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Sleep Before Evening is Magdalena Ball?s debut novel. It is a beautifully crafted piece dealing with rejection and betrayal. Those of us who have felt that someone we loved deeply betrayed us, will form an immediate bond with the main character.
Marianne is a vivacious nineteen year old, full of life and a brilliant scholar. She is at the peak of her powers when life decides it will test her character. Eric, her much loved grandfather and mentor, is suddenly struck down by a stroke. His death begins a series of events that takes Marianne into a world of darkness, filled with drugs and depression.
Hurting to the core about the loss of Eric, and the fact that she was denied the chance to say goodbye, Marianne hates the world. She also starts to hate herself and seeks solace in the arms of Miles. He is a struggling musician who for a time is the maestro who conducts her life.
Lily, Marianne?s mother, also has her own demons eating at her. She is so wrapped up in her struggle to find happiness and fulfillment, that she cannot see what is happening to her daughter. It is a flaw that many parents are guilty of, not through an act of selfishness, but one brought on by their own struggle to survive.
Confused and angry Marianne deteriorates to the stage where fantasy, reality and pain are so intermingled within her, that she loses contact with her real self. She was entering the stage of what the noted British psychiatrist Hall called, drifting back to the time before you are born. It is a stage along the path of mental recovery, where one?s mind is in an infantile state, as it retreats from the hurt it finds itself in. Then when it feels strong enough it comes forward again, out of the darkness and into the light. This usually brings with it a positive change in an individual, making them mentally stronger and enhancing their creativity.
This is a good story that makes the reader feel the highs and lows of Marianne as if they are their own. It reminds me of the style adopted by the Russian writer Dostoyevsky. He had the ability to get the reader to feel exactly what his characters felt; a gift Magdalena ball has too.
Sleep Before Evening is a well written insight into human suffering. The author shows an in-depth knowledge of how to hold readers attention, and make them eager to know more. This is a debut novel that shows the author has many more novels inside her, which will provoke strong emotions in readers of her work.
Review by Warren Thurston
Owner of Pentales
http://www.pentales.com
Here is a bit more information on the book. A few early reviews follow.
Marianne is a young woman teetering at the edge of reason. A death in the family has sent her brilliant academic career and promising future spiraling out of control. Growing resentment towards those who shaped her past sends her on a wild, desperate search for the truth about herself. Set in and about New York, this gritty, relentless story unfolds with the same cool detachment that motivates the central character to peel back the layers of her life and expose the painful scalding within. There are lonely vigils in Washington Square Park and subway journeys to oblivion. In the city she meets Miles, a hip musician busking the streets, playing low-rent venues with a rock band, auditioning for record companies. This is a new, exciting, dissolute world that challenges Marianne?s preconceptions about art and life. Here, in contrast to her prescribed upbringing, she finds anarchic squalor, home grown music and poetry, substance abuse, sex, and above all, exhilarating personal freedom. Addictions of all kinds, the redemptive power of art and music, love, loss and beauty are all explored as we follow the protagonist?s difficult journey from sleep to awakening.
?The dialogue is solid and believable, and the characters live and breathe and scratch themselves. The drug scenes and the horrors of dependence are especially well-rendered.? CHAD HAUTMANN, author of Billie?s Ghost
?There is so much beautiful writing here, soaring passages.? RUHAMA VELTFORT, author of The Promised Land
?Sleep Before Evening is music. Magdalena Ball weaves the sounds of poetry with an important story, compassionately ?sung.? CAROLYN HOWARD-JOHNSON, author of This is the Place, and Tracings
?The writing is exquisite, without ever calling attention to itself, which is a real feat. It is a pleasure to read. The pitch is perfect, and the characters are so beautifully developed and very intriguing. JOAN SCHWEIGHARDT, author of Virtual Silence, Island, Homebodies and Gudrun?s Tapestry
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Sleep Before Evening by Magdalena Ball
maggieball, July 26, 2007
Sleep Before Evening is Magdalena Ball?s debut novel. It is a beautifully crafted piece dealing with rejection and betrayal. Those of us who have felt that someone we loved deeply betrayed us, will form an immediate bond with the main character.Marianne is a vivacious nineteen year old, full of life and a brilliant scholar. She is at the peak of her powers when life decides it will test her character. Eric, her much loved grandfather and mentor, is suddenly struck down by a stroke. His death begins a series of events that takes Marianne into a world of darkness, filled with drugs and depression.
