Customer Reviews

Tea: A Novel

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

 

 

I was familiar with some of D'Erasmo's writing in the Voice, and so I looked forward to reading Tea. Simply put, this is a terrific novel; it was compulsively readable and struck a perfect balance between detached third-person narration and the at times overwhelming emotions of Isabel, its protagonist. There wasn't an overabundance of attention on the establishment of Isabel's sexual identity, and I liked that D'Erasmo focused instead on other aspects of character development. The book's sharp humor appealed to me, and overall, this was a relatively quick but still satisfying read.

At first, "Tea" did not hook me like so many other stories have. I felt that it was vague and stale, D'Erasmo only partially achieving the artistic storyline that was obviously being attempted.

However, by the time I reached the second section, "Afternoon," I could not set the book down. What at first had seemed mundane and ordinary had taken on a new shape. I began to realize that the beauty of D'Erasmo's story was in its simplicity. An unexpected intimacy with Isabel, the main character, had been established, and I was eager to read along, to watch her discover life and loss.

In no way was Isabel perfect. She was confused and idiosyncratic -- an inquistive, introspective, ordinary child who grew to be a resiliant, astute, yet ordinary twenty-something with a passionate will to survive.

The beauty of D'Erasmo's writing comes through the simplicity it conveys, through both form and content. The words are raw, yet powerful.

How many have fled suburbia for "the big city" in hopes of achieving self-actualization and fulfilling artistic dreams? Once there, they may realize that although they've left family home behind much of the past has journeyed with them.

Such is the case with Isabel Gold, the memorable protagonist of Tea, an impressive first novel by book reviewer and editor Stacey D'Erasmo. Emotionally complex and arrestingly candid, Tea heralds the debut of a writer with a gift for original imagery and perceptive reading of the human heart.

With a nod to middle America in the 1970s Tea opens as a young Isabel accompanies Cassie, her mother, on a house hunting expedition in the country. Cassie is a nurse who once dreamed of being an actress; Mr. Gold owns and operates a dry cleaning business.

A school project, replicating an ancient Roman house, takes much of Isabel's time until April of 1968 when Cassie commits suicide "at the hospital where she worked, locking herself in a supply closet with a vast amount of pills, as if to say: This is the size of my hunger."

Jeannie, the Gold's only other child, is very much unlike Isabel. She loves machinery, going to the dry cleaning store and seeing the dolly, the steamer, the presser "with its thick padded arms." Jeannie collects puppies, stuffed animals. She acquiesces. Isabel tests boundaries, beginning with hours spent at Lottie's house. They slather themselves with a peroxide and baby oil mixture to toast in the sun. Lottie is a leader, "the rule giver." She shoplifts a black bikini for Isabel, and gives Isabel her first lesbian kiss. The third member of their triune is "alternately wired and silent" Ben.

Eventually, Isabel volunteers with a theater group that is presenting "Equus." She is rewarded by being allowed to play a horse. Since the memory of Cassie is never far from her mind, Isabel wonders if her mother did really have potential as an actress: "If she did have potential, she died still clutching it in her hands, like unplayed cards."

"Isabel intended to play them all. All of them, one by one. Beginning with this beautiful silver horse."

Following college, she tries to play those cards by moving to New York City with her lover, Thea, "whose family was Greek, and rich, and thoroughly scandalized by her." Living in an Avenue A apartment, they subsist on "Isabel's paychecks from her lowly office job at the Van Zandt Foundation for the Arts and Thea's paychecks from driving a newspaper delivery truck." Their goal is to make an experimental film about the goddess Diana.

Yet, as her 22nd birthday approaches, Isabel still cannot escape thoughts of her mother. She imagines "slowly, what her mother would have given her on this birthday."

"Isabel had done this on every birthday since her mother died. At nine, the imaginary gifts were meeting the Monkees and white go-go boots and every single Nancy Drew. At twelve, a record player, a trip to California, just the two of them. At eighteen, a dalmatian and a long red silk scarf, and at twenty-one, a piece of property in the woods no one knew about."

Related in three sections, each an important juncture in the life of Isabel Gold, Tea is a coming of age tale, a story of intellectual and physical intimacy related with wit, reality and truth.

It is also an important juncture in the life of Stacey D'Erasmo as it introduces her to the world as a major talent.

