Customer Reviews

Banishing Verona: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was immediately drawn in by the characters, Zeke and Verona. I so much wanted their relationship to work out, that when at one point I wasn't sure it would, my "heart fell."

They were totally alive to me, as were the supporting cast of parents, brothers and friends. The descriptions of the way Zeke responded to life were clear and fascinating. I was particularly charmed by his encounter with the nurse, Jill, and their few days together in Boston.

There were a few tiny points that might have been hard to believe, such as Jill's beginning her work as a nurse the day after she arrived in Boston from London, but I accepted it all because it was so obvious that Livesey cared about her characters.

I recommend this highly to anyone who has suffered through books whose characters' actions make no sense and through books that are written only to confuse the reader. In this case, I knew exactly how I was supposed to feel when it ended.

Zeke Cafarelli is twenty-nine, rather shy, angelically handsome, an antique clock collector, and a house painter. He's been to college, but he suffers from a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome, so life is often cluttered and disorderly. Zeke's parents love him dearly, but Don, his father has recently had a heart attack and his mother, Gwen is threatening to run away with Maurice, her new lover. They both want Zeke to give up his painting job, and help run their grocery shop.

One morning, while painting the house of Gerald and Ariel Barrow, Zeke answers the door, and meets Verona Macintyre, a single, seven months pregnant, thirty seven-year-old London radio talk-show host. With suitcase in hand, she claims to be the niece of the absent owners, and after cooking dinner; she and Zeke spend the night together. The next morning Verona mysteriously vanishes, puzzlingly leaving her coveralls nailed to the floor. But it's all too late because Zeke is absolutely besotted, and instantly becomes obsessed with finding her.

Life for Zeke is complicated: his Mother and Father are constantly hounding him, and his disability makes it hard to respond appropriately in social situations. It's as though two large figures are standing on either side of Zeke tugging - "to his left his non-niece whom he wants desperately to find," and to the right, his father, "who has left four messages and who now prefers a parrot to his son."

Verona, failed to tell Zeke that Nigel and George, two thugs are harassing her; they're after her unscrupulous and capricious brother Henry. Henry, with his history of sociopathic lies and deceit, has recently got himself involved in a shady real estate deal and the creditors are demanding repayment. Verona flees to America to try to find him - " the boy born without a conscience," while Zeke continues to pine away in London.

The remainder of the book alternates voices, as Zeke tries to reunite with Verona, and she, equally smitten, but on the run from her incompetent brother's pecuniary malfeasance, leads him on a far-from-merry chase to Boston and back to London. Zeke readily admits that he doesn't want to rewrite the past, he wants to rewrite the present; it's as if he were viewing, even the people he new best, "through a pane of glass." And part of the joy of this story is not just Zeke's transatlantic journey, but also his journey towards the world of self-confidence and self-assurance.

Packed with nuances of everyday life, Livesey has created some totally amazing characters, who are constantly finding themselves in some unusual situations. Her observations on "the unknowable nature of people" are unsurpassed. For Zeke, life's observations are precious: "most things when you get close gradually reveal themselves - like clocks, doorbells, and trains - but humans only grow more puzzling with proximity."

Banishing Verona is part eccentric comedy of manners, and also part statement on the difficulties of keeping and maintaining loving relationships. The novel is also offering the reader some astute observations on the mysteries of human nature. Livesey is saying that trust; having trust in oneself, and developing trust in others, is of the utmost importance, because without trust, one cannot participate most fully in life. This is a wonderful tale, with a narrative that offers a rich and rewarding journey into two very idiosyncratic internal lives, a pair of incompatible lovers, who might, with any luck, find the strength to open up to each other, and move forward as one. Mike Leonard March 05.

Ever since I read The Missing World, Margot Livesey has been one of my all-time favorite authors. Her novels are often dark and thought-provoking, but with a prose so beautiful that you cannot put her books down. I couldn't wait to read another one of her novels. I am so glad I read Banishing Verona. Zeke is a twenty-nine-year-old house painter and handyman in London. He is described as having the face of a Raphael angel. But Zeke is not good at dealing with people. He possesses communication problems that are not unlike that of an autistic person. However, the appearance of a strange woman changes things in his life in dramatic ways. No sooner does Verona appear at the house that he is working on than she vanishes. Zeke soon finds himself in a cat and mouse chase, trying to track down Verona, while at the same time dealing with unfinished business regarding his family. There are various twists throughout the novel.

Once again, Margot Livesey delivers a dark, beautiful novel that enthralls from beginning to end. This novel, while a little complex to describe in a short plot summary, is a literary marvel. It is in some ways better than Eva Moves the Furniture, my favorite Livesey novel. Zeke is a wonderful and abstruse character, and Verona is as elusive as a character could get. The development of the story is a little disjointed in the beginning, but falls into place quickly enough. There are a few disarming surprises in this novel that are not unlike the ones in Criminals and The Missing World, but without the shock factor of the aforementioned novels. The one thing I did not like in the story was how one of the characters settled in and was employed soon after arriving to Boston from London. That bit of the book is quite unrealistic. Other than that, Banishing Verona is a must-read in more ways than one. I urge readers to try Margot Livesey if they haven't done. She is without a doubt one of the best British writers of today.

