The Confessions of Edward Day: A Novel [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Valerie Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2009

Acclaimed author Valerie Martin returns with a dark comedy about love, sex, an actor's ambition, and the perils of playing a role too well. In this fictional memoir, Valerie Martin brilliantly re-creates the seamy theater world of 1970s New York, when rents were cheap, love was free, and nudity on stage was the latest craze. Edward Day, a talented and ambitious young actor finds his life forever altered during a weekend party on the Jersey Shore, where he seduces the delicious Madeleine Delavergne and is saved from drowning by the mysterious Guy Margate, a man who bears an eerie physical resemblance to Edward. Forever after, Edward is torn between his desire for Madeleine and his indebtedness to Guy, his rival in love and in art, on stage and off.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive: Jane Smiley Reviews The Confessions of Edward Day

Jane Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres and more than ten other works of fiction, as well as three works of nonfiction, including a critically acclaimed biography of Charles Dickens. In 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in northern California. Read her exclusive Amazon guest review of The Confessions of Edward Day:

Novels about actors are often very sour and condescending (I am thinking of you, Somerset Maugham!), but The Confessions of Edward Day is such a lovely book. It really is a self-contained gem, like a pearl or a faceted stone, never purporting to be more than it seems to be (a tale of ambitious young actors struggling to get ahead in the New York theater scene in the 1970s), but with such real beauty and resonance that the reader can’t help appreciating Valerie Martin’s unfailing wisdom and skill. Edward himself is a sympathetic character, and I always admire a woman writer who seems to write effortlessly from a man’s point of view (especially if she has also written effortlessly from a woman’s point of view in the past, as Valerie Martin has done so often). Lovers of the theater (of any era) will love this book because of its insights into how plays come together (or don’t) and, I hope, because of its play-like structure (very neat, and yet suspenseful, too). As with Property and Mary Reilly especially (two of my Martin favorites), I really felt the depth of Martin’s knowledge of her subject, and yet she carries it easily. Lovers of the novel are in for a treat. I couldn’t help marveling at Martin’s ability not to make a mistake—to make me feel absolutely present at those sometimes quite dramatic scenes, and yet to keep all those thematic balls in the air, to juggle her motifs ever so gracefully, to honor the mysteriousness of her subject, but make those mysteries crystal clear. I read this in two days--after about page ten, I didn’t want to put it down. I do think Valerie Martin is one of the best novelists we have. There is always more in every book than meets the eye. The Confessions of Edward Day--highly recommended! --Jane Smiley

(Photo © Mark Bennington)

From Publishers Weekly

Martin (Mary Reilly; Property) adroitly plays with the boundary between reality and performance in her fluidly written new novel about a group of New York thespians in the 1970s and '80s. Aspiring actor Edward Day is the book's charismatic if self-centered narrator who begins his tale with reminiscences of his deceased mother, a woman whose gender issues left him confused and guilty, emotions he mines in his acting. During a New Jersey shore beach party with a group of ambitious fellow acting students including Edward's love, Madeleine, Edward falls into the ocean and is rescued by Guy Margate, who becomes his rival in love and in the theater. The tension and constantly shifting exchange of power between the two men as they battle for Madeleine's attentions and struggle with their careers propels the plot until the love triangle comes to a dramatic head. Guy is a slippery character, while Edward, in his search for truth in acting and in life makes a compelling fictional memoirist. Another winner for Martin, who never disappoints. (Aug.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese; 1 edition (August 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385525842
• ISBN-13: 978-0385525848
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #975,123 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Somebody's got to teach. Acting is an art after all", August 16, 2009

By 

Michael Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Confessions of Edward Day: A Novel (Hardcover)

Martin hits a slam dunk with this wry and thoughtful novel set in the Manhattan theatre world of the 1970's where much of the story is framed around the illusions and theatrical aspirations of its three main characters, Edward Day, his arch nemesis the dashing Guy Margate and the beautiful but brittle Madeleine Delavergne whose mysterious ascendancy to the boards of off-Broadway is ultimately poignant and tragic. Like the stuff of Shakespeare, the novel begins with a tragedy when Edward's mother and her girlfriend Helen commit suicide together in their Brooklyn apartment, the act a catalyst for Edward as he finds solace in his acting classes. A remedy from unbearable sorrow and guilt, Edward plunges into his new craft, searching for a visceral way to give an audience everything they need to know about suffering, overwhelmingly drawing on his personal tragedy. It is here in New York as Edward endures the frustration of auditions and the anxious wait for call-back sessions that he meets his first great love, the beautiful and completely fearless Madeleine who makes him laugh and is "evidently available." Edward is rhapsodic. And even as he befriends the curly-headed Teddy and his friend Mindy, partaking in late night swimming and smoking pot, his affair with Madeleine is cemented amid the sighs and cries muffled by the steady rumbling of the tide. Typical of his tribe, Edward is plagued with self-important narcissism, his young life characterized by a type of self congratulatory grandeur. It's not surprising then, the desire for Madeline loses its edge and a comfortable familiar smugness appears to take its place.

