A Stairway to Paradise [Paperback]

Madeleine St. John (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2000

From the Booker Prize nominee, a wise novel that takes a clear-eyed look at the profound nature of love and the inconvenience of desire. This smart novel ensnares three thirty-something Londoners in a moral quandary of emotion, desire, and discontent. While Alex, a successful Fleet Street journalist, has surrendered to a cold, calmly professional marriage for the sake, he says, of his two children, his old friend Andrew, an amiable academic recently back from America, has left his ex-wife and the daughter he adores on the other side of the world. Although neither Andrew nor Alex can offer the enchanting, elusive Barbara what she thinks she wants of romance, both men, in escalating degrees of desperation, try - to comic if not entirely happy consequence. "[St John] writes with grace, fluidity and emotion.... She is a wise writer, and a humane one, and A Stairway to Paradise is a beautiful book." - Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World; "Deftly written and delightful.... A deeply moral novel.... St John's prose is spare but rich.... With her taut writing, she never once fails to convey the emotional intensity of her characters' lives." - Commonweal; "[An] elegant dagger of a novel, painfully on the mark." - Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Booker Prize-nominee (The Essence of the Thing) St. John casts a droll eye over sentimental entanglements in this sophisticated novel, which features three hapless, intertwined lovers. "After all, it's not our fault," acknowledges Andrew Flynn, one of two middle-aged, lovelorn men who lust after the elusive Barbara, "that we're ignorant and ineptAit's the way we're designed, basically.... as a species, we're still in the experimental stage." Flynn has just returned to London after a 10-year teaching stint in the U.S., leaving a broken marriage and young daughter behind. His friend Alex, a successful journalist, is stuck in a loveless marriage to Claire. Both men fall in love with Barbara, an elusive, charming young woman who can't decide where to plant her feet. Andrew thinks of Barbara as he sits in his "brand-new, rather empty sitting-room," and Alex obsesses over her while Claire is away at the Scunthorpe Literary Festival. Confronted by the reciprocation of Barbara's feelings, Alex is "too amazed by it to be able to think," much less do anything. He explains that he and his wife have a "modus operandi," and plan to stay together until their youngest child, age eight, is old enough to attend boarding school. (The two children, meanwhile, secretly count the days until their parents divorce.) Barbara refuses to have an affair with a married man. No one feels sorry for himself or herself: they simply drift along, hoping for the best, expecting little. This refreshing and witty if sometimes dauntingly British novel demonstrates that people give themselves all sorts of reasons to avoid "paradise." (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Booker Prize nominee St. John (The Essence of the Thing) writes quiet British novels that explore emotional relationships from the inside. In her latest, two men vie for the love of the same woman, the beautiful but bland Barbara. Barbara is staying at her friend Claire's house, looking after the children while Claire is away. At first Barbara is repulsed by Alex, her friend's husband, calling him "nasty Mr. Rochester." But as in Jane Eyre, Barbara falls in love with her Mr. Rochester, and when Alex refuses to leave Claire, Barbara despondently ends the affair. Alex then introduces her to his friend Andrew, and Andrew falls in love with Barbara as well. He is recently back in Britain after a failed marriage to an American woman and looks forward to returning to his roots: "English life: sweet, sweet rice pudding, lumpy and sweet and deceptively bland." St. John, who has been compared to Iris Murdoch and Mary Wesley, captures the mixture of emotions that result from lust, longing, and deceit. Recommended for public libraries.ABeth Gibbs, P.L. of Charlotte & Mecklenburg Cty., NC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (September 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078670795X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786707959
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,239,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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