolfe, Kay's former literary agent, has a proposal: If Iris will return to the Hotel Equinox where she grew up, research her mother's life, and find the third and final manuscript that Hedda is convinced exists, then she can guarantee Iris a huge advance to write her mother's biography."
Transfixed by the notion of a third book, Iris believes that it will hold clues to the mysteries of Kay's life—and death. But as she begins to peer into the thicket of her mother's hidden world, stinging revelations leave Iris with new questions. When a deadly "accident" befalls the one man who could shed some light on Kay, it becomes clear that Iris is not alone in her deep interest in her mother's past—or in her search for a lost manuscript that might hold more secrets than she ever expected. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1960
• Education—B.A. Vassar College
• Currently—lives on Long Island, NY USA
Carol Goodman is the author of The Lake of Dead Languages. Her work has appeared in such journals as The Greensboro Review, Literal Latté, The Midwest Quarterly, and Other Voices. After graduation from Vassar College, where she majored in Latin, she taught Latin for several years in Austin, Texas. She then received an M.F.A. in fiction from the New School University. Goodman currently teaches writing and works as a writer-in-residence for Teachers & Writers. She lives on Long Island. (From BookReporter.com)
Book Reviews
An aspiring writer delves into the long-buried mystery of her novelist mother's death in this silky-smooth novel by the author of The Lake of Dead Languages. Water, from Iris Greenfeder's perspective, is the Hudson River. She has a view of it from her five-story walkup in New York City's westernmost Greenwich Village, and it shimmers in the distance from the Equinox, the Catskills hotel where Iris grew up. Her father, Ben, was the manager at the Equinox; her mother, Kay, a former maid, wrote two fantastical novels there. Driving the plot is the not-so-simple question: did Kay write a third novel, and is it hidden at the Equinox? Back at the hotel for the summer, Iris plans to write the story of her mother's life and search for the missing manuscript. As she attempts to solve the mystery, she is abetted and thwarted by a large cast of characters, including her mother's famous literary agent, the mega-millionaire owner of a hotel chain, the daughter of a famous suicidal poet, an all-knowing gardener and the delicious Aidan Barry, whom Iris meets while he's still in prison. The novel's first-person, present-tense narrative fosters intimacy, though it somewhat undercuts suspense. More effective is the use Goodman makes of the Irish myth of the selkie-half-seal, half-woman-as told by Iris's mother. Mystery, folklore, a thoroughly modern romance, a strong sense of place and a winning combination of erudition and accessibility make this second novel a treat.
Publisher's Weekly
The Seduction of Water is the story of Iris Greenfeder, a teacher who would rather be a writer, and the secrets her mother kept and her search for the truth about her mother's death. Iris grew up at the Hotel Equinox in the Catskills, where her father, Ben, was manager for 50 years, and her mother, Katherine, was the chambermaid. While at the hotel, Katherine wrote two fantasy novels of a planned trilogy, and it was rumored that there was a manuscript for the third. When Iris was ten, her mother went to attend a conference in a hotel in Manhattan and never returned; she was found dead the following day. As Iris attempts to solve these mysteries, she is assisted and disillusioned by many multidimensional characters who weave in and out of the story. The novel's first-person, present-tense vehicle builds intimacy that grabs the listener immediately. The program is packed with tension, lively in atmosphere, and rich in plot. Read by Christine Marshall, it is a good romantic suspense-not highly literary but captivating and pleasing. Recommended for public libraries. —Glen Cove Lib., NY
Carol Stern - Library Journal
There's enough plot for two or three Robert Ludlum potboilers in this agreeably overstuffed second from Goodman (The Lake of Dead Languages, 2002). Add to that a heroine who's both a savvy writer and teacher and the gothic-thriller type who keeps walking into situations guaranteed to compromise or endanger her. Actually, it's understandable that Iris Greenfeder heads for the moribund Hotel Equinox in the Catskills—where her late mother (pseudonymous fantasy author K.R. La Fleur) had worked—since the familiar Irish folktale, about a "seal woman" tricked into ill-fated marriage with a mortal, that Iris's mother had loved and written about seems to hold clues to why the reclusive author died in a fire at another hotel, accompanied by the man for whom she had left her husband. Sound complicated? That's only the beginning of the intrigue, which also involves Iris's adult ex-convict student (and eventual lover) Aidan Barry; powerful hotelier Harry Kron, whose reasons for resurrecting the Equinox may be even more sinister then they seem; a jewel theft many years ago, which echoes the fate of the "net of tears" woven by the aforementioned seal woman; and an elderly gardener, a secretive literary agent, a vengeful female editor, among other primary and secondary suspects. It's fun in the early going, as Goodman makes suggestive connections between the matter of classic fairy tales and her mother's story. Then the tale flattens out midway, as hitherto-concealed motives and interrelationships need clarifying. Goodman wins us back, though, with a Chinese-box climax and denouement in which Iris risks her life, learns how her mother's novels had fictionalized her own family history and unshared secrets—and also how she herself isn't the woman she thinks she is. Much too long, and tending to cliché, but a pretty good romantic suspenser nonetheless.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss your favorite fairy tale from your childhood. How did you learn the story and what did you learn from it? What does it mean to you now?
2. The fairy tale assignment galvanized Iris's students and helped them to find their own voices. Why do you think this assignment successful on so many levels?
3. Did you ever have a school assignment that affected you in such a manner? Discuss why it reached you and what it taught you.
4. Both Iris and Phoebe are haunted by the early loss of their mothers. Discuss how these characters have been shaped by and have adapted to their losses and more generally how the death of a parent or a parental figure affects us all.
