The End of Romance: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and the Mystery of the Violin [Paperback]

Norma Barzman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 2006

Norma Barzman is a blacklisted writer living in Southern France. Henry Myers is her beloved cousin, a former member of the Algonquin circle who has found his writing talent diminished with age, and is living an isolated life in New York City. When Norma invites Henry to Italy to realize their mutual dream of traveling together to Cremona to write about the mysterious origins of violin making, neither one could have anticipated the explosive consequences of their journey. But their adventure opens a Pandora's box of long-suppressed emotions, family secrets, and forces each to reassess their feelings towards each other, and themselves. As Norma recognizes her growing emotional independence, both from Henry and her over-bearing husband Ben, she gains the confidence to delve into the suppressed history of Cremona whose sun-bleached walls hide dangerous secrets, intrigue, and the shameful history of anti-Semitism in Italy. Combining the romance of Frances Haye's Under the Tuscan Sun with the historical depth of a Sebastian Falks novel, The End of Romance is an iridescent book that explores and illuminates the enduring mysteries of love and music.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Barzman's latest takes place during 10 days in Cremona and Venice, Italy, in 1973-10 days she happened to leave out of her previous memoir, The Red and the Blacklist. Now in her 80s, Barzman isn't afraid to tell it like it is: "I'm not going to let shame or anything else stop me. In Cremona in 1973, everything came together to free me of my romantic view of love, work, politics-of life itself." In many ways, the book is a juicy mystery: What are the secret origins of violin-making in Cremona? The mystery, or the "plot" if this were a novel, is cleverly used to propel Barzman's self-discovery, the real stuff of memoir. Her journey involves confronting anti-Semitism, dealing with her sometimes-ambivalent feelings for her blacklisted screenwriter husband and committing adultery with a man 20 years her junior. Barzman must also come to terms with the real nature of her love-hate relationship with her writer cousin, Henry Myers. It's a bumpy ride with moments of over-the-top melodrama, but Barzman's calculated distance and perspective make for an engrossing read.
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About the Author

Norma Barzman is a screenwriter and novelist who lives in Beverly Hills. She is the author of the celebrated memoir THE RED AND THE BLACKLIST. She had the great honor of being attacked by Ann Coulter in her book TREASON. She has worked for the Los Angeles Examiner, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. She was the wife of blacklisted screenwriter Ben Barzman.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books; First Printing edition (March 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560258136
• ISBN-13: 978-1560258131
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,530,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The morals of the writer?, February 21, 2008

By 

Mike Simonsen (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The End of Romance: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and the Mystery of the Violin (Paperback)

If we start to eliminate all the great writers who had less than perfect morals, we'd have precious little to read. If we rejected all the literary practitioners who committed adultery, we'd enjoy the company of very few.

Since writers are by nature and practice, cannibals, feeding on their observations and regurgitating them transformed by imagination, why of all people should we turn to them when searching for moral paragons?

So, yes, when a reviewer complains of being sickened by the writer's immorality in sleeping around while married, pardon me but this is perhaps the wrong book for such a refined sensibility. "Love" and "Sex" are mentioned in the title, so we have been warned. The faint of heart should retreat immediately to the safety of Kate Douglas Wiggin's "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm."

However, Norma Barzman's "The Red and the Blacklist" makes much better reading than "The End of Romance," so read that one first.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed feelings, October 22, 2007

By 

Jennifer J. Hunter (Anderson, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The End of Romance: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and the Mystery of the Violin (Paperback)

Hummmm...I was so excited when I rec'd this book, but it was short lived. This book reads like a really bad memoire filled with conversations that go on and on and on about nothing but the relationship between the author and her cousin (which happened to be 25yrs her senior, and whom raped her at the young age of 14), along with 2 other females which played no important role in the story at all. The plot deals with finding the origin of the Guanari family, but there are way too many distractions along the way. The author's cousin is a sniveling complainer which drags the whole book down. And, personally, I was sickened at the lack of the author's morals. Along with her cousin, she has sex with several strangers despite being married. I did, however, learn a few facts about violins and the detailed process of how one is created. Learning always deserves something, so I gave it 3 stars.