Amazon.com: The Marriage Bed (9780312140120): Diana Saville: Books

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1996

After thirty years of a solid and dependable marriage in which they have shared everything that a family could ever want materially, Laura and Geoffrey Fenton are forced to reassess their relationship. A first novel.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } After thirty years of a solid and dependable marriage in which they have shared everything that a family could ever want materially, Laura and Geoffrey Fenton are forced to reassess their relationship. A first novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Saville's debut novel about moneyed English domesticity threatened and subsequently rejuvenated begins with shit. Except that "dog poohs" is the term protagonist Laura Fenton prefers for the objects her husband, Geoffrey, insists on picking up from the garden on the grounds of Lownden House, Geoffrey's ancestral estate, where they live. The beloved garden happily distracts Laura from all that's not perfect in her life: her two grown daughters loathe each other, and Geoffrey, who seems to love golf more than Laura, is irritated with her disinterest in sex. Financial problems force the pair to confront their emotional issues when Geoffrey's agricultural machine business fails and his son-in-law loses his remaining money through speculation. Laura learns all this after the fact and consequently feels betrayed enough to seek temporary solace in the bed of a former lover. Geoffrey's chief worry is losing the house and grounds, which mean more to him than the business. Veteran gardening writer Saville's prose is quite readable, and she incorporates lovely descriptions of gardens. She has the pieces in place for a solid domestic melodrama, but she makes Geoffrey such a weakling that the conclusion-in which all the horticultural themes of husbandry and transplantation find expression in plot-has more to do with the truths of the genre than with those of character.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A British writer's debut aspires to Pilcheresque heights (glorious English gardens, estranged children, the sanctity of home) but falls way short, thanks to far too many loose ends and not nearly enough charm. Laura Fenton is a still beautiful 50-plus when her midlife crisis kicks in, coinciding with the annual opening of her magnificent gardens at the elegant Lownden House, where she and staid Geoffrey have spent their 30 years of marriage. At the opening, Laura receives her major shake-up in the form of Leo Ranson: her dashing lover from three decades previous, just before her parents had talked her into making a more suitable, socially acceptable match in Geoffrey. Laura dallies again with Leo, but when Geoffrey finds himself in financial straits (his business is on the rocks), her loyalties are sorely tested: Will it be comfort, tradition, family, or...a chance to recapture the fleeting passion of her youth? The threat of losing her home and all that entails, especially her luxurious life there, brings the situation to a head; finally, Laura's younger, poorer, divorced friend Tessa, who's also met--and been intrigued by--Leo, saves the day, in a manner of speaking. Meanwhile, Laura and Geoffrey's two daughters flit in and out of the story: Rosy and her dim-witted husband William, angry at the prospect of losing their inheritance, desert the Fentons in their time of need, but the younger, wilder Allegra- -who changes her name when she converts to Buddhism--proves to be made of stronger stuff. At the close, Laura's martyr-like decision about her longstanding if nevertheless half-baked marriage will surprise some readers but satisfy few. Saville has the trappings down but needs to work on creating characters worth caring about--and, here, a hollow ending doesn't help matters. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.