Sunday, June 18, 2017

Another Marvelous Thing, by Laurie Colwin

I am late to discovering Laurie Colwin's books, though I have seen references to them on many of my favorite blogs. I'd even read one of her essays in an anthology on cooking. But it was only last year that I finally read Home Cooking. About half-way through my library copy, I ordered my own copy, one of her novels, and this book of interconnected short stories.

I knew that they were about a couple having an affair. The back cover blurb told me that the two are "a tough-minded and tenderhearted woman and an urbane, old-fashioned older man [who] fall in love despite their differences, get married, and give birth to a child." This is just not true. I don't think whoever wrote this blurb actually read the stories - or maybe just read the first story and made an assumption about what happened next. Not knowing that it wasn't true, I read the stories with certain expectations and assumptions of my own - so I was a bit puzzled by where they were actually going, and the last two took me completely by surprise. It was the oddest reading experience I've had a long time.

There will be spoilers - actually accurate ones - below.

The first story, narrated by Frank, is an account of his affair with Billy, whom he refers to as "my mistress." (Billy occasionally refers to him as "my mistress" as well.) I've only just realized that this first story is the only one told in the first person. While we get other stories and sections of stories from Billy's point of view, it is always in the third person. So it is Frank's voice, Frank's account, which we hear first, and (more than I realized at the time) I measured the stories that followed against his point of view. It's clearer to me now, thinking back, that Billy is unhappy in the affair, though she is strongly drawn to Frank. Since from the false blurb I was expecting a happy ending, I thought that her scruples, her real love for her husband Grey, her sadness and weariness, were merely obstacles along the way to a truer love. Billy tries to break things off with Frank several times. When she does so again, in the fifth story, "Swan Song," I figured as Frank does that they "would part and rejoin, over and over, into the future." So (with that false blurb in mind), it was quite a surprise two stories later to find Billy in the hospital, about to give birth to her child with Grey. I knew at that point that Billy wouldn't leave her husband. I had to check the back cover again, because I thought maybe I had mis-read the blurb.

Truly, I feel like I need to read the whole book again, now that I understand what really happens.

Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it - I did, very much, even in my confusion. Laurie Colwin has such an elegant but easy narrative voice, and a wry sense of humor. I found Billy a very appealing character, one I appreciated more as my understanding of her changed, from seeing her through Frank's eyes to seeing her in herself. I took to Frank at once, seduced by that first story. But by the end of the book, I was glad to see the back of him.

I still have Happy All the Time on the TBR shelves, as well as More Home Cooking. I'm sure I'll be adding more of Laurie Colwin's books. I still have a Barnes & Noble gift card tucked away somewhere.

13 comments:

  1. The only Laurie Colwin book I've read is Happy All the Time and I liked it a lot; I was sad when my library discarded it. I'd really like to read more of her books, especially this one. Great post! :)

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    1. How fortuitous that that's the book I already have on the TBR shelves :)

      I do wish libraries would stop getting rid of the GOOD books.

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    2. I do, too! It's one of my biggest bookish frustrations...unless I'm the one that finds it at the library's book sale before anyone else buys it. :)

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    3. Our library sales seems to be mostly books that people have donated. I always see quite a few from my own shelves there :)

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  2. I've never even heard of this author - sounds like one worth investigating, judiciously. I'm such a sucker for wry humour in a novel.

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    1. Her books seem to be very much about Manhattan in the 1980s and early 1990s - which is a bit of a foreign country to me. I do want to read more of her fiction, and also her second book on cooking. I've marked several recipes to try from the first book

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  3. Thanks for the review!
    I have several Laurie Colwin books, buried somewhere in my to-read stacks. But I have so many books in my to-read stacks that I can't seem to find them right now! I'm glad to hear that Colwin's books are enjoyable. I'm looking forward to reading them now!

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    1. This is a belated thank you for visiting - and I hope that you come across her books in your TBR stacks - I do know the feeling :)

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  4. I just finished Home Cooking and am trying to figure out which Laurie Colwin novel to read. I'm thinking Happy All the Time is a good one to start with. From what you've written about Another Marvelous Thing, I'm not sure I would like it, but Colwin is a marvelous writer...

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    1. As usual, I got distracted by other books, and I haven't gotten back to her books yet. I'm looking forward to Happy All the Time.

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  5. I adore Laurie Colwin. I remember crying when I heard that she died and at such an early age. For her fiction I would suggest her earlier novels Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object and Family Happiness. Some of her short stories are ravishing ( in particular The Lone Pilgrim, A Girl Skating and An Old-Fashioned Story).
    Steve


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  6. Laurie Colwin is one of my favorite authors. I adore her. Family Happiness might be my all-time favorite of hers, but I also love Goodbye Without Leaving and Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object and A Big Storm Knocked it Over (I also love her titles.) she's just fabulous. It is so sad that she died young.

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    1. I will look for Family Happiness next, then! And keep the other titles in mind.

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Thank you for taking the time to read, and to comment. I always enjoy hearing different points of view about the books I am reading, even if we disagree!