From Amazon.com
David Leavitt's
Arkansas was the surprise of his career: funny, sexy, and thematically adventurous, it was a complete break from his more traditional narratives. Now, in
The Page Turner, Leavitt returns to the style and type of story that made him famous. Noted pianist Richard Kennington is a former child prodigy now entering middle age. While in Rome he meets and begins an affair with Paul Porterfield, a young man who is poised to follow in his professional footsteps. The affair is complicated by the fact that Pamela, Paul's mother, is also interested in Richard. The affair is short-lived, but the story--which might remind you of an updated version of a sophisticated 1940s Hollywood romance such as
The Seventh Vail or
Intermezzo--takes several startling turns when Richard, Paul, and Pamela discover the power of love and eroticism; it is more complicated then any of them imagined. Leavitt's tone, slyly serious and ironically romantic, makes
The Page Turner a compelling and surprising read.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
This flat novel of music, ambition and love is unfortunately not the enticing work-in-progress by the fictional "David Leavitt" in the far more accomplished and entertaining novella "The Term Paper Artist" (from the collection Arkansas). Eighteen-year-old Paul Porterfield hopes for a career as a classical pianist and is thrilled to achieve his "debut" turning pages for his idol, the vaguely van Cliburn-esque Richard Kennington. This would be the only intersection of their careers were it not for a coincidental encounter later that summer in Rome, where Paul and his philistine mother, Pamela, are on vacation. Mutually infatuated, Paul and Kennington carry on an affair unbeknownst to Pamela (who develops her own crush on Kennington). Kennington abruptly leaves because of an emotional crisis at home in New York (the beloved dachshund of his longtime manager and lover dies), but the summer fling spoils in Manhattan, as Paul (now at Julliard) faces his lack of talent and Kennington cracks under the middle-aged pressures of being a former child prodigy. Neither character's sketchy story, however, has much emotional weight. Only Pamela, one of Leavitt's characteristically strong maternal figures, transcends her stereotype. Her farcically frustrated ambitions barely keep up the tempo in this dubiously titled orchestration of tired themes. Author tour. (Apr.) FYI: Arkansas will be reissued simultaneously in Mariner paperback.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
