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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,
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,
By
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.,
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.
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