Banishing Verona: A Novel (Paperback)

by Margot Livesey (Author) "He had replaced five lightbulbs that day and by late afternoon could not help anticipating the soft ping of the filament flying apart whenever he..." (more)
Key Phrases: hmm sound, lining paper, New York, Verona Maclntyre, Lake District (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Margot Livesey's Banishing Verona is the story of two people who enjoy an enchanted evening together, and then spend the next few weeks chasing each other across continents in order to decide if it's the real thing. Zeke Cafarelli is an endearingly timid, rather obsessive-compulsive housepainter who dismantles clocks, "laying out the springs and coils in careful sequence and putting them back together," in order to gain the courage to leave his house. Verona MacIntyre is a seven-months-pregnant radio talk show host who goes back and forth between wanting to rescue her wayward brother and simply wanting to rescue herself. The backdrop for this ethereal novel is London and Boston, and Livesey does a masterful job of creating characters out of the cities and places that house her protagonists.

Banishing Verona is a love story at its core; however, Zeke and Verona are seen together in only a few scenes. Instead, Livesey tells the story from each character's perspective, overlapping time and place yet creating entirely unique situations. Each event is described with such precision that even the most mundane tasks take on a sense of importance that feels almost palpable. ("Then he noticed the red light on the phone, blinking ... He raised the receiver and heard only the usual high-pitched note; he had no idea what to do next.")

While her attention to detail may seem a bit excessive at times, Livesey is undeniably adept at creating a vivid, colorful world whose only purpose is to exist as a backdrop for Zeke and Verona's search for self, and for each other. Even secondary characters, like Zeke's employee Emmanuel and Verona's brother Henry, are only there to accentuate the good (and the bad) in our hero and heroine. Still, the underlying message here is that no one ever really knows anyone else, or as Zeke says, "Only years later ... did he grasp that even at their most vivid ... his thoughts were invisible, not only to teachers and tyrants, but to everyone..." What keeps us reading this dreamy novel until the very last page is the hope that people exist who are willing to take a chance on what can never truly be a sure thing. --Gisele Toueg

From Publishers Weekly
Livesey's lovely fifth novel tells the story of Zeke, a 29-year-old London housepainter with "the face of a Raphael angel" and an autism-like difficulty relating to other people, and Verona, who shows up at a house Zeke is working on, very pregnant and claiming to be the owners' niece. After they spend a night together, Verona disappears, leaving a pair of painter's coveralls nailed to the floor. Neither can forget the other. As Zeke goes on a hunt for the mysterious Verona, she calls him—from Boston, where she has, in a slightly far-fetched turn of events, gone to hunt down her blithely amoral brother, Henry, to convince him to repay his creditors, who have begun threatening her. Zeke heeds her instructions to meet her there, only to spend days alone in a hotel room as she contacts him from New York and then from London, when, Henry's financial matters settled, she abruptly goes home. Devastated, he returns to London, ignores her calls (even burying his answering machine to fully banish her), but finally gives in to the powerful connection he felt the moment he met her. The off-kilter chronology of their alternating stories works well, and both Zeke and Verona have just enough quirks to be endearing without being implausible; the supporting characters are similarly well realized. As Livesey (Eva Moves the Furniture) gently probes the depths of longing, betrayal and forgiveness, her gift for creating sublimely unexpected sentences is abundantly on display: Zeke's "emotions were swirling and scattering like leaves in a playground on a windy day; he glimpsed joy, rage, hope, amazement, jealousy, frustration and exaltation flashing by." "You're the opposite of Narcissus," an old girlfriend of Zeke's tells him. Moments like these are ghosts that dance in the reader's vision long after the photographer's flashbulb has popped.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (October 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805074627
• ISBN-13: 978-0805074628
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #902,498 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent writing, plus a real plot!, November 11, 2004

By	J. Rosenberg "reggieroy" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was immediately drawn in by the characters, Zeke and Verona. I so much wanted their relationship to work out, that when at one point I wasn't sure it would, my "heart fell."

They were totally alive to me, as were the supporting cast of parents, brothers and friends. The descriptions of the way Zeke responded to life were clear and fascinating. I was particularly charmed by his encounter with the nurse, Jill, and their few days together in Boston.

There were a few tiny points that might have been hard to believe, such as Jill's beginning her work as a nurse the day after she arrived in Boston from London, but I accepted it all because it was so obvious that Livesey cared about her characters.

