Customer Reviews

Love Among the Ruins: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Robert Clark has become one of my two or three favorite contemporary American writers. I loved "In Deep Midwinter" -- having grown up in Minnesota and having experienced the environment and the people he described in that tale. And now this -- growing up and wising up -- in Minnesota in the late 1960s. Clark is a careful and thoughtful writer and his ruminations on our times, on growing old, on the whims and fancies of fate and history, of our illusions of control and of the afflictions of melancholy and the glories of love -- love of a boy for a girl, a man for a woman, a mother and father for children -- is incomparable among other writers today. I am always sad to come to the end of his books -- both because they ring so true in the end in a sad (but true) way and beause I want the story to go on and on and on. Bravo Mr. Clark. Please give us more.

This book is easy to read, and not-so-easy to read at the same time. It's easy to read because the characters are so real, and there are just two major (intertwined) story lines. The reader is drawn in to the story through the narrative and attention to detail. It's difficult to read because Mr. Clark seems to display an uncanny knack for getting in the mind of 16-17 year olds - he accurately portrays the stage of life without becoming histrionic (like many other writers do). Be warned: some of the thoughts and feelings described may hit close to the bone. If you like literature that will have you examining your own feelings long after reading the final page, read this book.

Robert Clark's characters are so authentically identifiable that, upon reading his novels, you sometimes have the haunting feeling that he somehow knows you, too -- and knows exactly how to reach you. His portrayals of his fellow humans, so dignified by precise, loving language, make you feel honored to be included. (And a little grateful, too: He has a gift for compassion and forgiveness.)

I neither know Clark, nor am in the habit of writing reviews unless I'm especially moved. This is such a special case: an author who conveys universes with a handful of sweetly drawn individuals.

The entire time I was reading this book, I kept wondering why I'd picked it up. I have a huge to be read pile and everything in it is there because it's either on the Syllabus of a writer / professor I admire, because it's by a favorite writer of mine or it was recommended by a friend. I knew this fell into none of those categories. It turns out I'd actually ordered the wrong book.

Luckily for me it ended up being a bit of a treat.

Love Among the Ruins begins the day Robert Kennedy was shot and ends the day Nixon was inaugurated. For the most part it is the story of high school lovers, Emily and William. Emily is a bit shy and a good sweater-wearing Catholic girl. William is the son of a politically active single mother. When William becomes terrified of being drafted, he convinces Emily to run away with him. They pack up Williams camping gear and set off for a local island.

The writing is very melancholy and romantic, without being trite or sentimental. This ends up being a very dark and politically charged book, which I was not expecting. All in all, it was a pleasant surprise and I'm glad I made the mistake, because I never would have discovered it otherwise.

I gave it 3/5 because the writing is a pretty simplistic. I think it accomplishes everything it sets out to, but the characters are occasionally a bit one dimensional and their motives are a bit too neat and orderly. The focus was clearly on telling the story and not the prose style, though there were enough problems with the plot that I couldn't completely forgive the lack of depth of characters.

In summation : I would recommend this to a person who wanted an easy, yet emotionally charged read.

This is a beautiful and haunting novel by Robert Clark. Clark's prose and voice are so wonderful that I had trouble putting this book down. The story revolves around the blossoming love between two teens in 1968. As the world is being ripped apart and they find in each other an innocence and purity that the world denies them. We also watch their parents (his mother, her mother and father) navigate the shoals of that pivotal year, when all the world imploded. Clark injects his voice at different times, almost like tv actor breaking the frame and talking to the camera. This has dangers, but Clark pulls it off because he clearly grasps the mystery of love. All in all this is a wonderful, beautiful, and heartbreaking novel.

It's been quite a while since I've read a novel that packs the kind of emotional punch that Clark's book delivers. Deeply affecting and beautifully and eloquently crafted, this book will simply knock you on your ass. Both as a moving story of young love and innocence lost, and as a portrait of the sixties, this book succeeds admirably. William and Emily will stay with you long after you've finished this book. I wondered if "Emily Elizabeth" Byrne was purposely named, but then decided, well, hell, of course she was. Because references to Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (and her lover, Robert B) abound here, foreshadowing the tragic turn this story of young love takes, perhaps inevitably. Indeed, the title of Clark's book comes from a Browning poem. It is perhaps important to note that the year of the book's setting, 1968, was the year after the famous "summer of love." In fact because of the violence of the protests and riots of the Chicago Democratic convention, it was even called the "time of rage." The parents of the ill-starred lovers also get their due, in portraits every bit as finely drawn. I loved this book; didn't want it to end. I found the book in a discount bookstore remainder bin. What a tragedy. It is an absolutely beautiful book. Bravo, Robert Clark. I will have to look for your other (probably equally neglected) books. - Tim Bazzett, author of PINHEAD: A LOVE STORY

"Love Among the Ruins" is a story set in the late 1960's centered around two troubled families who live in Minnesota. In the beginning, William Lowry (17) writes a letter to Emily Byrne (16) who he's seen around and would like to get to know better. The first part of the novel sets the stage for their relationship, as they become involved. Though they're very much in love, Bill and Emily feel as if they cannot really be together with heavy issues staring them in the face such as the Vietnam draft. In the end of the first part, they decide to run away and live off the land up north.

The second portion of the novel is a look into the lives of the kids' parents as they react to their children leaving home. Then the third part takes the reader to the new life that Emily and Bill have created for themselves on an island paradise where they can be together and be "free." But, it comes with consequence. Now that they have everything they thought they wanted, Emily in particular begins to reflect back on what they've given up.

it really took me to a kind of place where i wish i spent my teens. it was hard not to feel good through even the worst of times.

In part, my rating of this book is so low due to my great disappointment in a book that a local newspaper (Seattle PI) called a 'break-out book', meaning a book that would establish Mr. Clark as above mid-list. I've read 'In the deep midwinter' and thought it was a fine first book, a bit dull really, but well written. This book is not only dull, but of highly debatable craft. While he does manage to salvage an ending, it is only through authorial trickery, which I am not a fan of in novels.

My biggest problems was the use of an omniscient narrator to *tell* us all about the characters, instead of our learning the characters through their actions/reactions to events.

Beyond that, the characters are dull, mundane people, with dull, mundane problems. I'm not looking for Rambo in my writing, but in both the author's books, they start with "normal" characters, seem to find little interesting to say about them, invent some trouble that doesn't really fit the story well (the note in the furnace of 'deep midwinter', or William deciding to go to Canada when that seemed too great a step for such a directionless character to take) and then either going nowhere with it (deep midwinter) or having to invent a way out of it (love among the ruins).

This is coming out a bit harsher than I mean it to. This author has so much more promise than 99% of the writers: the voice in his books is beautiful, the setting perfect. I *want* so much to enjoy his books because they feel so close to being masterpieces. Yet, for whatever reason (pressure to go beyond mid-list?) he is not be hitting the mark.

I felt like this book started out good but then the two young "lovers" just run off together and have sex all the time. That's pretty much it. It lacked a good story line. It had a story line...just not a good one.