5. A schism exists in Iris's life: before and after her mother's death. Do you have such a defining event in your life? Discuss the various life-changing events—births, deaths, and other rites of passage—that can result in such a before-and-after outlook.
6. Her mother's death is the defining event of Iris's life when this novel begins. Do you think it will remain the defining event by the close of the novel?
7. Iris confesses that she is "still not comfortable being the giver of grades, the passer of judgment." Can you identify with her struggle? Or do you judge her to be immature?
8. When Iris begins to investigate her mother's past, she comes to understand that her mother felt like an imposter in her new life at the Hotel Equinox. Why is this so? Discuss the many reasons why people might feel like an imposter in their own lives.
9. Iris wonders whether Danny the baker she meets in Brooklyn or his brother Vincent the painter "is really the artist in the family." What do you think? How do you define an artist?
10. The financial and personal toll exacted in securing the time and space to create art is central to this novel. Discuss the hurdles that artists face. Do you think female artists still confront more obstacles than their male counterparts?
11. Have you ever suffered from writer's block or a comparable affliction in your own life? Did you resolve it? If so, how? If not, why not?
12. Thinking about her relationship with Jack, Iris speculated, "Lover and beloved. Didn't there always have to be one of each?" Do you agree?
13. Aidan believes that "there's more sorrow in not following your heart." What do you think?
14. The seven-year age difference between Aidan and Iris troubles Iris greatly. Do you think the pairing of older women and younger men—as opposed to the reverse—still carries a social stigma? Is this changing?
15. Aidan is not a career criminal, but worries that will be his fate once he is released from jail. Discuss the plight of the ex-convict in our society.
16. Iris's mother spent much of her life observing and recording the carelessness of the wealthy and how the rich could ignore and mistreat those who served their needs. Discuss the class tensions in this novel, from the plight of Iris's mother to Harry Kron's attitude toward his staff to Aidan's fears that he is not "good enough" for Iris.
17. Iris's unfinished dissertation is an analysis of her mother's very personal fiction, an analysis hobbled by the daughter's ignorance of the mother's past. Discuss the complex blend of mythical, religious, and personal influences in K.R. LaFleur's fantasy novels.
18. Do you think learning the full truth about her mother will set Iris free to live her own life on her own terms?
19. "She wouldn't want me to spend my life telling her story, she would want me to tell my own," Iris concludes at the close of the novel. Do you think Iris will write again? If so, what do you think she will write?
20. What do you think would have happened to Kay and her family if she had told her husband the whole truth about her past? Could the tragedies that followed have been averted?
21. Which characters are your favorites and why? Did you wish to hear more (or less) from certain characters in this novel?
22. Discuss the structure of this novel. Did you find the story-within-the-story format compelling?
23. Do you agree that The Seduction of Water defies categorization in a single genre? How would you describe this novel to prospective readers?
24. Is your group interested in reading this author's first novel The Lake of Dead Languages?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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The World According to Garp
John Irving, 1976
Random House
624 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345366764
Summary
This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields—a feminist leader ahead of her times. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes—even of sexual assassinations.
It is a novel rich with "lunacy and sorrow," yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. This novel provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases." (From the publisher.)
More
The story deals with the life of T. S. Garp. His mother, Jenny Fields, a strong-willed nurse, wants a child but not a husband. She is asexual, a trait condemned by her family and disapproved of by society.
She encounters a dying ball turret gunner known only as Technical Sergeant Garp who was reduced to a perpetually priapic mental vegetable by pieces of shrapnel that pierced his head. Jenny has intercourse with the bedridden, uncomprehending, dying Technical Sergeant Garp to impregnate herself, and names the resultant son after him ("T. S." standing only for "Technical Sergeant").
Jenny raises young Garp alone, taking a position at a boys' school. Garp grows up, interested in sex, wrestling, and writing fiction—three topics in which his mother has little interest. He launches his writing career, courts and marries the wrestling coach's daughter, and fathers three children. Meanwhile, his mother suddenly becomes a feminist icon after publishing a best-selling autobiography called A Sexual Suspect.
Garp, now a devoted parent, wrestles with anxiety for the safety of his children and a desire to keep them safe from the dangers of the world. He and his family inevitably experience dark and violent events through which the characters change and grow.
Garp learns (often painfully) from the women in his life, struggling to become more tolerant in the face of intolerance. The story is decidedly rich with (in the words of the fictional Garp's biographer) "lunacy and sorrow," and the sometimes ridiculous chains of events the characters experience resonate with painful truth. (From Wikipedia.)
The 1982 film version stars Robin Williams and Glenn Close.
Author Bio
• Birth—March 2, 1942
• Where—Exeter, New Hampshire, USA
• Education—B.A., University of New Hampshire; M.F.A., Iowa Writers' Workshop
• Awards—American Book Award (Garp); Academy Award; Best Screenplay (Cider House)
• Currently—lives in Vermont
John Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.
Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim in 1978 after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978. A number of of his novels, such as The Cider House Rules (1985), A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), and A Widow for One Year (1998), have been bestsellers. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1999 for his script The Cider House Rules.
Early years and career
Irving was born John Wallace Blunt, Jr. in Exeter, New Hampshire, the son of Helen Frances (nee Winslow) and John Wallace Blunt, Sr., a writer and executive recruiter. The couple parted during pregnancy, and Irving grew as the stepson of a Phillips Exeter Academy faculty member, Colin Franklin Newell Irving (as well as the nephew of another faculty member, H. Hamilton "Hammy" Bissell). Irving attended Phillips Exeter and participated in school wrestling program, both as a student athlete and as assistant coach. Wrestling features prominently in his books, stories, and life.
