Valentine: A Novel (Paperback)

by Lucius Shepard (Author) "THERE ARE COUNTRIES THAT EXIST only for a matter of days, sometimes only for hours, not lasting long enough to be named or even recognized..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Grub's Nest, Ski Ball (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
A hurricane alert strands a pair of lovers in a small Florida town, leading to a steamy erotic interlude in which Shepard (The Jaguar Hunter) traces the evolution of the couple's passionate affair as well as their problematic future together. Russell is a freelance journalist on assignment in Florida who runs into Kay Rossman, a beautiful, married college professor with whom he's been having an intense, off-again-on-again affair for some time. In between bouts of passion, some brief and rather vague references are made to Rossman's difficult marriage; her husband is a controlling man whom she feels compelled to stay with out of loyalty. Her divided allegiances cause considerable tension with Russell, and Shepard delineates the arc of their deep-seated love by tracing their various passionate encounters until the moment finally comes when they must leave one another. The story closes with some intense last-minute negotiations in which Russell agrees to move to Los Angeles to be close to Rossman and support her when she leaves her husband; a couple of tepid plot twists round out the final resolution. Shepard is an artful, accomplished writer who certainly knows his way around an erotically charged love scene, but he fails to flesh out the plot with anything other than the constant coupling of his two lovers. The result is an arousing but one-dimensional novel by a writer who has the talent to craft a far more complete book.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Cast as a love letter from a man to his married lover, Shepard's novel is haunting and magical. When a well-traveled journalist and his former lover are stranded in a small town in South Florida because of a hurricane, they fall in love all over again. Although they have been lovers off and on since college, neither the man nor his girlfriend has ever really taken the time to know the other completely--until now. When the hurricane recedes, and they go back to their separate lives, they find that their recent time together has created a bond they can no longer ignore. Highly reminiscent of the feminist classic The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899), Valentine is erotic and despairing in tone as it traces the transformation of lust into something deeper. Shepard's protagonist intersperses the passionate entreaties of a man in love with philosophical musings on memory, desire, chaos, synchronicity, fate, and the way that different stories play out in our lives. Bonnie Johnston
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 181 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156858251X
• ISBN-13: 978-1568582511
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,838,946 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gotta Read This!, March 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Valentine (Hardcover)

Seriously. Perfect title: I bought it for my girlfriend; she loved it so much she made me read it. The prose is so erotic, well, it sparked up our relationship a bit (like "91/2 Weeks"). Shepard's knack for telling detail and precise insight combine to provide an experience of both breathtaking description and emotional impact. This guy writes like a demon and you should read him ASAP.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dream lover, March 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Valentine (Hardcover)

A beautifully written little book about love and the illusion of love. Shepard's lyrical yet emotionally precise prose illuminates the mysterious process of the weathers of the heart by choosing to isolate his lovers in a town itself isolated by hurricane whose reality is in question. Is it all a dream, a story the narrator is telling to a woman for whom he longs, or an actual record of a moment in "a serial affair?" Whatever the case, VALENTINE reads like the essence of a love affair, the distillation of a dream. Its intensity and luminous clarity is obviously the product of a man in love--a very talented man named Lucius Shepard.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story of romance and love lost in Florida, June 5, 2002

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Valentine (Hardcover)

It's hard to easily classify this title: part novel, part fantasy, is this story of romance and love lost in Florida, where a hurricane brings an unusual reunion with a lost love. A series of strange circumstances involves them in frightening possibilities in this unusual story.