The Gazebo: A Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Emily Grayson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2000

Smalltown reporter Abby Reston is hungry for a good story when elderly, but still hale and handsome, Martin Rayfiel walks into her office.Martin tells the young newspaperwoman of his lifelong romance with Claire Swift, and how they have faithfully reunited once every year at the gazebo in the town square. When Abby goes to the gazebo to witness the annual meeting, she finds a briefcase filled with photographs, letters, tape recordings, and mementos. It is a poignant and haunting chronicle of love and devotion that will profoundly affect the life of Abby Reston and touch the heart of everyone who experiences it.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Bridges of Madison County meets Same Time Next Year in Emily Grayson's The Gazebo. Overburdened single mother Abby Reston is hard at work as editor of her small upstate New York hometown newspaper when Martin Rayfiel appears at her door unannounced. Too busy to pay much attention to the handsome elderly man as he attempts to tell her his story of love, loyalty, and loss that spanned half a century, Abby finds herself intrigued in spite of her efforts to ignore the stranger in her office. After he leaves, Abby is unable to forget what Martin has revealed of his love affair with Claire Swift, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, which began many years ago when they were high school students who met by chance. Tragically separated by family loyalty and acrimony, the couple had agreed to meet every year on May 27 at the gazebo in the center of town, the date and site of their first meeting. Abby finds herself drawn to the gazebo the next day, May 27, to await the reunion of the star-crossed lovers. But they never show. Instead, Abby discovers a briefcase filled with a lifetime of mementos, memories, and a tape-recording from Martin detailing the affair that spanned social boundaries, decades, and continents. The Gazebo reminds readers never to let opportunities to love another slip by. --Alison Trinkle --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The premise of Grayson's debut novel is that true love can be thwarted but never obliterated, but the unfolding of this particular romance may leave readers exasperated with characters who act more like victims of love than champions of it. As teenagers, Martin Rayfiel, scion of a wealthy family, and Claire Swift, who lives on the wrong side of the tracks, discover they are made for each other. They make a valiant effort to escape their social destinies, briefly defying everyone to pursue their dreams in Europe. When Claire is forced to return home to tend to her sick mother and Martin loses his inheritance, they reluctantly marry others. For 50 years, however, they have met once a year in the gazebo in the town square, to affirm their lifelong, and now platonic, love. As the story opens, Martin tries to interest Abby Reston, editor of the local paper, in the tale of their hapless romance, leaving Abby in possession of a briefcase filled with mementos and tapes documenting the vicissitudes of their lives. Grayson's decision to use Abby as a device to impart the account of the couple's history is intrusive and puzzling, an attempt to transform this tale into one of passionate heroics when Abby, galvanized by the chronicle, takes charge of her own life. Although she writes affecting scenes of the lovers' gentle intimacy and heartbreak, Grayson goes overboard in padding the narrative with details of seemingly insurmountable class differences. And while the contrived plot of this tale of love, loss and redemption asks for too much credulity, readers may be seduced by the descriptions of the characters' European sojourns and the weeper of a denouement. Rights sold to Columbia-TriStar for a TV movie; foreign rights sold in Finland, France, Germany, Holland and Italy.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Avon (March 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038073320X
• ISBN-13: 978-0380733200
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #813,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If You Liked the Notebook, Message in a Bottle...., May 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gazebo: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Gazebo continues the trend of the past few years of the short emotionally overwhelming books. If you liked "Bridges of Madison County," "The Notebook," "Message in a Bottle," you will like "Gazebo." It is basically the same sort of book you can read in a evening. Afterwards, you will either feel deeply moved, or emotionally manipulated.

The main premise of "Gazebo" is that the main characters are soulmates destined to be together, but held apart by the cruel fates & their families. They run off to Europe to start their lives together. Things go well even after the money runs out. He finds the job of his dreams & they are blissfully happy. What turns the tide is her family's need of her.

My main gripe with the book is the point that she had no choice but to stay in their hometown due to family obligations. We are supposed to feel she was the ultimate martyr to give up all for her family. I so totally disagree, that I had trouble finishing the book. People who feel they must give up their whole lives in order to slave over others are not doing themselves or their families any favors. Who knows but that her leaving could have been the best thing in the world for her father and her sister. It seemed like she was so busy doing all the washing and cooking, nobody else had the chance to pitch in. Therapists call this sort of behavior codependent. It could be argued that perhaps way deep down, she didn't want to leave the security of the hometown & used this as an excuse to stay behind.

I felt emotionally manipulated in that I did not buy the fact that the heroine had to give up her life & stay behind. And that the hero had to stay in Europe. That whole thing was just not believable. If they two wanted to stay together, there would have been obstacles, but nothing totally impossible.

It was a fun read, but nothing as dramatically deep as the book seems to want to be for us.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, December 3, 1999

By 

Billie (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gazebo: A Novel (Hardcover)

I can not tell you how great this book was! A wonderful story line about a rare love, that doesn't seem to exist now-a-days. Only two books have ever made me a cry, Gazebo and The Notebook. It takes a truly great book to reach that type of emotion. It's hard to find books on realistic love that lasts forever. This book definitely touches the heart and soul. I absolutely loved it!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book about the price of love and loyalty., November 7, 1999

By 

K. A. Karlsvik (Washington State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gazebo: A Novel (Hardcover)

What a wonderful book. It is very revealing. I can totally relate to this book. It explores the love and devotion to family and to the person who shares the soul. Anyone who has had that one true love will adore this book. The characters are very real and the author did a wonderful job of bringing everything to life. I had so much empathy for Claire and Martin as they faced many difficult choices. This book lingers on long after the last page has been read. It is so true to life and the words still haunt me. I would recomend this book to anyone. It has many great messages and is very thought provoking. It will go on my list of favorites, as I can see myself as Claire and my true love as Martin in many places in the book.