Irving's biological father, a World War II pilot, was shot down over Burma in 1943, although he survived. Irving learned of his father's heroism only in 1981 and incorporated the incident into The Cider House Rules. He never met has father, however, even though on occasion Blunt attended his son's wrestling competitions.
Irving's published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears (1968) when he was only 26. The book was reasonably well reviewed but failed to gain a large readership. In the late 1960s, he studied with Kurt Vonnegut at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His second and third novels, The Water-Method Man (1972) and The 158-Pound Marriage (1974), were similarly received. In 1975, Irving accepted a position as assistant professor of English at Mount Holyoke College.
World According to Garp
Frustrated at the lack of promotion his novels were receiving from Random House, his first publisher, Irving moved to Dutton. Dutton made a strong commitment to his new novel—The World According to Garp (1978), and the book became an international bestseller and cultural phenomenon. It was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction in 1979 but won the award the following year when the paperback edition was issued.
The film version of Garp came out in 1982 with Robin Williams in the title role and Glenn Close as his mother; it garnered several Academy Award nominations, including nominations for Close and John Lithgow. Irving makes a brief cameo in the film as an official in one of Garp's high school wrestling matches.
After Garp
Garp transformed Irving from an obscure, academic literary writer to a household name, and his subsequent books were bestsellers. The next was The Hotel New Hampshire (1981), which sold well despite mixed reviews from critics. It, too, was adapted to film, starring Jodie Foster, Rob Lowe, and Beau Bridges. Irving also received the 1981 O. Henry Award for "Interior Space," a short story published in Fiction magazine in 1980.
In 1985, Irving published The Cider House Rules. An epic set in a Maine orphanage, the novel's central topic is abortion. Many drew parallels between the novel and Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist (1838). It took Irving nearly 10 years to develop the screenplay for Cider House, and the film—starring Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, and Charlize Theron—was released in 1998. It was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and earned Irving an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
In 1989, four years after publishing Cider House, Irving came out with A Prayer for Owen Meany, also set in a New England boarding school (and Toronto). The novel was influenced by Gunter Grass's 1959 The Tin Drum, and contains allusions to Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and works of Dickens. Owen Meany was Irving's best selling book since Garp and, today, remains on many high school reading lists.
That book, too, was later adapted to film: the 1998 Simon Birch. Irving insisted that the title and character names be changed because the screenplay was "markedly different" from the novel. He is on record, however, as having enjoyed the film.
Other works
In addition to his novels, he has also published nonfiction: The Imaginary Girlfriend (1995), a short memoir focusing on writing and wrestling; Trying to Save Piggy Sneed (1996), a collection of his writings, which includes a brief memoir and short stories; and My Movie Business (1999), an account of the protracted process of bringing The Cider House Rules to the big screen,
In 2004 he published a children's picture book, A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound, illustrated by Tatjana Hauptmann. It had originally been included in his 1998 novel A Widow for One Year.
Life
Since the publication of Garp, which made him independently wealthy, Irving has been able to concentrate solely on fiction writing as a vocation, sporadically accepting short-term teaching positions —including one at his alma mater, the Iowa Writers' Workshop—and serving as an assistant coach on his sons' high school wrestling teams. (Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1992 as an "Outstanding American.")
Irving's four most highly regarded novels—The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and the 1998 A Widow for One Year—have been published in Modern Library editions. In 2004, a portion of A Widow for One Year was adapted into The Door in the Floor, starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger.
On June 28, 2005, the New York Times published an article revealing that Until I Find You (2005) contains two elements about his personal life that he had never before discussed publicly: his sexual abuse at age 11 by an older woman, and the recent entrance in his life of his biological father's family.
Works
1968 - Setting Free the Bears
1972 - The Water-Method Man
1974 - The 158-Pound Marriage
1978 - The World According to Garp
1981 - The Hotel New Hampshire
1985 - The Cider House Rules
1989 - A Prayer for Owen Meany
1994 - A Son of the Circus
1995 - The Imaginary Girlfriend (non-fiction)
1996 - Trying to Save Piggy Sneed (collection)
1998 - A Widow for One Year
1999 - My Movie Business (non-fiction)
1999 - The Cider House Rules: A Screenplay
2001 - The Fourth Hand
2004 - A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound (Children's book)
2005 - Until I Find You
2009 - Last Night in Twisted River
2012 - In One Person
2015- Avenue of Mysteries
(Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/12/2015.)
Book Reviews
(Pre-internet books have few, if any, mainstream press reviews on line. See Amazon and Barnes & Noble for helpful customer reviews.)
This is not going to be easy to explain. [In] John Irving's fourth novel, The World According to Garp, a truly horrifying automobile accident occurs....At this point in the story... we have grown extremely attached to the characters involved...yet one of our reactions to this catastrophe is to burst out laughing. There we are, numb with shock and sick with concern, and suddenly we are laughing. And not feeling all that guilty about doing so either....In fact, we find ourselves laughing thoughout [the novel] at some of the damndest things.
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt - New York Times (4/13/78)
(Audio version-20th aniversary). In the world according to Garp, "we're all terminal cases." This sentence ends both Irving's comic and tragic novel and its wonderful audio adaptation, read disarmingly by Michael Prichard. We hear the familiar story of T.S. Garp; his mother, Jenny Fields; and Garp's wife, family, friends, and lovers. We also see Garp's efforts to establish himself as a serious author and his involvement in sexual politics. In contrast, Jenny's memoirs establish her as a feminist leader. This work is funny, sexual, serious, and sad...as fresh today as it was when first published in 1978. —Stephen L. Hupp, Univ. of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Lib., PA
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
1. In the preceding essay, John Irving writes about his frustration in trying to determine what The World According to Garp is about. He finally accepts his young son's conclusion: "The fear of death or the death of children—or of anyone you love." In your opinion, is this the most overt theme of the novel?