Margot Livesey's Banishing Verona is simply a wonderful novel. The novel concerns the relationship between Zeke, a 29 year old painter and handyman who suffers from mild Asperger's Syndrome (similar to autism) and Verona, a single, pregnant woman in her mid-30s in contemporary London. Zeke's Asperger's makes it difficult for him to understand human relationships. He once asks a therapist why he has to always respond to people who greet him. "What if I don't feel like it?" He is painting a house at the beginning of the novel when he encounters Verona. The two share a connection that defies reason. She leaves the next day, but the two spend the next several weeks struggling to find one another. Zeke's difficulties with human relationships in general and his relationship with Verona in particular accentuate the notion that no one can understand human relationships. Some may be able to perform better on the surface than others, but in the end, don't we all behave badly? Banishing Verona is a marvelous, compelling read. Very enjoyable and highly recommended.

"Banishing Verona" is the story of Verona and Zeke, two people who fall in love due to a very chance encounter. Zeke is a painter, and Verona shows up at the home of one of his clients, claiming to be their niece. Verona and Zeke spend one night together, and then Verona up and disappears. The two main characters appear in only a few scenes together...most of the book focuses on their attempts to come to terms with their own individual lives. This is the first book of Margot Livesey's that I've read, and while I enjoyed her writing style, I though the plot of this book really dragged. I had a hard time connecting with Zeke or Verona, and thought Livesey paid a bit too much attention to detail. It was a very tedious read, and I cannot in good conscience give it a high recommendation.

Opening a Livesey novel is always an adventure -- she never takes a predictable direction. There is no such thing as a Livesey set of characters or circumstances; no one Livesey book prepares you for the next. She reminds of Anne Tyler in her ability to distill humanity into one reading experience. That said, this one is a star short of her very best, but still compelling and wise. Does it suffice to say that at least three times the combination of the writer's character development and language stopped this reader in his tracks? The equivalent of a concert show-stopper on the page.

I am giving Banishing Verona 5 stars because it is such an entertaining book. If you are having a reading slump, I highly recommend this to jump start your reading.

The book tells the tale of a pregnant single woman named Verona, who meets a man named Zeke. Zeke has mild Aspergers syndrome, and in the course of a day or so, and under rather unusual conditions, they fall in love. They are separated, and spend the majority of the book trying to get back together.

The middle of the book was my favorite part, and it dealt with the recollections and life of Verona's grandfather. That was the book I really wanted to read, and that story elevated this novel to 5 stars in my opinion.

For me personally, I had trouble buying into the relationship between Verona and Zeke, although it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book.

So this book is recommended. It held my interest from page one, right through to the end.

Having just finished "The House on Fortune Street" I wanted to provide a brief review of Margot Livesey's "Banishing Verona," which absorbed me during the winter of 2004. At the time, my son was living in London on a semester abroad, and we live in the Boston area, so the dual locales of the story were an immediate draw. As she did so skillfully in "Criminials" and "The Missing World", Ms. Livesey deftly draws us into the inner thoughts and often peculiar motives of her characters, and creates pitch-perfect sense of place no matter where her story takes us - Scotland, London, Boston. Her narratives are filled with suspense because they are so remarkably plausible - bizarre situations and often disastrous decisions which would border on the absurd were her characters not so accessible to us. She leads us through a complex and fascinating labrynth with Zeke, Verona, their friends and family, and to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion which ties all threads together. The publication of Ms. Livesey's newest work will undoubtedly create a bump of interest in her backlist - I'm sure those who are just discovering her through House on Fortune Street will be delighted to follow up with Banishing Verona, where she's at the top of her game.

I loved "Banishing Verona". For the record I enjoyed and admired Livesey's "Eva Moves the Furniture", but the mystery of the mother-daughter connection at its center didn't affect me the way it did female readers I know who speak reverently of the book. But I feel reverent about Zeke and Verona and this novel's articulate third person voice. Same goes for all the truly interesting little digressions that keep popping up in the dialogue and the wisdom that's layered into each page. It's such a funny, deeply charming book. And it's all handled with enormous craft and economy. Even the second tier characters and subplots (Zeke's parents for instance) shine whenever they're on stage. Livesey's handling of them (and marriage / relationships in general) is really funny and quite serious at the same time. And so what if Verona and Zeke's separation gets a bit convoluted in the second half? By then I'd built up such affection for the characters and had taken such satisfaction in the novel's craft and wisdom that I sailed right on through to the end. I had a very hopeful sense of the book when I read the excerpt from it in the New Yorker a few years back. Great to see it all pan out so well. It's Margot Livesey's deepest, funniest, most affecting, and best book.

Everyone writes that Banishing Verona is a love story between an English painter and a pregnant woman. But it's really a novel about Asperper's Syndrome. Livesy mentions it in a note at the end of the book but it's really what the book is all about because the main character, Zeke, suffers from it and it comes into play throughout the book in the way Zeke talks and acts. His fear of flying on a plane and what he does when he's actually on one are symptomatic of his psychological illness, which is the driving point of the book. Of course the other character, Verona, is interesting, too. Or rather her grandfather, Jigger, is interesting, and his story is as important as hers. The love story between Zeke and Verona is really just a plot device to tell the story of Asperger's syndrome, which is a good story to tell because the syndrome was only recognized recently.