Hurting to the core about the loss of Eric, and the fact that she was denied the chance to say goodbye, Marianne hates the world. She also starts to hate herself and seeks solace in the arms of Miles. He is a struggling musician who for a time is the maestro who conducts her life.
Lily, Marianne?s mother, also has her own demons eating at her. She is so wrapped up in her struggle to find happiness and fulfillment, that she cannot see what is happening to her daughter. It is a flaw that many parents are guilty of, not through an act of selfishness, but one brought on by their own struggle to survive.
Confused and angry Marianne deteriorates to the stage where fantasy, reality and pain are so intermingled within her, that she loses contact with her real self. She was entering the stage of what the noted British psychiatrist Hall called, drifting back to the time before you are born. It is a stage along the path of mental recovery, where one?s mind is in an infantile state, as it retreats from the hurt it finds itself in. Then when it feels strong enough it comes forward again, out of the darkness and into the light. This usually brings with it a positive change in an individual, making them mentally stronger and enhancing their creativity.
This is a good story that makes the reader feel the highs and lows of Marianne as if they are their own. It reminds me of the style adopted by the Russian writer Dostoyevsky. He had the ability to get the reader to feel exactly what his characters felt; a gift Magdalena ball has too.
Sleep Before Evening is a well written insight into human suffering. The author shows an in-depth knowledge of how to hold readers attention, and make them eager to know more. This is a debut novel that shows the author has many more novels inside her, which will provoke strong emotions in readers of her work.
Review by Warren Thurston
Owner of Pentales
http://www.pentales.com
Sleep Before Evening by Magdalena Ball
maggieball, July 26, 2007
Here is a bit more information on the book. A few early reviews follow.Marianne is a young woman teetering at the edge of reason. A death in the family has sent her brilliant academic career and promising future spiraling out of control. Growing resentment towards those who shaped her past sends her on a wild, desperate search for the truth about herself. Set in and about New York, this gritty, relentless story unfolds with the same cool detachment that motivates the central character to peel back the layers of her life and expose the painful scalding within. There are lonely vigils in Washington Square Park and subway journeys to oblivion. In the city she meets Miles, a hip musician busking the streets, playing low-rent venues with a rock band, auditioning for record companies. This is a new, exciting, dissolute world that challenges Marianne?s preconceptions about art and life. Here, in contrast to her prescribed upbringing, she finds anarchic squalor, home grown music and poetry, substance abuse, sex, and above all, exhilarating personal freedom. Addictions of all kinds, the redemptive power of art and music, love, loss and beauty are all explored as we follow the protagonist?s difficult journey from sleep to awakening.
?The dialogue is solid and believable, and the characters live and breathe and scratch themselves. The drug scenes and the horrors of dependence are especially well-rendered.? CHAD HAUTMANN, author of Billie?s Ghost
?There is so much beautiful writing here, soaring passages.? RUHAMA VELTFORT, author of The Promised Land
?Sleep Before Evening is music. Magdalena Ball weaves the sounds of poetry with an important story, compassionately ?sung.? CAROLYN HOWARD-JOHNSON, author of This is the Place, and Tracings
?The writing is exquisite, without ever calling attention to itself, which is a real feat. It is a pleasure to read. The pitch is perfect, and the characters are so beautifully developed and very intriguing. JOAN SCHWEIGHARDT, author of Virtual Silence, Island, Homebodies and Gudrun?s Tapestry
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)