2. Feminism comes in many flavors in the novel. The most obvious, perhaps, are Jenny Field's straightforward brand of feminism, Ellen Jamesian's embittered, victimized type, and Roberta Muldoon's nurturing, female-embracing style. But are there other characters who portray less distinct, murkier shades of feminism? What is feminism in the lives of Helen Holm, Charlotte the prostitute, Mrs. Ralph, and other women in the novel? And what does feminism mean to Garp?
3. How does The World According to Garp ultimately assess the prospects of understanding between the sexes? Support your opinion with examples from the novel.
4. In the novel, we read about a variety of biographers' theories on why Garp stopped writing—and what motivated him to write again—albeit for a very short-lived time. Helen agreed that Garp's collision with his own mortality brought him back to his craft. If you were the biographer of T. S. Garp, what would your theory be?
5. Garp's vehemence against "political true believers" is a major force of the novel and he maintains that they are the sworn enemy of the artist. The Ellen Jamesians are a farcical portrayal of this notion. In your opinion, what is the relationship between art and politics—and is it possible for them to successfully coexist?
6. After the terrible accident in which Duncan is maimed, many pages pass before Walt's death is acknowledged to the reader. And then, it is given a tragic-comedic twist; Garp announces in an Alice Fletcher-like lisp that he "mish him." What was the effect of this narrative device on you? Was the sorrow intensified or assuaged?
7. The narrator's voice is ironically detached and almost flippant—even when delivering the most emotionally charged, heartbreaking moments in the novel. In what ways does the narrator contrast and play against the novel's dramatic elements? How is it similar—and different—from the voice of Garp?
8. People who have read and loved The World According to Garp consistently comment on the extraordinary ability of the novel to provoke laughter and tears simultaneously. Was this your experience as well? If so, how do you think this effect is achieved?
9. What is the significance of the meta-fiction—the stories within the story? How does Garp's "writing" voice compare to our perception of him as a character?
10. Over the last fifteen years The World According to Garp has entered the canon of literature. How do you think it is perceived now in comparison to when it was first published in the late '70s? Is the American moral center much different today than it was then? For example, despite Garp's and Helen's indiscretions, their relationship is still portrayed as loving and supportive. Do you think that today's social climate is as accepting of these kind of transgressions?
11. In his afterword, John Irving admits to having been "positively ashamed of how much lust was in the book. Indeed, every character in the story who indulges his or her lust is severely punished." How do you feel about that condemnation? Is the world an arguably more precarious place because of lust?
12. What do the peripheral characters contribute to the novel? Is there a common thread they share—Mrs. Ralph, the young hippie, Dean Bodger, Ernie Holm, "Old Tinch," the Fletchers?
13. The World According to Garp has been heralded as a literary masterpiece while at the same time enjoying phenomenal commercial success—a rare feat for a novel. What are the elements of high literary merit in the novel? Likewise, what aspects of the book land it squarely into the mainstream consciousness? In your opinion, how is this balance achieved?
14. Have you read any other John Irving novels? If so, did you find any similarities between them in style or tone?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Summary | Author | Book Reviews | Discussion Questions
Jarrettsville
Cornelia Nixon, 2009
Counterpoint
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781582435121
In Brief
Based on a true story from the author’s family history, Jarrettsville begins in 1869, just after Martha Jane Cairnes has shot and killed her fiancé, Nicholas McComas, in front of his Union cavalry militia as they were celebrating the anniversary of the Confederate surrender at Appomattox.
To find out why she murdered him, the story steps back to 1865, six days after the surrender, when President Lincoln has just been killed by John Wilkes Booth. Booth belongs to the same Rebel militia as Martha’s hot-headed brother Richard, who has gone missing along with Booth. Martha is loyal to her brother but in love with Nicholas McComas, a local hero of the Union cause, and their affair is fraught with echoes of the bloody conflict just ended.
The story is set in Northern Maryland, six miles below the Mason-Dixon line, where brothers literally fought on opposing sides, and former slave-owners live next door to abolitionists and freed men. Such tension proves key to Martha’s motives in killing the man she loves, and why — astonishingly — she is soon acquitted by a jury of her peers, despite more than fifty eyewitnesses to the crime. (From the publisher.)
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About the Author
• Birth—N/A
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.A., University of California, Irvine;
M.A., San Francisco State University; Ph.D.
University of California-Berkeley
• Awards—Michael Shaara prize; First prize O. Henry
Award; O. Henry Award; Carl Sandburg Award;
National Endowment for the Arts; Pushcart Prize (twice);
Carnegie Fellowship to the Mary Ingraham Bunting
Institute. at Radcliff
• Currently—teaches in Oakland, California
Cornelia Nixon is an American novelist, short-story writer, and teacher. She is most well known for her literary works and critical writings. She has authored three novels, a book of literary criticim, and many stories, which have appeared in periodicals and earned top prizes.
Nixon attended the University of California, Irvine where she earned her B.A.. She received an M.F.A. from San Francisco State University and the Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
She served as a teacher at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana from 1981 to 2000. Then she joined the faculty at Mills College in Oakland, California, in 2000 and continues to teach there today.
Nixon's first book was Lawrence's Leadership Politics and the Turn Against Women a critical essay that examined what Nixon felt to be the negative portrayal of women in D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love.
In 1991, Nixon authored Now You See It, a novel in stories. The book earned acclaim from several critics at prominent periodicals such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Mademoiselle.
