The Apprentice Lover: A Novel [Paperback]

Jay Parini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 2003

When Alex Massolini's brother is killed in Vietnam, he drops out of Columbia University and leaves his conservative family behind for Capri to become secretary to Rupert Grant, a famous British novelist and poet who dominates the island like a latter -- day Prospero. Alex soon finds himself ensnared in a web of love affairs, friendships, and rivalries within the eccentric community that inhabits the idyllic beauty of the isolated Italian island.

The Apprentice Lover traces a young American's enchantment and disenchantment -- with his American past, his new European mentor, and the various inhabitants on an island famous for its characters.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jay Parini's The Apprentice Lover is a smart and sexy coming-of-age novel marked with the sense and sensibility of the '70s and the Vietnam War. After Alex Massolini's brother dies in Vietnam in 1970, Alex drops out of Columbia University and travels to Italy to work as a secretary for Rupert Grant, a famous Scottish writer living on the isle of Capri. Villa Clio, where the irascible Grant lives with his wife, is the center of singular and sybaritic scenes involving Grant's two young research assistants, the unstable Marisa and the aloof Holly. Dinner brings cruel psychological parlor games and such literary luminaries as W.H. Auden, Graham Greene, and Gore Vidal. Brilliantly brittle dinner dialogue is contrasted with the raw, emotional letters to Alex from his brother Nicky in Vietnam. During his months on Capri, Alex learns much about the craft of writing from the riveting yet monstrous Rupert Grant, who comes to resemble the lustful and dictatorial Roman emperor Tiberius, exiled to Capri. In the wake of a tragic death, a romantic off-island interlude, and a thrown dagger, Alex decides to flee Capri, only to come back 30 years later for a final reckoning. In The Apprentice Lover, Parini has created an unforgettable portrait of a literary titan and his youthful apprentice. --Susan Biskeborn --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Literary figures large and small populate this smoothly written coming-of-age novel by Parini (The Last Station) set on the island of Capri. Alex Massolino, raised by his mother to be the family's "brainy" boy, is a student at Columbia University when his brother, Nicky, "the lesser son," is killed in Vietnam in 1970. Troubled by Nicky's death and suffocated by his mother's attentions, Alex drops out and takes a secretary/apprentice job with famous Scots novelist and poet Rupert Grant on Capri. Grant, like Robert Graves, embodies his poetic theories in his sexual life: he lives with his wife, Vera, and two female "muses," Holly Hampton, a young blonde blueblood, and Marisa Lauro, a beautiful but disturbed Italian girl. Alex is soon sucked into the island's glitterati scene, where he meets real writers like Graham Greene and Gore Vidal, and is befriended by Dominick Bonano, a dead ringer for Mario Puzo. As the title suggests, Alex gets a sexual education, mooning over Holly but succumbing to Marisa's more accessible charms. Grant, an old satyr, seems to need Alex's rivalry to put an edge on his conquests. The stress on Alex, Holly and particularly Marisa takes its toll, and Alex leaves Capri on a sour note. His failure to gain much wisdom from his experiences makes his stay on the island seem rather hollow, though the emptiness is partly filled by his rereading of Nicky's Vietnam letters, which provide a respite from the decadent world of the Grants. Parini's perennial interest in literary biography is skillfully interwoven here with a theme that has absorbed writers since Henry James: what price does the American soul pay for European sophistication? (Mar.)Forecast: In a letter addressed to booksellers, Parini writes that The Apprentice Lover is more accessible than his earlier novels, and says he hopes it will attract a wider audience. He may very well be right the setting and cast list in particular should appeal to readers with even a glancing interest in literary glamour.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060935561
• ISBN-13: 978-0060935566
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,137,869 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Love the questions themselves that lie inside you.", August 26, 2002

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Apprentice Lover: A Novel (Hardcover)

Do not be misled by the "moony" cover art, the title, or the fact that this is sometimes described as a coming-of-age novel--it is not romantic, whimsical, or lightweight. Instead, it is a meticulously crafted, mature novel which illuminates the major themes and issues which thoughtful men and women confront throughout their lives. Elegantly written and emotionally involving, it is one of the best--and most unsettling--novels I've read in a long time.

Alex Massolini, aged 22, is a budding poet and student of classics in 1970, when he drops out of Columbia because he no longer "cared a feather about the fate of Rome or its [Gallic wars]...My only brother, Nicky, had been killed in Vietnam." Taking a job as a secretary to Rupert Grant, a well-known Scottish writer living on Capri, Alex faces his own, more subtle wars as he tries to discover who he is and what he believes, while living in Grant's turbulent household and observing his decadent lifestyle. Grant is manipulative, vindictive, and ego-driven, often abusive to his wife and two young female assistants. As his resentment of Grant grows, Alex finds himself in a quandary, since he admires Grant's writing, loves meeting his friends--W.H.Auden, Graham Greene, and Gore Vidal, among others--and hopes Grant will become a mentor for him in his own writing.

Themes of love and loss, good and evil, free will and obligation, and war and its aftermath pervade the novel as Alex tries to understand himself, the creative life, and the sacrifices artists make for it. Issues of sexuality, religion, politics, philosophy, and even economics come into play for Alex, and Parini widens the perspective and gives universality to these themes and issues by juxtaposing, throughout, the letters which Alex's estranged brother Nicky has sent him from Vietnam. This is a beautifully realized, patiently designed, and maturely confident novel, by an author who himself illustrates a quotation by Rilke in the book: "Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree that does not force its sap but stands confident in the storms of spring without fear that after them may come no summer." For this author, summer has arrived. Mary Whipple

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine and a fun book, March 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Apprentice Lover: A Novel (Hardcover)

This novel is extremely well made and fun to read. The setting
is beautiful and exotic (to me, at least), the characters are
very finely drawn and memorable, the plot keeps you guessing.
The famous literary figures and their foibles and highly
interesting comments on writing are alone worth the price of
admission. The dialogue, as in the party scenes, is
wonderful -- accents are perfect, characters are immediately
recognizable, pacing is exciting, humor is in full flower
yet it comes with real insights into the lives of the
characters and their worlds. In sum, I loved it.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eloquent and Exotic, July 21, 2002

By 

[e-mail] (United States of America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Apprentice Lover: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book is a must read for anyone who ever considered writing the great novel. The characters in this story are multi-dimentional people who will inhabit your thoughts whether the book is in hand or not.

Reminding me slightly of books that tackle the idea of eutopian societies, this takes place on the exotic Isle of Capri. It is, in short, the story of a budding writer who leaves behind his unfinished ivy league education for a Summer working as one of the great Rupert Grant's apprentices. An eccentric and impetuous being, Grant has quite an influence on all who are under his wing. His pompous behavior and eccentric manner make it obvious that his writing is his greatest attribute.

Primarily I interpreted this as a coming of age story. For me, it was the story of Alex Mussolini, a young man utterly at odds with his upbringing, harbouring mixed emotions about the untimely death of his brother during Vietnam, and the insatiable desire to become a writer. Alex faces many challenges while on the Isle of Capri, all of which will captivate the reader as would the greatest mystery. But this book is a mystery of the soul. For who is anyone, aside from how others see them?

For me, at the crux of this novel is the question of identity. But there is so much more. I will undoubtedly read this story again -- I hope, while visiting Capri someday. There is so much to this book, I cannot recommend it highly enough. And I will seek more by Jay Parini as his writing is truly incredible.