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Mirror lake : a novel
Greene, Thomas Christopher
Adult Fiction GREENE
From Publishers' Weekly:
Greene tells a predictable story of infidelity, love, loss and male bonding in this well-crafted but somewhat stale first novel. Nathan Carter is the 30-something protagonist who finds himself emotionally bereft after the death of his father, so much so that he drives north from Boston to Vermont and ends up starting a new life as a rural mailman. After a weather-related accident on his delivery route, Carter befriends 79-year-old widower Wallace Fiske, who helps Carter sort out his troubled love life while slowly revealing the story of his marriage to a woman named Nora. The farmer describes the pivotal crisis in his marriage, when a farmhand became attracted to his wife, a fierce attachment that led inexorably to violence. Greene is a reasonably engaging storyteller; the relationship between the two men develops in intimate, minimalist scenes that capture the flavor of smalltown life. The female characters aren't as well developed as their male counterparts, however, and on the whole readers may feel that Greene paints his characters in familiar, bland strokes: "We were each running from something. I was running from my father's death and from the shallowness of a life incomplete without shiny, new love. Wallace was running from something far more profound: a past that haunted him, a past he could not escape, and a story he had never told to anyone." Agent, Nicholas Ellison. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
After his father dies, thirtyish Nathan Carter leaves behind his unsettled life in Boston and relocates to Eden, VT, taking a job as a mailman. When his car skids off the road one day, he is rescued by local curmudgeon Wallace Fiske. The two become friends, and the reclusive Wallace, who is in his late seventies, begins to tell Nathan about his distant past and his marriage. Around 1950, when Wallace was taken sick during a brutal Vermont winter, a Canadian drifter who was helping take care of the farm became involved with Wallace's wife, which led to a deadly confrontation. This tale alternates with a depiction of the relationship between Nathan, who has never been able to get beyond the initial stage of infatuation with any woman, and Kate, the free-spirited daughter of a local bartender. The two are finally brought together partly by their investigation into the mysteries of Wallace's story. Low-key but engaging, this whimsical first novel is also a kind of Gothic, rural, New England romance. Recommended for larger fiction collections.-Jim Coan, SUNY at Oneonta Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Greene, Thomas Christopher
Adult Fiction GREENE
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From Publishers' Weekly:
Greene tells a predictable story of infidelity, love, loss and male bonding in this well-crafted but somewhat stale first novel. Nathan Carter is the 30-something protagonist who finds himself emotionally bereft after the death of his father, so much so that he drives north from Boston to Vermont and ends up starting a new life as a rural mailman. After a weather-related accident on his delivery route, Carter befriends 79-year-old widower Wallace Fiske, who helps Carter sort out his troubled love life while slowly revealing the story of his marriage to a woman named Nora. The farmer describes the pivotal crisis in his marriage, when a farmhand became attracted to his wife, a fierce attachment that led inexorably to violence. Greene is a reasonably engaging storyteller; the relationship between the two men develops in intimate, minimalist scenes that capture the flavor of smalltown life. The female characters aren't as well developed as their male counterparts, however, and on the whole readers may feel that Greene paints his characters in familiar, bland strokes: "We were each running from something. I was running from my father's death and from the shallowness of a life incomplete without shiny, new love. Wallace was running from something far more profound: a past that haunted him, a past he could not escape, and a story he had never told to anyone." Agent, Nicholas Ellison. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
From Library Journal:
After his father dies, thirtyish Nathan Carter leaves behind his unsettled life in Boston and relocates to Eden, VT, taking a job as a mailman. When his car skids off the road one day, he is rescued by local curmudgeon Wallace Fiske. The two become friends, and the reclusive Wallace, who is in his late seventies, begins to tell Nathan about his distant past and his marriage. Around 1950, when Wallace was taken sick during a brutal Vermont winter, a Canadian drifter who was helping take care of the farm became involved with Wallace's wife, which led to a deadly confrontation. This tale alternates with a depiction of the relationship between Nathan, who has never been able to get beyond the initial stage of infatuation with any woman, and Kate, the free-spirited daughter of a local bartender. The two are finally brought together partly by their investigation into the mysteries of Wallace's story. Low-key but engaging, this whimsical first novel is also a kind of Gothic, rural, New England romance. Recommended for larger fiction collections.-Jim Coan, SUNY at Oneonta Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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