Nixon's next literary work, Angels Go Naked, published in 2000, is a collection of interrelated short stories that together form a larger narrative. This work also received critical acclaim from periodicals such as the New York Times Book Review, Library Journal, Booklist, and the Washington Post. Jarrettsville, Nixon's most recent novel, came out in 2009. It was reviewed, in the New York Times, Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and San Francisco Magazine.
Nixon has also contributed to several periodicals such as the New England Review, Iowa Review and Ploughshares. (From Wikipedia.)
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Critics Say . . .
[Cynthai Nixon] ably conveys the dark atmosphere of Reconstruction, which, in a place like Jarrettsville, could be more brutal—and even, at times, more bloody—than the wartime period itself.... Yet Nixon fumbles repeatedly when it comes to the finer details of history that, woven together, form a credible fabric of the past. For anyone who knows a bit about American history, it’s irksome when—to pick out just a couple of examples—she talks about the supposed cotton plantations of antebellum Maryland or uses the 20th-century word “segregationist".... Such errors are all the more jarring because the book’s various chapters are written in what purport to be 19th-century voices.
Adam Goodheart - New York Times Book Review
On April 10, 1869, in Jarrettsville, Md., a young mother shoots her lover to death in the middle of the main street with 50 witnesses looking on in horror and then sits down with her victim's head in her lap, weeping uncontrollably, asking to be hanged before dark. How this remarkable scene came to pass and its equally remarkable aftermath make up Cornelia Nixon's fine and compelling new novel. Jarrettsville describes the tangled and ultimately tragic romance between Martha Jane Cairnes and Nick McComas. Their story is inextricable from the history of their small town, six miles below the Mason-Dixon line, and of the still unended agony of the Civil War.
Robert Goolrick - Washington Post
Post–Civil War tensions complicate the romance between an abolitionist's son and the spirited sister of a rebel sympathizer in Nixon's uneven latest (after Angels Go Naked). Four years after the war, in Jarrettsville, Md., Martha Cairnes kills her fiance, Nicholas McComas, and demands to be arrested and hanged. The narrative then moves backward to explain how the lovers came together: Martha falls for Nick even though he has a reputation as a scoundrel. Nick, meanwhile, thinks marriage is out of the question, especially after it's revealed that his father, killed under mysterious circumstances, has left behind a mountain of debt. Yet the two are soon engaged, and Martha's brother, who may have been involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, resents Nick's efforts to support three former Cairnes slaves, and a tangle of crossed loyalties wreak havoc on the engagement. Nixon tells the tale a la Shadow Country, with a chorus of narrators, but here the variety of voices and the disparate narrative elements—historical account, tragic romance, courtroom drama—renders unclear what kind of story the author is trying to tell, and the riveting beginning is sabotaged by the restrained conclusion.
Publishers Weekly
The tragic end of a love affair precipitates an epic court case in a small Maryland town riven by the Civil War. Martha Jane Cairnes shoots Nicholas McComas to death at a celebration of the fourth anniversary of the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. Nixon (Angels Go Naked, 2000, etc.) stitches together multiple narratives and points of view to describe the murder, then backtracks to explore the events that led Martha to kill. From the time they fall in love at the war's end, Nicholas and Martha are caught in its residual grudges. He comes from abolitionist ilk, while she boasts a proud Southern heritage. Various narrators economically relate their story in relay, seldom overlapping and rendering the community in lively, lifelike perspective. From the former slaves who act as nurses to the doctor who witnesses Nicholas' dying throes and his son's birth, the entire community is involved in the strangulation of an innocent love affair. Nicholas' sympathy for the newly freed slaves puts him afoul of Confederate thugs like Martha's brother Richard. Yet he is not immune from the racist mores of the day and is haunted by accusations, after she is seen regularly visiting a hurt freedman, that Martha has engaged in miscegenation. For many in Jarrettsville, codes of honor trump federally imposed law, and when Nicholas gets cold feet concerning the engagement, rumors of scandal run amok. His portions of the narrative painfully trace faltering will, self-doubt and moral decline. At Martha's murder trial, more than just one young woman stands accused. Thrilling and cathartic, this imaginative, well-crafted historical fiction meditates on morality and the complexity of motivation.
Kirkus Reviews
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Book Club Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Jarrettsville:
1. Why might Cornelia Nixon begin, rather than end, her novel with the shooting? What difference does it make in how you read the novel?
2. Does the author fully develop her characters? How would you describe both Martha Jane Cairnes and Nicholas McComas? Are the two well-suited to one another? What kind of character is Martha's brother Richard? Of the primary characters, which do you most admire? Least admire?
3. Was the romance between Martha and Nick doomed? Given the hostile environment and personalities and prjeudices of the those involved, was the tragedy inevitable? Could the shooting have been avoided?
4. The novel indicates that the Civil War, while officially over, had yet to end in places like Jarrettsville. Were you suprised by the level of animosity in the wake of the war?
5. Follow-up to Question 4: How did the Civil War affect the families and community of Jarrettsville. Talk about the ways in which it tore at the social fabric of the town.
6. How are African Americans treated in Jarrettsville? Are the freed slaves better off after the war than they were as slaves before the war?
7. Discuss the friendship between Martha and Tim—what is it's nature? How does that friendship get manipulated and corrupted? Should Martha have been more cautious? Should she, could she, have known the repercussions?
8. Did you detect the double-standard between men and women, especially with regards to Martha and Isie?
9. At what point did you come to understand why Martha shot Nick? Do you sympathasize with her? If so, how does an author go about building sympathy for a murderer? If you have no sympathy for Martha, why is that?