I recommend this highly to anyone who has suffered through books whose characters' actions make no sense and through books that are written only to confuse the reader. In this case, I knew exactly how I was supposed to feel when it ended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A person could not be measured in normal solar time", March 29, 2005

By	M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Zeke Cafarelli is twenty-nine, rather shy, angelically handsome, an antique clock collector, and a house painter. He's been to college, but he suffers from a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome, so life is often cluttered and disorderly. Zeke's parents love him dearly, but Don, his father has recently had a heart attack and his mother, Gwen is threatening to run away with Maurice, her new lover. They both want Zeke to give up his painting job, and help run their grocery shop.

One morning, while painting the house of Gerald and Ariel Barrow, Zeke answers the door, and meets Verona Macintyre, a single, seven months pregnant, thirty seven-year-old London radio talk-show host. With suitcase in hand, she claims to be the niece of the absent owners, and after cooking dinner; she and Zeke spend the night together. The next morning Verona mysteriously vanishes, puzzlingly leaving her coveralls nailed to the floor. But it's all too late because Zeke is absolutely besotted, and instantly becomes obsessed with finding her.

Life for Zeke is complicated: his Mother and Father are constantly hounding him, and his disability makes it hard to respond appropriately in social situations. It's as though two large figures are standing on either side of Zeke tugging - "to his left his non-niece whom he wants desperately to find," and to the right, his father, "who has left four messages and who now prefers a parrot to his son."

Verona, failed to tell Zeke that Nigel and George, two thugs are harassing her; they're after her unscrupulous and capricious brother Henry. Henry, with his history of sociopathic lies and deceit, has recently got himself involved in a shady real estate deal and the creditors are demanding repayment. Verona flees to America to try to find him - " the boy born without a conscience," while Zeke continues to pine away in London.

The remainder of the book alternates voices, as Zeke tries to reunite with Verona, and she, equally smitten, but on the run from her incompetent brother's pecuniary malfeasance, leads him on a far-from-merry chase to Boston and back to London. Zeke readily admits that he doesn't want to rewrite the past, he wants to rewrite the present; it's as if he were viewing, even the people he new best, "through a pane of glass." And part of the joy of this story is not just Zeke's transatlantic journey, but also his journey towards the world of self-confidence and self-assurance.

Packed with nuances of everyday life, Livesey has created some totally amazing characters, who are constantly finding themselves in some unusual situations. Her observations on "the unknowable nature of people" are unsurpassed. For Zeke, life's observations are precious: "most things when you get close gradually reveal themselves - like clocks, doorbells, and trains - but humans only grow more puzzling with proximity."

Banishing Verona is part eccentric comedy of manners, and also part statement on the difficulties of keeping and maintaining loving relationships. The novel is also offering the reader some astute observations on the mysteries of human nature. Livesey is saying that trust; having trust in oneself, and developing trust in others, is of the utmost importance, because without trust, one cannot participate most fully in life. This is a wonderful tale, with a narrative that offers a rich and rewarding journey into two very idiosyncratic internal lives, a pair of incompatible lovers, who might, with any luck, find the strength to open up to each other, and move forward as one. Mike Leonard March 05.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another beautiful novel by Margot Livesey!, December 2, 2004

By	CoffeeGurl (MA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Ever since I read The Missing World, Margot Livesey has been one of my all-time favorite authors. Her novels are often dark and thought-provoking, but with a prose so beautiful that you cannot put her books down. I couldn't wait to read another one of her novels. I am so glad I read Banishing Verona. Zeke is a twenty-nine-year-old house painter and handyman in London. He is described as having the face of a Raphael angel. But Zeke is not good at dealing with people. He possesses communication problems that are not unlike that of an autistic person. However, the appearance of a strange woman changes things in his life in dramatic ways. No sooner does Verona appear at the house that he is working on than she vanishes. Zeke soon finds himself in a cat and mouse chase, trying to track down Verona, while at the same time dealing with unfinished business regarding his family. There are various twists throughout the novel.

Once again, Margot Livesey delivers a dark, beautiful novel that enthralls from beginning to end. This novel, while a little complex to describe in a short plot summary, is a literary marvel. It is in some ways better than Eva Moves the Furniture, my favorite Livesey novel. Zeke is a wonderful and abstruse character, and Verona is as elusive as a character could get. The development of the story is a little disjointed in the beginning, but falls into place quickly enough. There are a few disarming surprises in this novel that are not unlike the ones in Criminals and The Missing World, but without the shock factor of the aforementioned novels. The one thing I did not like in the story was how one of the characters settled in and was employed soon after arriving to Boston from London. That bit of the book is quite unrealistic. Other than that, Banishing Verona is a must-read in more ways than one. I urge readers to try Margot Livesey if they haven't done. She is without a doubt one of the best British writers of today.