The Marriage of the Sea: A Novel [Hardcover]

Jane Alison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 2003

As alluring as The Love-Artist, a contemporary tale of love and ambition, betrayal and revenge, set in two gloriously watery cities

In a damp Venetian palace, Oswaldo contemplates the ravages of time to his body and his beloved city, and dreams up a way to hold mortality at bay. In New York, Lach steps out into the crisp, clear night to savor his new freedom, having just dropped Vera to join his new love, Francesca, in Venice. In rainy London, Max packs for a precipitous move to New Orleans, in pursuit of Lucinde, a woman he barely knows. From New Orleans, Lucinde flies to the aid and comfort of Vera, who, betrayal or no, has accepted a grant to go paint in . . . Venice. And elsewhere in the Crescent City, Anton, leaving to seek his big break in that other renowned city of water—Venice, of course—sketches a good-bye upon the slumbering body of his wife, Josephine.

With wit, sympathy, and surpassing deftness, Jane Alison choreographs an intricate minuet among these characters, whom love and loneliness, aspiration and desperation, have drawn to two famously romantic, venal, and elusive cities of water.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lovers part, strangers meet and fall in love, ambitions turn to desperation, hopes are betrayed, promises sundered and-in two cities slowly sinking into the sea-new beginnings blossom. The fulcrum of this novel is Oswaldo, a frail, elderly, and very rich Venetian. He funds a foundation that gives grants to artists. One recipient, Anton, a struggling architect nearing 40, reluctantly leaves his wife in New Orleans and goes to Venice on a grant to teach architecture. In Manhattan, artist Lach abandons his lover, Vera, and flees to Venice for a romantic rendezvous. But Vera has won a prize from Oswaldo's foundation, so she also embarks for Italy. Meanwhile, Max quits London for New Orleans, ostensibly to accept a chair in the History of Food, but primarily to woo Lucinde, an events planner. As soon as Max arrives, however, Lucinde flies to Venice to stay with Oswaldo, an old mentor of hers. Alison (The Love Artist) interweaves their stories in quick segues, each vignette succeeding the other like mounting waves in "the heedless sea." The narrative is suffused with sensuous references to art, architecture, food and the atmosphere-damp, moldy, mildewy-of both cities. Each of the characters is emotionally unmoored as well as physically in transit. The reader learns about each of them incrementally from the observations of the other characters; Shakespearean misunderstandings occur and suspense gathers. Alison's poetic sensibility reveals itself in lyrical, intense prose and surprising juxtapositions. Each character's feverish thoughts rise to a crescendo of emotional turmoil and release, and in the process, carry the reader on a sinuous journey of discovery.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Alison's debut book, The Love Artist, was an interpretation of the demise of Ovid that was lauded for its fine detail and grace. Here, Alison applies her interests in history and excavation in a different manner, using the metaphor of "the sea" to uncover truths about her characters. Reviewers complained that Alison's gorgeous flair (and attentiveness) for the small details sometimes left the reader with too little information about the characters' motivations. Critics praised her talents with form, metaphor, and poetic language.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (April 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374199418
• ISBN-13: 978-0374199418
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,948,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jane Alison is the author of a memoir, The Sisters Antipodes, and three novels: Natives and Exotics, The Marriage of the Sea, and The Love-Artist. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe, Seed, TriQuarterly, and The Germanic Review, among others, and she has recently collaborated with composers Thomas Sleeper and Raina Murnak on two mini-operas. She lives in Miami Beach and teaches in the MFA programs of the University of Miami and Queens University in Charlotte.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Sea" flows, May 30, 2004

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Marriage of the Sea: A Novel (Hardcover)

Jane Alison is excellent in her sophomore novel "Marriage of the Sea," a plotlessly beautiful tale of several people with lives that loosely intersect, based on love and longing. It's a beautiful, engrossing book with plenty of interesting characters and a lush prose style that is unforgettable.

Old, wealthy Oswaldo lives in a decayed house, reflecting on his aged body and lonely life, until he decides to create a "water villa" like nothing anyone has ever seen. Max travels from London to New Orleans to woo a beautiful woman he has fallen in love with, gets an American makeover, and puts on a spectacular Futurist banquet -- all to get her attention.

Sensitive artist Anton and his depressed wife Josephine struggle to have a child, even as Anton goes to Venice to work for Oswaldo on his "water villa." And Lach leaves his girlfriend Vera for the beautiful Italian Francesca, only to learn that Vera is also in Italy -- working on a portrait for Oswaldo. As the story unfolds, the lives of these friends, lovers and acquaintences mingle together.

Water is the center of this novel -- a sea-themed banquet, a water villa, mentions of levees and the Sargasso Sea. And "Marriage of the Sea" itself is like water -- going quickly from one story to another, mingling all of them together into one fluid mass that is always shifting around. There isn't much of a plot, nor much in the way of humor (except Max's pitiful efforts to impress Lucinde), but the half-dozen subplots serve to keep it afloat.

At first glance, Alison's view of New Orleans and Venice don't have much in common besides water. But as "Marriage" progresses we see that they share a sense of genteel decay, with the boarded-up ballrooms and decrepit villas sinking into the sea. Her sense of atmosphere is outstanding, recalling A.S. Byatt at her best; the entire book has a sort of liquid, murky feel.

And the characters are, if not well-rounded, then engagingly realistic -- the confused, artistic Anton, the depressed Josephine, the puppy-like Max, and the creepy Lach. Each one is searching for something -- a lover, a home, a baby -- and Alison draws us into their respective quests without making them pathetic.

Jane Alison's "Marriage of the Sea" is a liquid, languid journey to New Orleans and Venice, with a dash of dark humor and some mild tragedy. A beautifully-written second novel.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A soft little...wow...as subtle as the surge of the sea, May 24, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Marriage of the Sea: A Novel (Hardcover)

Powerful and lyrical tale told with admirable restraint and understatement. Hints and innuendo propel the six characters of The Marriage of the Sea between the two irresistibly romantic settings of Venice and New Orleans as fluidly as a sleek sailboat upon the waves. This ornate and complex novel explores aging and decay (physical, spiritual, and architectural), marriage, barrenness in its many manifestations, lonliness, and the complex nature of relationships.
A piece of writing as finely drawn as the lines of Venitian canals and as richly layered as the levels of New Orleans society.
A winner. May Jane Alison write many more this good.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love and Coincidence, July 9, 2003

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Marriage of the Sea: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Marriage of the Sea is a very well written novel about love and coincidence in contemporary Venice and New Orleans. The novel has a wonderful flow, and moves back and forth among a number of characters all in search of some relationship-related satisfaction while all chasing satisfaction with careers. This is a quick, compelling read without much of a plot. The beauty of the novel lies rather in the crisp, fresh writing. This evocative novel has a certain timelessness to it that makes it a wonderful read. Enjoy.