10. Nixon uses shifting perspectives in telling her story. Does her use of multiple voices as a narrative technique appeal to you? Why or why not? Was there a particular narrator you liked more than others? Any you disliked more than others?
11. How thoroughly does Cornelia Nixon establish the novel's 19th-century setting? Does she bring to life both the era and its people? If so, how does she accomplish this? If not, why not?
12. Does the ending hold up? Were you suprised...or let down by the way the novel ended?
13. Did you learn something new by reading this historical novel, perhaps something about the aftermath of the Civil War, the treatment of freed slaves, or the hostilities that continued after the war.
The Map of Time
Felix J. Palma, 2008; English trans., 2011
Atria Books
624 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781439167397
Summary
Set in Victorian London with characters real and imagined, The Map of Time boasts a triple-play of intertwined plots.
A skeptical H.G. Wells is called upon to investigate purported incidents of time travel and thereby save the lives of an aristocrat in love with a murdered prostitute from the past; of a woman bent on fleeing the strictures of Victorian society; and of his very own wife, who may have become a pawn in a 4th-dimensional plot to murder the authors of Dracula, The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds, in order to alter their identities and steal their fictional creations.
But, what happens if we change history? Felix J. Palma raises such questions in The Map of Time. Mingling fictional characters with real ones, Palma weaves a historical fantasy as imaginative as it is exciting, a story full of love and adventure that also pays homage to the roots of science fiction while transporting its readers to a fascinating Victorian London for their own taste of time travel. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Felix J. Palma has been unanimously acclaimed by critics as one of the most brilliant and original storytellers of our time. His devotion to the short story genre has earned him more than a hundred awards.
The Map of Time is his first book to be published in the United States. It received the 2008 Ateneo de Sevila XL Prize and will be published in more than 30 countries. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
The idea of sending H.G. Wells, the father of science fiction, to catch the most notorious killer of the Victorian age is so delicious it’s surprising that nobody has come up with it before — except that they have.... Spanish writer Felix J. Palma’s first novel published in the United States, The Map of Time, is such a big, genre-bending delight—and his sly execution is so different from [previous authors' plots]—that I can’t imagine anyone crying foul. And, besides, Wells and the Ripper are just one storyline in this science-fiction, historical, fantasy doorstopper. In addition to Wells, Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man), Henry James and Bram Stoker all make appearances by the end of the three-part novel. And presiding over these time-trotting shenanigans is a fourth-wall-shattering narrator with a taste for overly arch comments.
Yvonne Zipp - Washington Post
Palma uses the basic ingredients of steampunk — fantasy, mystery, ripping adventure and Victorian-era high-tech — to marvelous effect.
Seattle Times
After 611 pages, I was awestruck. All these plots, all these mysteries, all this lovely writing! By Jove, he's got it!
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Spanish author Palma makes his U.S. debut with the brilliant first in a trilogy, an intriguing thriller that explores the ramifications of time travel in three intersecting narratives. In the opening chapter, set in 1896 England, aristocratic Andrew Harrington plans to take his own life, despondent over the death years earlier of his lover, the last victim of Jack the Ripper. Meanwhile, 21-year-old Claire Haggerty plots to escape her restrictive role as a woman in Victorian society by journeying to the year 2000. A new commercial concern, Murray's Time Travel, offers such a trip for a hefty fee. Finally, Scotland Yarder Colin Garrett believes that the fatal wound on a murder victim could only have been caused by a weapon from the future. Linking all three stories is H.G. Wells, the author of The Time Machine. Palma brings Wells and other historical figures like Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, plausibly to life.
Publishers Weekly
This story starts out like a classically tragic Victorian romance. Andrew Harrington is a privileged son, basking in a life of luxury until the portrait of a Whitechapel prostitute named Marie changes his life forever. When Jack the Ripper destroys Andrew's newfound happiness, he seeks a way to save his Marie through time travel. H.G. Wells's The Time Machine has sparked the imagination of the public, and the author himself becomes involved in what turns out to be a tangle of parallel stories and times, truth and elaborate illusion. Verdict: Lyrical storytelling and a rich attention to detail make this prize-winning novel by an acclaimed Spanish author an enthralling read. It is a wonderful blend of genres (sci-fi, steampunk, mystery, romance, historical fantasy) and will appeal to fans of historical fiction as well as fantasy. —April Steenburgh, Endwell, NY
Library Journal
H.G. Wells meets Jack the Ripper, the Elephant Man and a historical dimension's worth of other figures in this imaginative novel by Spanish writer Palma. The author is an acclaimed writer in his native country, winning the esteemed Ateneo de Sevilla XLPrize for this novel, his first to be published in the United States. At the heart of the story is a question that has fascinated geeks since the beginning of time, or least since Einstein's day—namely, is it possible to travel through time and, moreover, to violate the prime directive and tinker with events of the past and perhaps even future, reshaping lives and altering the course of history? In this instance, that question haunts a melancholic Briton whose lover, a naughty person of the night, was summarily dispatched by a serial killer working under the cover of the London fog. So obsessed is he by the desire to turn back the clock that he opens himself up to the possibilities of bamboozling. Enter H.G. Wells, who is introduced into young Andrew Harrington's sorrowful tale in leisurely time as both a "celebrated author" and "painfully thin and having a deathly pallor," the result, perhaps, of too much hard thinking—particularly about such things as machines that can take a person across the firmament of time. Is Wells a crackpot? Is time travel an elaborate con? Such questions emerge continually throughout Palma's winding narrative. Now, it has to be said that Karl Alexander beat Palma to the punch with his novel Time After Time (1979), which pits—well, H.G. Wells against Jack the Ripper. Palma's book has the wider reach, however, as well as a harder scientific edge. Palma is also a master of ingenious plotting, and his tale takes in far more than a simple game of cat and mouse: Even the most careful reader won't foresee some of the twists here, and there are plenty of them. Palma wanders in and out of genres—is his book science fiction? literary fiction? fantasy? Whatever the answer, it's great fun to read, particularly for those with a bent for counterfactual history.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Map of Time:
1. Author Felix J. Palma has written about how he prepared himself to write The Map of Time:
To do it, I'd have to immerse myself in the Victorian era and think like an Englishman from the nineteenth century.... I started to educate myself on the period so I could realistically portray what a fascinating time it was to be alive in London, the largest city on earth.