Having glanced at the other reviews of this book, I'm not surprised at the full range of stars - one to five. To be perfectly honest, I felt much like each and every one of the reviews at different parts of this book. I didn't really know where the book was going, found it wonderfully character-driven instead of plot-driven, got angry at all of the characters, and so on.

The phrase "coming of age" has been beaten to death in the world of book reviews, but I can't think of another way to describe this novel. The sheer damage done to a child when its mother mentions she'd like to die - and later commits suicide, sets this story off on a unique spiral. The daughter, Isabel, grows under the vague shadow of this mother's suicide and with only the ephemeral bits and pieces she remembers of her mother: a love of theatre and movies, tennis, and, obviously, tea.

Isabel seems to try to bring those tiny bits - not enough to make a full picture of her mother - into her life at every major juncture. She imagines what gifts her mother could give her at each birthday, for example. She drifts quite a bit through life, without a whole lot of focus, in a way that can be alternately maddening and sad.

Somehow, this book managed to keep my attention and my empathy, even though I was often quite frustrated with Isabel and most of her friends - most of which are shallow and/or lacking in self-esteem. In part, it was the language - the text in this book is just beautiful. But though not a plot-driven book, the character of Isabel was also enough for me: she was by no means a perfect individual, and it was engrossing to wait and see if she could piece enough together from her ideas and half-rememberings to form a life of her own, free from under the very same half-ideas and rememberings she thinks she needs.

I enjoyed this - don't get me wrong. For all the various frustrations, it felt right to me on some level that led to real satisfaction in the reading. But I can easily see how it would not be for everyone.

'Nathan

I bought this book based on the back blurb, but I think that whoever wrote that description didn't read much more than 2 chapters in. Character development was rather weak (especially for Isabel's mother, on whom the plot should seemingly hinge, vis a vis her daughter), and the timeline of events is somewhat chopped up because of the great jumps in time between each section of the book. Basically, there are other stories of this ilk that have been written better, and you wouldn't miss much by passing up this book.

written well enough, but a pretty exhausted theme and flat, undeveloped characters. not really worth the bother.

I give "Tea" by Stacey D'Erasmo three stars only because, in the end, she had me; I had to finish the book. In the 'Morning' section, I found myself rather angry at the author for not building up the character of the mother at all before she is suddenly missing nearly entirely from the story.

I recall turning the pages back and forth wondering where I had somehow missed the part where the mother commits suicide. It is practically implied instead of written. And the younger sister's story as far as her interaction with Isabel is almost completely missing.

Even so, I read on for want of what Isabel and her friends were going to do next or how she was going to treat them as her personality, interests and the relationship with her best friend changes as she grows up.

About half way through the 'Afternoon' section, I found myself bored and ended up picking up another book and finishing it in its entirety before going back to "Tea" again.

I read through the end of 'Afternoon' and on to nearly finish the book before I again picked up another book reading that one before going back to "Tea" for a third try.

In my third attempt, I finally finished the book but I won't be looking to read more of Stacey D'Erasmo nor have I recommended "Tea" one to anyone.

If the characters were drawn more clearly, the story encompassed details that were missing and it didn't jump so far ahead in time with no steps back to tell what happened in the skipped years, it could have been a very good read.

TEA by Stacey D'Erasmo is a sensitive and evocative exploration of same gender relationships, their development

and success or failure. It is a serious look at how all relationships can start off with high hopes, and then over a relataively short time, seem to evaporate like dew on a summer morning. I feel she brings out pointers which question cultural influences defeating relationships between women early on.

It was an interesting story, but sometimes I felt my mind wandering, when the story didn't hold my attention.

While this book has gotten some strong regonition and kudos in the community it did nothing for me. The book is more character than plot driven, and the characters are not that interesting! I really thought this book would focus more on Isabel and her relationship whith her mother as she relects back on her time spent with her as she grows up. And how that relationship shapes her adult life as a lesbian. Her mother's death should be a catlyst but is a rather flat, useless side note. I kept expecting this book to take off like a rocket but it keeps plodding along like a farm tractor on a empty field. In the end, this book left me more frustrated and angry over the time I wasted on it.

This novel is a dream. It is a tale woven simply and quite deftly from impression and nuance. One falls easilly for its charms and rather feels that it is the sort of tale not only read but passed through. Its characters are so readilly pondered,so unpretentiously presented. It breathes. The gift of lending true life and light to prose is rare, and such a honest approach is readilly welcome. Such frankness and clarity.exceptional!