Customer Reviews

The Remedy: A Novel

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

 

 

While still reeling from the brutal murder of his business partner and friend, Valentine Greatrakes goes to the theatre one night, seeking a distraction from his anger and grief. The last thing he expected was to find himself totally consumed with desire for the stage's latest sensation, the Venetian actress, Mimosina Dolcezza. Valentine immediately begins the campaign to make her his mistress. But what Valentine doesn't know is that Mimosina has desires and secrets of her own. Desires that will force him to choose between his longing for her and his obligations to his ward, Pevenche; and secrets that have to do with his dead partner...

Michelle Lovric is a talented writer -- there is no doubt about that. I found myself becoming completely enthralled with the vivid manner in which she described places -- like the cool and dark cells of the convent with it's tree lined gardens; the warm theatre, heavy with the smells of candles and greasepaint; the noisy and odorous slums of London; and the liquid and tantalising brilliance of Venice in the late eighteenth century. And then there were the brilliantly rendered scenes where a very young Mimosina describes the temper tantrum she throws when she realises that her parents mean to incarcerate her in the convent forever. However, in spite of all these wonderfully descriptive paragraphs, "The Remedy" did not completely engage. And that was because I found it difficult to take to any of the characters in this book. Perhaps it is because my usual reading staples are mystery novels where one rather quickly identifies with the sympathetic main character. I didn't find any of the characters -- Mimosina Dolcezza, Valentine Greatrakes or Pevenche very engaging. Mimosina was far too conniving and cold for my taste. I know that we're supposed to feel some sympathy for this woman who had been cruelly used and tricked, but because this character seemed so completely incapable of feeling anything for anyone except herself, and because she spent so much time justifying her actions, I felt quite repelled by her. As for the supposed "hero," Valentine Greatrakes (what a name!), I found him to be completely ineffectual and far too easily led for the supposedly dangerous King of the London underworld; while one actually only gets to "know" Pevenche through the eyes of Mimosina and Valentine -- neither of whom can be considered to be actual pillars of unbiased partiality. We do get brief glimpses of the "real" Pevenche -- the author uses Pevenche's shorter narrations to close each of the four segments of the book. However, while I found Pevenche's matter-of-fact accounting of events refreshingly different and a little more palatable, I still found it difficult to be totally engaged by this character. Perhaps because my opinions were corrupted by Mimosina's and Valentine's points-of-view. On the other hand, in spite of the fact that I didn't take to any of the characters, I still found myself reading "The Remedy" avidly, savouring every description and turn of phrase. And there are some really wonderful bits in this book -- like the entire segment where Mimosina, after escaping her employers, returns to London and lives and works in slums with a couple of conmen. This, I think was the best bit in the book and made for wonderful reading. And while I had more or less begun to suspect who the murderer of Valentine's partner would be, the vivid and chilling manner in which Pevenche relates what she suspects at the end of the book made for good reading too. So that all in all, in spite of my reservations, I would rate "The Remedy" as a well written and very absorbing 3 1/2 star read.

In eighteenth century Venice, the daughter of one of the city's leading families is locked away in a convent, against her will. In London, Valentine Greatrakes has built an underworld empire, smuggling goods into the city from the continent. When he meets a beautiful Venetian actress, he falls helplessly in love with her. This sets in motion a complicated tale of love and loss, betrayal and miscommunication across a continent. Detailed descriptions of both Venice and London provide a lush setting for this story, which alternates between these two cities. Unfortunately, the pacing of the first half of the story is slow, and it took much too long to warm up to Valentine Greatrakes. I came very close to putting this book down before the pace picked up in the middle. The second half of the book is better paced, and the plot takes a number of satisfying twists, finally drawing the reader into the story. In the end the story is satisfying, and provides a wonderful glimpse into life in London and Venice in the eighteenth century.

(This review was based on a pre-publication Advanced Reader's Edition.)

I'm at a loss how to categorize this book: It much of it centers on romance and a love story of sorts, but it is not a typical romance. It starts with a murder and ends with the solution to that murder, but is not a mystery. There are spies, there is espionage in the good old fashioned sense (an actress reporting to her keepers for starters) but it in no way resembles the spy stories of today. Borne would be totally clueless with this one. Good girl gone bad, or perhaps bad girl gone good-- problem parenting (and awful child, who actually becomes one of my favorite characters-- the horrible Pevenche. I'm not sure how to pronounce he rrname but it always sounded somethig like "peevish" in my head, which suited her well.) Lovric certainly researched the story well. The problem may be that I also just picked up Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, and this book falls somewhat flat in comparison. But it still definitely brings the sights, sounds and smells of a world long gone to mind.