Does Palma succeed in bringing Victorian London to life? As you read his work, did you feel as if you were present in that world?
2. Palma has also said he wanted to present H.G. Wells as more than "two-dimensional, a stereotype with predictable behavior." Does the author's portrayal of Wells have heft? Was Palma able to endow him with a rich inner life and a world view that make him an arresting character?
3. Consider time travel: What would happen if you met your future self? What would you do, or say? If you could alter the past, what would you change—in your own life...or, on a grander scale, in the world?
4. Which of the three interrelated stories do you most enjoy...and why?
5. Were you caught off guard—surprised—by the twists and turns of the plots? Did you experience any "you got me there" moments? What about those "Ah-ha!" moments when things started to make sense, or come together for you...any of those?
6. What about Andrew Harrington? Is he too immersed in self-pity to admire? Or is he presistent and courageous in his attempt to save Marie Kelly from Jack the Ripper? Speaking of Jack the Ripper, are the descriptions of his murders overly graphic? Or are they integral to the plot, atmosphere, and sense of place?
7. Why is Claire Haggerty unhappy with her life? What does she wish for?
8. Talk about the way in which Palma portrays the year 2000. Does the year have anything in common with the actual 2000? Is it possibly symbolic of trends in technology? Is Palma's 2000 a totally alien world to ours, or is it a vaguely (and scarily) familiar one?
9. In the end, the book offers a compendium of cosmic speculation—parallel universes, loopholes in the time continuum, alternative histories, and the Map of Time. If you are not a science-fiction devotee, do you find these discussions intriguing or engaging? Or is it necessary to be a hard-core sci-fi fan to appreciate them?
10. How does this novel suggest, metaphorically, that time travel is actually possible? How does it suggest that right now, today, any of us may slip the bonds of this world and transport ourselves through space and time?
11. What do you think of the narrator? Do you find the comments engaging, perhaps humorous ... or tiresome and irritating? Why might the author have created an intrusive narrative voice?
12. With The Map of Time Palma has created a "pastiche"—a literary techique that "pastes" together historical with fictional characters, modern pop culture references with a Victorian setting, and the multiple genres of romance, mystery, sci-fi, and fantasy. A pastiche borrows from older works in order to build a fresh narrative. Does Palma succeed in creating something new and innovative? Or is his borrowing devoid of originality?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks)
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The Mists of Avalon
Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1982
Random House
912 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345350497
Summary
Here is the magical legend of King Arthur, vividly retold through the eyes and lives of the women who wielded power from behind the throne. A spellbinding novel, an extraordinary literary achievement, The Mists of Avalon will stay with you for a long time to come. (From the publisher.)
The book was adapted into a 2001 film for TV, starring Angelica Houston and Julianna Margulies, Joan Allen, and Sam Neill.
Author Bio
• Birth—June 30, 1930
• Where—Albany, New York, USA
• Death—September 25, 1999
• Where—Berkeley, CA
• Education—B.A., Hardin-Simmons College; University of
California, Berkeley
• Awards—Locus Award for best fantasy novel, 1984
A prolific storyteller from the time she was old enough to talk, Marion Zimmer Bradley had an enormous impact on the science fiction and fantasy genres, imagining centuries of technological and culture clashes in the colonization of a distant planet in her Darkover series and recasting the Arthurian legends from the perspective of the women in his life in her 1983 masterpiece, The Mists of Avalon. (From the publisher.)
More
Marion Zimmer Bradley was writing before she could write. As a young girl, before she learned to take pen in hand, she was dictating stories to her mother. She started her own magazine —devoted to science fiction and fantasy, of course—as a teenager, and she wrote her first novel when she was in high school.
Given this history of productivity, it is perhaps no surprise that Bradley was working right up until her death in 1999. Though declining health interfered with her output, she was working on manuscripts and editing magazines, including another sci-fi/fantasy publication of her own making.
Her longest-running contribution to the genre was her "Darkover" series, which began in 1958 with the publication of The Planet Savers. The series, which is not chronological, covers several centuries and is set on a distant planet that has been colonized by humans, who have interbred with a native species on the planet. Critics lauded her efforts to address culture clashes — including references to gays and lesbians — in the series.
"It is not just an exercise in planet-building," wrote Susan Shwartz in the St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers. "A Darkover book is commonly understood to deal with issues of cultural clash, between Darkover and its parent Terran culture, between warring groups on Darkover, or in familial terms."
Diana Pharoah Francis, writing in Contemporary Popular Writers, noted the series' attention on its female characters, and the consequences of the painful choices they must make: "Struggles are not decided easily, but through pain and suffering. Her point seems to be that what is important costs, and the price is to be paid out of the soul rather than out of the pocketbook. Her characters are never black and white but are all shades of gray, making them more compelling and humanized."
