The Page Turner [Hardcover]

David Leavitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

At eighteen, Paul Porterfield aspires to play the piano at the world's great concert halls. So far the closest he has come has been to turn pages of sheet music for his idol, the dashing, temperamental Richard Kennington, a former piano prodigy on the cusp of middle age. Months later, while on holiday with his mother in Italy, Paul encounters Richard a second time. Their earlier attraction develops into an intense affair. As the innocence of first love becomes entangled with the quest for a more enduring happiness, Paul comes to realise that he cannot be a page turner all his life and that he has to confront his ambitions. With artful storytelling, shrewd perception and arch humour, THE PAGE TURNER testifies to the bittersweet truths of strained relationships and the resiliency of the human heart.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

David Leavitt's Arkansas was the surprise of his career: funny, sexy, and thematically adventurous, it was a complete break from his more traditional narratives. Now, in The Page Turner, Leavitt returns to the style and type of story that made him famous. Noted pianist Richard Kennington is a former child prodigy now entering middle age. While in Rome he meets and begins an affair with Paul Porterfield, a young man who is poised to follow in his professional footsteps. The affair is complicated by the fact that Pamela, Paul's mother, is also interested in Richard. The affair is short-lived, but the story--which might remind you of an updated version of a sophisticated 1940s Hollywood romance such as The Seventh Vail or Intermezzo--takes several startling turns when Richard, Paul, and Pamela discover the power of love and eroticism; it is more complicated then any of them imagined. Leavitt's tone, slyly serious and ironically romantic, makes The Page Turner a compelling and surprising read. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

This flat novel of music, ambition and love is unfortunately not the enticing work-in-progress by the fictional "David Leavitt" in the far more accomplished and entertaining novella "The Term Paper Artist" (from the collection Arkansas). Eighteen-year-old Paul Porterfield hopes for a career as a classical pianist and is thrilled to achieve his "debut" turning pages for his idol, the vaguely van Cliburn-esque Richard Kennington. This would be the only intersection of their careers were it not for a coincidental encounter later that summer in Rome, where Paul and his philistine mother, Pamela, are on vacation. Mutually infatuated, Paul and Kennington carry on an affair unbeknownst to Pamela (who develops her own crush on Kennington). Kennington abruptly leaves because of an emotional crisis at home in New York (the beloved dachshund of his longtime manager and lover dies), but the summer fling spoils in Manhattan, as Paul (now at Julliard) faces his lack of talent and Kennington cracks under the middle-aged pressures of being a former child prodigy. Neither character's sketchy story, however, has much emotional weight. Only Pamela, one of Leavitt's characteristically strong maternal figures, transcends her stereotype. Her farcically frustrated ambitions barely keep up the tempo in this dubiously titled orchestration of tired themes. Author tour. (Apr.) FYI: Arkansas will be reissued simultaneously in Mariner paperback.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company; 1st edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965599663
• ISBN-13: 978-0965599665
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,245,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars E. M. Forster for the 1990s, October 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Page Turner (Paperback)

Although not as bold as "The term paper artist," _The Page Turner_ similarly looks at fame and talent in art along with the sexual needs of aging gay characters and the sexual availability of young adults. I don't understand the invidious complaints revering _Lost Language_, because it seems to me that the three main character of PT are not all that different than the gay boy, the abandoned wife, and the dissatisfied husband in LL. Even more than the Anglophones in Italy first half, the denouement of the book resonates with the catastrophic misunderstandings about others in the work of E. M. Forster. (There is actually a very stilted and implausible discussion of _Maurice_ in PT.)
For me, the most implausible part of the book is the suddenness and clarity with which Paul recognizes he will not be a great pianist. Could any 18-year-old be so cooly analytical about his talent? For that matter, could the older David Leavitt? (But isn't more of him in Richard than in Paul, despite the Menlo Park upbringing?)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A potentially good plot with an unwise pivot, August 1, 2001

By 

N. Wong (HONG KONG, HONG KONG Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Page Turner (Hardcover)

This novel by Leavitt has a potentially good plot as it provides space for portraying the psychology of a mother who is going to discover a homosexual relationship between her beloved son and the object of her own affection. However, the tone first half of the book does not match with the second half's. The first half focuses on the development homosexual relationship between the son and the pianist, and the second half suddenly explores the madness of the mother, and the novel at this stage is centred with the use of stream of the mother's consciouness, which consequently leads to a rather abrupt ending. Still, Virginia Woolf's works and Michael Cunningham's THE HOURS are the excellent examples explaining how to use the stream of consciousness to lead to a (post)modernist ending.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The whole that's less satisfying than the sum of its parts., September 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Page Turner (Paperback)

The book is excellent as a collection of sharp and sensitive observations of gay relationships, new and old, all of which spoke directly to me with a loud voice. Leavitt's writing edges towards poetry and like its title, I couldn't put it down. However, as a piece of storytelling, too many questions are left unanswered and the characters beg to be developed. The ending was abrupt, to say the least. Leavitt has written better novels (my favourite being While England Sleeps) but The Page Turner is still an enlightening experience for fans of one of the most eloquent writers of modern fiction - gay or otherwise.