Intent to practice his Brando - "the wolf on the prowl in search of a mate," the relationship between the tortuously ambitious Edward and the equally ruthless Guy forms the core of this story, when Guy rescues Edward from certain death after almost drowning off the waters of the Jersey Shore. Edward is just about to give into his fate when Guy thuds into the darkness, his arms lifting him and dragging him back into the world: "Sick, weak and grateful to be alive." Guy is the rescuer who saved Edward's life, so how can Edward repay him? Almost at once the metaphorical stage is set for what becomes a battle of wits, wills and of the best roles as both young men battle it out, using the poor, brittle Madeline as a type of ruse. Pretty early on Guy's dark eyes fixate on Madeleine with a sinister distant interest and Edward quickly realizes there's' something unnerving and menacing about him, his demeanor almost like Christopher Walken's "death's-head grin" Both men look a lot alike - a type in a casting call: " the handsome white guys." There's Guy with his "long canines and wolfish grin," and Edward with his piercing eyes who can stop audiences in their tracks.

When Guy finds himself in financial straights, he automatically looks to Edward to help him out, after all this is the chronic condition of the actor. Consequently, Edward is torn between feeling grateful to Guy for saving his life, but what he feels is not gratitude, Edward mostly feels wary of Guy and just like the actor, he's prepared to present him with a reasonable facsimile of the proper emotion. With theatrical aspirations of her own, Madeleine is inspired by both Edward and Guy and their endeavors, but she's brittle and easily led, and also in her own way quite narcissistic and self-absorbed. She lets herself be pulled into the brutal orbit of Edward and Guy, but then is overjoyed at Guy's brief rise in popularly, his success, heralding the realization that that there's nothing going on underneath- "he's just a big stupid naked self-absorbed, unfeeling ape." Ultimately a decade long feud takes place with Guy attacking Edward on three emotional fronts: his feelings for Madeleine, his personal sense of obligation to him for saving his life, and Edward's insecurity as an actor. All the while Martin speculates what means to be an actor. A narcissistic and superstitious tribe, her characters are perhaps fairly representative - always looking for luck and a glimpse of the future, fearing success and embracing failure, desiring that which is dangerous or forbidden and might cause us to suffer while also strive to be independent, longing at the same time to surrender to a burning passion.

From the seedy, ramshackle apartments, the frustration of failed auditions, the relative merits of acting teachers and schools, the catch-22 of Actors' Equity, the anxieties, perils and hilarious adventures of those who have to appear nude onstage, along with the tiny theatres in the West Village, full of plays that were new and forgettable - the novel is a veritable smorgasbord of atmosphere and brightly lit drama. The author offers up the tantalizing symbolism of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya for the final denouement, the role Edward's big break but where a suicide causes Madeleine to slowly unravel on stage, her mind slipping around the edges. Of course, the slow simmering of Guy's mendacity brings Edward to see red as he watches his arch nemesis turn into an egocentric Machiavellian devil incapable of seeing himself as anything but wronged. Mike Leonard August 09.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Standing Ovation, September 19, 2009

By 

Mark Stevens (Denver) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Confessions of Edward Day: A Novel (Hardcover)

"The Confessions of Edward Day" is light on its feet, packed with the energy of a good thriller and pulls you in like a gripping Patricia Highsmith--almost as if Highsmith had found a slightly more literary voice. Even the New York setting evokes Highsmith's work and both Edward Day and his friend-nemesis Guy Margate display the determined, relentless drive of some of her darkest characters. Just when I thought "The Confessions of Edward Day" might morph into a soap opera (such as during the summer theatre scenes in Connecticut) a nifty surprise or two brought the plot roaring back. The ending, as neatly timed as "Noises Off," had the potential to turn trite--a gun backstage, "Uncle Vanya" on stage--but was buoyed by Martin's dazzling touch. When the denouement carries a sweet last morsel of suspense, you find yourself thinking of "Confessions of Edward Day" as the finest, most well-crafted book you've read in a long time and you ask yourself, "how did she do that?"

All three characters in the love triangle are up-and-coming actors when we meet them and one of the strengths of "Confessions" is living inside the head of an actor who is learning his craft and also watching others learn theirs.

Thinking about Guy's growth as an actor, Day thinks: "He could never see himself from himself. He created character from the outside looking in, he constructed a persona. Basically anyone can do it, politicians can do it nonstop. It's not, perhaps, a bad way to start. But Guy could never inhabit a character because he was himself so uninhabited. Nobody home, yet he wasn't without strong emotions. I didn't know that last part then."

The writing is brisk, clever. This will be one of the fastest 286-page books you might ever read.

You inhale in a few gulps and yet try to relish each breath.

Samples:

"Their applause sounded like dried peas rattling in a can."

"He gave me another long, magnified look, opening and closing his prune lips a few times like a fish trying to catch a wafer of food in an aquarium."

The relationship between Day and Margate is prickly, tense and full of foreboding. When Margate rescues Day from drowning in the ocean early on, we know the debt will play a significant role. And that's just it--the roles, the conflicts between inner dreams and what you let your friends and associates see--and what you don't let them see.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fine, but a missed opportunity, February 22, 2011

By 

Ryan M. Claycomb "Ryan Claycomb" (Morgantown, WV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Confessions of Edward Day: A Novel (Hardcover)

The value of *The Confessions of Edward Day* is primarily in its evocation of the milieu of the 1970s theatre scene in New York. It nicely captures the struggles of young actors to ply their trade, and works to connect that to questions of selfhood and identity.

Stylistically, its well-written enough, and the plot is fine, as it hinges largely on a doppleganger device that never quite works. The cover image suggests an almost Magrittean exploration of identity, image and emptiness, but what we mostly get is a blend of some pretty straitforward genres: the romance plot, the kunstlerroman, and the double. The kinds of identity-as-performance lines of thinking that are, frankly, ripe for the picking in a novel with this set up, never materialize, and in the end, the novel turns out to be a pretty good (but not great) tale, but little more.