Bradley's most notable single work would have to be The Mists of Avalon. Released in 1983, its 800-plus pages address the King Arthur story from the point of view of the women in his life — including his wife, his mother and his half sister. Again, Bradley received attention and critics for her female focus, though many insist that she cannot be categorized strictly as a "feminist" writer, because her real focus is always character rather than politics.
"In drawing on all of the female experiences that make of the tapestry of the legend, Bradley is able to delve into the complexity of their intertwined lives against the tapestry of the undeclared war being waged between the Christians and the Druids," Francis wrote in her Contemporary Popular Writers essay. "Typical of Bradley is her focus on this battle, which is also a battle between masculine (Christian) and feminine (Druid) values."
And Maureen Quilligan, in her New York Times review in 1983, said: "What she has done here is reinvent the underlying mythology of the Arthurian legends. It is an impressive achievement. Greek, Egyptian, Roman, Celtic and Orphic stories are all swirled into a massive narrative that is rich in events placed in landscapes no less real for often being magical."
Avalon flummoxed Hollywood for nearly 20 years before finally making it to cable television as a TNT movie in 2001, starring Joan Allen, Anjelica Huston, and Julianna Margulies.
Two years before she died, Bradley's photograph was included in The Faces of Science Fiction, a collection of prominent science fiction writers, such names as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. Under it, she gave her own take on the importance of the genre:
"Science fiction encourages us to explore... all the futures, good and bad, that the human mind can envision.
Extras
• Aside from her science fiction and fantasy writing, Bradley also contributed to the gay and lesbian genre, publishing lesbian fiction under pseudonyms, bibliographies of gay and lesbian literature, and a gay mainstream novel.
• Bradley rewrote some editions of her Darkover series to accommodate real advances in technology.
• Her first stories were published in pulp science fiction magazines in the 1950s. (Author bio and interview from Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
A monumental reimagining of the Arthurian legends.... Reading it is a deeply moving and at times uncanny experience.... An impressive achievement.
New York Times Book Review
Marion Zimmer Bradley has brilliantly and innovatively turned the myth inside out...add[ing] a whole new dimension to our mythic history.
San Francisco Chronicle
Gripping.... Superbly realized.... A worthy addition to almost a thousand years of Arthurian tradition.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
The Mists of Avalon is a beautiful book. The characters are alive, multi-dimensional; I really care about them.
Madeleine L'Engle
A most original interpretation of the matter of Britian by way of Celtic religion and the Great Mother...a remarkable feat of imagination.
Mary Renault
I loved the book so much I went out and bought it for a friend, and have told many people about it. Why did no one ever think before to tell the story of King Arthur from the perspective of the women!
Jean Auel
Masterfully plotted and beautifully written. The Mists of Avalon sheds new light on old characters—especially Morgan of the Faeries, Merlin, Lancelot, and Guinevere. An epic novel of violence, lust, painful loyalties, and haunting enchantments.
Publishers Weekly
There is no such thing as a true tale. Truth has many faces and the truth is like to the old road to Avalon; it depends on your own will and your own thoughts, whither the road will take you." The Mists of Avalon is a story of another time and place. It's the legendary saga of King Arthur and his companions at Camelot, their battles, love, and devotion, told this time from the perspective of the women involved. Viviane is "The Lady of the Lake," the magical priestess of the Isle of Avalon, a special mist-shrouded place which becomes more difficult to reach as people turn away from its nature- and Goddess-oriented religion. Viviane's quest is to find a king who will be loyal to Avalon as well as to Christianity. This king will be Arthur. Gwenhwyfar, Arthur's Queen, is an overly pious, fearful woman who successfully sways her husband into betraying his allegiance to Avalon. Set against her is Morgaine of the Fairies, Arthur's sister, love, and enemy - and the most powerfully believable person in the book - who manipulates the characters like threads in a tapestry to achieve her tragic and heroic goals. The Mists of Avalon becomes a legend seen through new eyes, with details, majestic language, and haunting foreshadowing that hold the reader through its more than 800 pages
Gloria Bauermeister - 500 Great Books by Women
Discussion Questions
1. The Mists of Avalon revolves around a number of dualities: male/ female, Christianity/druidism, duty/desire. How are these dualities represented in the book? Can you think of others that were presented?
2. How does the book strive to challenge common stereotypes? How does it reinforce them?
3. Is Gwenhwyfar a sympathetic character? In your opinion, does Marion Zimmer Bradley treat physical beauty in a positive, negative, or neutral manner? Explain.
4. How responsible is Arthur for allowing the spread of Christianity and ultimate disappearance of Avalon? Was he simply being an honorable husband to Gwenhwyfar? Did you find the Arthur, Lancelet, Gwenhwyfar tryst disturbing? Although Arthur was an indisputably potent leader, can he, in the end, be deemed an effective one?
5. It seemed in several instances that Morgaine disappeared when she was most needed. Was she ultimately successful in representing the Goddess? Would you say that she was a victim to her fate or that she ultimately rose to meet it? What parallels can you draw between Morgaine’s life and Igraine’s? Between Morgaine and Viviane?
6. The Merlin seems to play an ambiguous role in the story. Do you agree with this statement? In your opinion, was he motivated more by his faith, or by pride and ambition?
7. Throughout history, did the spread of Christianity really lead to a diminishing of tolerance? Does the Goddess have a place in today’s world? Do you think that Christianity ever held woman as the principal of evil?
8. What symbolism, if any, would you apply to the dragon slain by Lancelet? What is the symbolism behind Excalibur? The Grail? The Holy Thorn?
9. At the end of Mists, did you feel that the Goddess had truly been absorbed into Christianity?
10. How has Mists changed your perception or understanding of the Arthurian legend? How has it changed your perception of women’s roles in the making (and telling) of history?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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