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Starting Out in the Evening (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: New York, Henry James, Leonard Schiller (more...)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Brian Morton's Starting Out in the Evening is a study in the danger of expectations. Heather Wolfe, a pretty, brash graduate student, is confident that her thesis on the novelist Leonard Schiller will put her on the literary fast track. Yet her first meeting with her idol produces something of a shock: "He came toward her smiling. Old, fat, bald, leaning awkwardly on a cane. The man of her dreams." Can this elderly author and "man of routines" really be the looming figure whose early fictions changed her life? The more she comes to know Schiller, the more he confounds her: his willingness to toil in obscurity falls far short of Heather's romanticized ideal. She can't even quite decide "if he was a hero or if he had wasted his life."

Schiller, however, views his own life quite differently. At first he's seduced by Heather's flattering attentions, and succumbs to at least a frisson of desire for love and fame. Yet ultimately this thoughtful, dignified man wants only to finish what he has begun. He has "no illusions about the scale of his achievement, but he had tried, through art, to bring a little more beauty, a little more tolerance, a little more coherence into the world." With wise and compassionate prose, Morton examines the intersection of these two lives, intertwining their story with a third one--that of Ariel, Schiller's unhappy 40-year-old daughter. Along the way, the author quietly raises a number of questions about the utility of art, its power to inflect our dreams, and, finally, what makes a life well lived. It is to Morton's credit that he doesn't presume to answer such questions. Yet the skill with which he asks them makes Starting Out in the Evening an elegiac and deeply affecting novel. --Marianne Painter --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In beautifully nuanced scenes, Heather Wolfe, a 24-year-old graduate student, forces a meeting with broken-down Leonard Schiller, an out-of-print, sick old writer whose early works, written during the heyday of 1940s and 1950s New York intellectualism, forever changed Heather's life. Targeted as the subject of Heather's master's thesis, Schiller quickly falls under the seductive promise of her admiration, much to the distress of Ariel, his 39-year-old daughter, whose own struggles with failed romance and childlessness derail her energy. Morton (The Dylanist, HarperCollins, 1991) demonstrates an astonishingly sensitive appreciation for his characters as he reveals with unnerving accuracy the most private thoughts not only of his women but of the dying old man as well. These mismatched souls gradually realize that their individual journeys, which they thought were drawing to a close, are in fact new beginnings. Morton's respect for his characters and his audience is a quiet literary triumph. Highly recommended.
-?Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., Mich.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Harvest Books; 1 edition (October 1, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0156033410
  • ISBN-13: 978-0156033411
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #183,167 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Brian Morton
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New York, Henry James, Leonard Schiller, Victor Mature, The Lost City, Heather Wolfe, Central Park, William James, Ninth Avenue, Edmund Wilson, Lou Reed, Miss Wolfe, Partisan Review, Noam Chomsky, Star Trek, Russell's Comet, Two Marriages, Isaac Rosenfeld, Lives of My Friends
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Customer Reviews

47 Reviews
5 star:
 (27)
4 star:
 (13)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (47 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful story of life, love and passion, March 14, 2003
This review is from: Starting Out In the Evening (Paperback)
This book sat on my bookshelf for nearly five years, and I cannot believe I allowed it to. It is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. It is deep and sentimental in topic, and yet it reads like a fast paced novel.

The characters are intense and mulit-dimensional: Leonard Schiller, a seventy something writer who's life has been dedicated to his art; Ariel, his forty year old daughter in search of her life's meaning and someone to father a child; and Heather, a twenty something aspiring writer and critic who decides to write a master's thesis on Schiller's work.

The relationship of the two women will Schiller is incredibly portrayed, as with Ariel Schiller is a loving and nurturing man, and with Heather, his passions are reignited and she makes him feel young. Also interesting is the way Heather and Ariel portray Schiller, and also the way these two women change as Schiller's life circumstances change.

The parallels drawn between the three characters is fascinating, especially since each person is so different, and at such a different place in life. Ironically, even though each feels so different from the other, when the older two are compared to Heather in their memories, it seems they are more similar then they think.

At the end of this beautiful book, one cannot help but wonder what happens to the characters. Schiller's life goal at the end is to complete his final novel, and I so wish he were a real person so that I could read it. He is a beautiful charcter that brings memories of Morrie Schwartz from Tuesdays With Morrie.

If you are looking for a touching, moving, beautifully written book, don't wait any longer. Pick this book up and you will not put it down. Even when you are finished, the characters live on.

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Only l6 Reviews?, February 22, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Starting Out In the Evening (Paperback)
I should think hundreds of people would have written in praise of this novel. I am 65 years old and was in wonder how an author could so accurately portray both youth and old age.

I give it 5 stars because of the joy it brought to me. Am buying paperbacks to give to friends. Sometimes it seemed a bit choppy to me - but this is just my opinion - it still is a wonderful novel and I hope the author thinks about a sequel.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Luminous Prose, July 17, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Starting Out In the Evening (Paperback)
Though much positive already appears here, sometimes you have to add yourself to the crowd. I am a writer and teacher of writing. This prose is truly beautiful and luminous. The clear loving portraits of his characters are unique in that they never veer into the sort of touchy-feely take that so many books do. His characters are distinct and cantankerous, broken and striving for connection, doomed and lovely and by this somehow more whole and human than is at first, seemingly possible. This is a writer who writes a book until it is finished, not until deadline is met. A beauty. Something he can have as a triumph of his own art -- always -- no matter sales, no matter what may come.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Cheesy and slow
This book had a lot of promise, I thought. I generally enjoy reading novels with a "literary" theme. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Timothy J. Bazzett

1.0 out of 5 stars Slow moving, and boring
Self involved people saying not much about not much. A total waste of time.
Published 2 months ago by mimi

5.0 out of 5 stars A lovely character study
My reaction to this novel was very unusual for me: when I finished the last page, I immediately turned back to the beginning and started again. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Tinamom

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well written novel
Brian Morton's disciplined writing is refreshing. Clear thoughts and plot depiction, no fluff. Wish I could write so well. Read more
Published 10 months ago by T. Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Insightful
Brian Morton's books are always about personal relationships. He seems to be very good at expressing human feelings at different stages of life. Read more
Published 12 months ago by L. Topich

5.0 out of 5 stars I saw the movie first then bought the book - the story is that good!
Leonard Schiller is a 71 year-old writer whose glory days have passed. Widowed and living alone, he now worries about his daughter who is almost 40, unmarried and wants a baby... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Ruth J. Bernardo

5.0 out of 5 stars To read and re-read
I bought this novel after seeing the film by the same name in Manhattan. I didn't even know two of my friends were in it, or that it was almost filmed in another friend's... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Kirie Pedersen

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost a great one
Brian Morton, whatever else can be said about him, is an extremely readable writer. I've noticed the word "smooth" applied in several reviews of Starting Out in the Evening and I... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Riley P.

4.0 out of 5 stars I would have liked to know Leonard Schiller, or read "his" books
(I do not want to discuss the plot because others have already.)

After finding this book in a library book sale , I am quite happy I found and read it. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Amazon.com-lover

4.0 out of 5 stars So much promise....
I almost felt about this work of fiction as Heather did about Leonard's later works--for the amount of promise it showed in the first two thirds, I felt somewhat let down by the... Read more
Published 21 months ago by W. Carter

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