From Publishers Weekly
Korelitz, known for her intelligent thrillers (
The Sabbathday River, etc.), strikes off in a new direction with this mordant story of aging, love and self-discovery, a reimagining of the Strauss opera
Der Rosenkavalier set in upper-class Jewish New York City. Marian Kahn, gracefully aging at 48, is a respected history professor at Columbia, author of a bestselling book of popular history and solidly ensconced in a satisfactory if not brilliant marriage when suddenly she's swept away by the wild but dangerous joy of an affair with the son of her oldest friend. Twenty-six-year-old Oliver, owner of a flower shop called the White Rose, is truly in love, but when he meets graduate student and heiress Sophie Klein, the fiancée of Marian's pompous cousin, Barton Ochstein, he's blindsided and must question his still strong love for Marian. Sophie is swept away, too, by the knowledge that she may want something more out of life than the academic satisfaction she derives from the study of her own White Rose, a group of German dissidents who agitated against the Nazis. The belief that love always involves sacrifice and is worth the sacrifice it demands drives this warm, worldly novel. Even when their own comfort is at stake, Korelitz's characters succumb to generous impulses, making this a satisfying, emotionally rich read.
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--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
Inspired by an opera (Strauss'
Der Rosenkavalier) but with country-and-western ("somebody done somebody wrong") overtones, Korelitz's latest novel is a departure from her previous mysteries. Instead, it chronicles the May-December romance between 26-year-old Oliver, an innovative and passionate florist, and Marian, a 48-year-old respected professor and acclaimed author. Not only is Marian old enough to be Oliver's mother, she is, in fact, his mother's very close friend. The unseemliness of this relationship is all too apparent to Marian, who knows their affair is destined to end. Clinging to the illusion that he and Marian may one day "be together," Oliver is devastated when Marian begins to reject him. On the rebound, he falls headlong into an intense relationship with the more age-appropriate Sophie, who, in another coincidental twist, is engaged to Marian's unctuous cousin, Barton. Though Korelitz constructs an elaborate, and perhaps unbelievable, love triangle, she persuasively conveys the depth of her paramours' emotions and perceptively gauges their motivations in an insightful, sensitive, and poignant romance.
Carol HaggasCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
