Synopses & Reviews
In a damp Venetian palace, Oswaldo contemplates the ravages of time to his body and his beloved city. In New York, Lach savors his freedom, having just dropped Vera to join his new love, Francesca, in Venice. In rainy London, Max packs for New Orleans, in pursuit of Lucinde, a woman he barely knows. From New Orleans, Lucinde flies to the aid and comfort of Vera, who has accepted a grant to paint in Venice. While elsewhere in the Crescent City, Anton, leaving for Venice, sketches a good-bye upon the slumbering body of his wife, Josephine. With wit, sympathy, and surpassing deftness, Jane Alison choreographs an intricate dance among these characters, whom love and loneliness, aspiration and desperation, have drawn to two famously romantic, venal, and elusive cities of water.
Jane Alison is also the author of the novel The Love-Artist. She lives in Germany.
A New York Times Notable Book
In a damp Venetian palace, Oswaldo contemplates the ravages of time to his body and his beloved city, and dreams up a way to hold mortality at bay. In New York, Lach steps out into the crisp, clear night to savor his freedom, having just dropped Vera to join his new love, Francesca, in Venice. In rainy London, Max packs for a precipitous move to New Orleans, in pursuit of Lucinde, a woman he barely knows. In New Orleans, Lucinde plans to fly to the aid and comfort of Vera, who, betrayal or no, has accepted a grant to go paint in . . . Venice. And elsewhere in the Crescent City, Anton, sleepless before he leaves to seek his big break inwhere else?Venice, sketches a good-bye upon the slumbering body of his wife, Josephine.
With wit, sympathy, and surpassing deftness, Jane Alison choreographs an intricate quadrille among these characters, drawn by love and loneliness, aspiration and desperation, to two famously romantic, venal, and elusive cities of water.
"Wrenching and beautifully written . . . A dreamlike, gorgeously watery novel."San Francisco Chronicle
"[I]ntricate, elegant . . . [T]he connections among the characters, their struggles to know and be known, are revealed in ways that seem exactly right."The New York Times Book Review
"[E]nthralling . . . positively Shakespearean . . . [A] book of troubling marvels."The Memphis Commercial Appeal
"As intriguing as the densely interwoven lives of [her] fascinating cast is Alison's literary use of the water that surrounds them . . . The Marriage of the Sea is soap opera en aqua, where the watery surrounds become a metaphor for the fluidity of human life . . . [F]lows with stylistic brilliance."The Baltimore Sun
"[O]ne of those novels that the reader knows is literature from the very first page."Islander
"[A] beautiful . . . and affecting novel . . . The prose is lovely and vibrant, its observations precise and revealing . . . The sort of pleasure that many writers do not or cannot achieve."Edmonton Journal
"Readers of Alison's wondrous bringing to life of Ovid (The Love-Artist) will find here the same highly controlled lushness in a contemporary story that starts slowly but gains power. . . . Ambitious, complex, challengingly intellectualand yet Alison manages it all with a clarity, learnedness, and rigor that bring into being a creation of real beauty, albeit also of sorrow. Hers is a real and significant attempt, and a real achievement."Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"It is Alison's razor-sharp technique for incorporating the essence of her backdrop into the p0personalities dominating her fiction that makes this a uniquely flavored novel drawn from a refined talent."Booklist
"Alison's poetic sensibility reveals itself in lyrical, intense prose and surprising juxtapositions. Each character's feverish thoughts rise to a crescendo of emotional turmoil and release, and in the process, carry the reader on a sinuous journey of discovery."Publishers Weekly
Review
"Beautifully balanced...Wrenching and beautifully written...A dreamlike, gorgeously watery novel." --
San Francisco Chronicle"Elegant, melancholy...absorbing." --Time Out New York
"Intriguing...flows with stylistic brilliance." --The Baltimore Sun
"Highly controlled lushness...in the manner of Michael Cunningham's The Hours...Ambitious, complex, challengingly intellectual--and yet Alison manages it all with a clarity, learnedness, and rigor that brings into being a creation of real beauty...A real achievement." --Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"[An] intricate, elegant second novel." --The New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
In a damp Venetian palace, Oswaldo contemplates the ravages of time to his body and his beloved city. In New York, Lach savors his freedom, having just dropped Vera to join his new love, Francesca, in Venice. In rainy London, Max packs for New Orleans, in pursuit of Lucinde, a woman he barely knows. From New Orleans, Lucinde flies to the aid and comfort of Vera, who has accepted a grant to paint in Venice. While elsewhere in the Crescent City, Anton, leaving for Venice, sketches a good-bye upon the slumbering body of his wife, Josephine. With wit, sympathy, and surpassing deftness, Jane Alison choreographs an intricate dance among these characters, whom love and loneliness, aspiration and desperation, have drawn to two famously romantic, venal, and elusive cities of water.
About the Author
Jane Alison is the author of
The Love-Artist. She lives in Germany.