DARLING CLEMENTINE is the story of Samantha, a poetess determined to transform her sex life into a meditation: a pathway to enlightenment. Along for the ride is her brand new husband, Arthur Clementine, a wealthy, calm, but crypto-zany Assistant District Attorney for New York County. The novel begins with their meeting and works its way backward and forward. In the past, a series of darkening love affairs leads Sam to a suicide attempts and a breakdown. In the present, Samantha is working on a suicide hotline and using her marriage in a search for radical sanity, a sort of road show of Love's Body. A long the way, she reconciles polymorphous perversity with housework; tries to talk one of William Blake's deities out of killing himself --or someone else; confuses her psychoanalyst; and watches, with everyone else, as the world moves toward the ever popular brink of destruction. All of which is an effervescent combination of Henry Miller and P.G Woodhouse, in a character as daffy and enchanting as Truman Capote's Holly Golightly was in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this short, ironically humorous novel told in the first person, Klavan (Face of the Earth) skillfully depicts poet Samantha Bradford, who must grapple with her troubled past before looking ahead to the future. Superficially, Samantha has an enviable existence. Born in affluent Greenwich, Conn., she graduated from Barnard, then wed wealthy lawyer Arthur Clementine. Nevertheless, distraught at age 24, Samantha seeks help from a Manhattan therapist who resembles "a rumpled gray suit growing out of the chair." With him, she discusses her mother's unkindness, her own suicide attempt and her erotic fantasy about being held captive on a remote island. Samantha also tries other routes to salvation, including Zen, sex and volunteering at a hotline for suicidal people. One pathetic man calling himself God phones Samantha repeatedly; despite their rapport, he poses a potentially lethal threat to her after his sanity gives way. The narrative frequently seems every bit as unfocused and rambling as Samantha's own life, but Klavan's characterizations of his protagonist and her spouse are memorable; they are vulnerable, tender and wonderfully open about their emotions and aspirations.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Andrew Klavan has been nominated for the Mystery Writer of America's Edgar award five times and won twice. He is the author of several bestselling novels, including Don't Say A Word, filmed starring Michael Douglas, True Crime, filmed by Clint Eastwood, and Empire of Lies. He is currently writing a series of thrillers for young adults called The Homelanders. The first two novels in the series are The Last Thing I Remember and The Long Way Home. Klavan is a contributing editor to City Journal and his essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, among other places. His satiric video commentaries can be seen on PJTV.com.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, thought-provoking book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Darling Clementine (Hardcover)
Samantha, poet and free spirit, is searching for love and acceptance and thinks she's found it with her newly wed husband, assistant district attorney, Arthur Clementine. Although she's found real love with a husband who truly accepts her the way she is, she still feels an emptiness inside of her that she can't explain. She comes to realize that the love and acceptance she craves is the love that is missing from her relationship with her parents, who have become cold and distant toward her. With the help of her psychiatrist and her conversations with "God" (a troubled caller who she helps at her crisis hot-line job), she's able to confront her issues about her parents and let go of them.You'll especially enjoy this book if you are an Andrew Klavan fan, but a work of warning, it is written in a little different style than some of his more popular books, like True Crime and Don't Say a Word. It's more of a novella than a full-length novel. The book is told from Samantha's point of view and because she is a poet she tends to think in analogies and metaphors. This made it a little too deep and difficult for me to follow at times. Andrew Klavan describes the main characters in this book very vividly. They are kooky, but likable, which made this an enjoyable, thought-provoking book.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