Lovric is a talented author who remains true to the convention of gothic romance. The story of a woman who is too unconventional to fit in to a convent and therefore becomes an actress/spy is layered with the story of a patent medicine magnate who becomes enamored with her. Lovric interestingly details the seamy underbelly of London and reveals the intricacies of mutual seduction.

This was an enjoyable read if a little convoluted and at times depressing. The main characters were sucessful but I never completely identified with any of them. They were veneered with the teflon of an antisocial type that kept me from grabbing onto emotional development or individuality. Perhaps done on purpose by the author, but kept me from fully enjoying the novel.

This book was a surprise in that I started it, found it extremely slow going and put it aside, only to pick it up again months later and end up enjoying it immensely.

As an author myself, I could see where the author of this book struggled with trying to be a bit too enigmatic about her characters (as well as her plot) in the beginning, and then tried to make up for it later, which led to a bit of overall "jerkiness" in the story. I found myself questioning character motivations that seemed contrived at times, but once I forced myself to suspend disbelief and just accept the story as it was written, it was worth it.

Valentine's worship of Mimosina was both endearing and irritating, because Mimosina herself was such an unsympathetic, one-dimensional, doll-like character until the middle of the book. Despite an early tragedy that should've made her sympathetic to the reader, she came across as far too hard, selfish, manipulative and self-indulgent. Once the reader was allowed to get to know her, however, it was a different story (hence my earlier reference to "jerkiness" - there were times when I felt I actually WAS reading a different story than the one the author had begun with).

While I had a very good idea of how it was going to end (and I was right) there were aspects to the ending I never saw coming. I love being able to close a book feeling that the read itself left me satisfied, and this one did.

Michelle Lovric has a certain haunting quality to her writing that grips the reader's attention. The story in itself is intense, if not breathtakingly innovative. It is the fresh storytelling style that makes this book an engrossing, significant read. For lovers of literary prose, this is a book that cannot be missed. The writer holds your hand and takes you through 18th Century Eurpoe, the walls of the continent coming alive in her brilliant, language, so full of life. Well worth an Orange Prize listing.

This book was an interesting and engaging read. Lovric knows how to do more than just tell a story- she brings her words to life. She uses details that other writers overlook, and it was nice to read a book that felt truly real.
My only problem is that the story tends to drag a little at the beginning. I would not have minded if the start of Mimosina and Valentine's romance was told at a faster pace. Also, I didn't care for Valentine Greatrakes. The parts of the story told from his perspective are not nearly as interesting as those told from Mimosina's point of view. In the end, Mimosina's story was the one I found most interesting.
Overall, it really is a wonderful book, and I strongly recommend reading it.

I suppose its no surprise that the more books I review, the better I get at identifying a really good book-or a really bad one. After all the reviewing process applies logical thought and reflection to what would otherwise be a simple pleasure response. But sometimes taking a deeper look at a book turns something I would have enjoyed into something that I was just very aware of the flaws of. I guess that makes the message here a little considered knowledge is a dangerous (or disappointing) thing.

At first glance "The Remedy" seems to have it all. An aristocratic Venetian girl forced to be a nun, turned into an actress and professional seductress to gain information to help her homeland after the death of her son, conceived when she was sneaking out of the convent. A poor Irish boy turned smuggling magnet who supplies every quack doctor on the south side of the Thames and gets a cut from all of their "doctoring." A strange woman child who no one can remember the age of and is either very large for her age or very, very infantile. And a mystery that binds the three together.

But if you take a deeper look then cracks appear. None of the characters have any depth beyond the superficial, which means the romance between the actress and the smuggler is pushed into the always disappointing "love at first sight" plot line and falls very flat. The mystery, once you're about halfway through the book, is extremely apparent if you have any sense of drama or have read a book before. And its not really a mystery. But the largest problem is that the book doesn't really have a plot. It's just kind of a string of things happening to the characters and them doing things-but it never really rises to a natural point of conflict, there's never really any resolution.

Add into that the atmosphere of the book-forever in twilight, sooty and wintry settings which brought this reader into a very gloomy mood- and you have a depressing string of events that's been bound together and called a novel.

I really wanted to love this book. Not just because of the premis on the book jacket but because one reviewer called it a "bodice ripper for the MENSA set" and I can always use an intelligent historical romance. But this just turned out to be a kind of stiffly written, very unrealistic romance with a lot of words I'd never heard of before-al used in medical context in the little description of some drug of the time period at the beginning of each chapter.

Two stars. For the potential that it had.