Synopsis
When Jane unexpectedly encounters her cousin, Martha, in the Galapagos Islands, she feels she finally has the opportunity to talk to her about their deteriorating friendship and find out what it was that caused their once strong bond to end so suddenly. 75,000 first printing. Tour.
Reviews
A writer of witty comedies of manners, Schine (Rameau's Niece; The Love Letter) combines the intellectual curiosity of a philosopher with a lively sense of the absurd. Her latest comically misadventurous, existential inquiry is set in the Galapagos, and Darwin's Origin of Species serves as a framework for protagonist Jane Barlow Schwartz's search for identity. Newly divorced Jane arrives at the islands off Ecuador to find that the park ranger who will guide her group is her estranged cousin, Martha Barlow, her dearest friend when they were growing up in Barlow, Conn., the town named for their family's founders. Jane has been grieving for years because Martha suddenly ended their "twinship" without explanation. Suspecting that Martha's rejection may be tied to the mysterious family feud that the elder Barlows will not explain, Jane speculates about the ways Darwinian theory can be applied to human relationships. For Jane, the question of "the transmutation of friendship" takes on the urgency of a scientific quest, which she pursues in whimsical fashion, inadvertently getting herself into hilarious situations?especially when she thinks she is competing with Martha for the attentions of an attractive young man in her group, one of many vividly realized characters who, to Jane's eye, are colorful examples of species diversity. But Martha's essential difference from Jane, her confident, pragmatic and unimaginative personality, becomes clear to the reader before Jane gets a clue. Cleverly, Schine follows Jane's epiphany about friendship and self-knowledge with a truly surprising revelation about the Barlow family feud. The sophisticated narrative, sparkling with playful intelligence and resonating with poignant insights about the ways girls and women bond, is Schine's best novel yet. Agent, Neil Olson of Donadio & Ashworth. 75,000 first printing; author tour. (Oct.) FYI: A movie titled The Misadventures of Margaret, based on Rameau's Niece, will be released in the fall. The Love Letter is in production from DreamWorks.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Schine's fifth novel (after the bestselling The Love Letter, 1995) again focuses on quiet revelations and the slow process of discovering what mattersas, here, a meek young woman on the rebound from a disastrous marriage escapes to the Galpagos Islands, only to run into her best friend from childhood. While a Galpagos tour might seem an unlikely choice for a woman in distress, Jane doesnt think twice when her mother suggests she go to forget her troubles. She outfits herself for every contingencyexcept one, which she encounters immediately on arrival: her long-lost cousin Martha, now her tour group's guide. As Martha shows them the natural marvels that set Darwin to thinking along evolutionary lines, Jane ponders the evolution of her own life after the abrupt, unexplained exit of her cousin, whod been her next-door neighbor and closest friend into adolescence. Not willing to broach the subject to Martha, but convinced that the traumatic separation was somehow her fault, Jane speculates endlessly as to the cause, and so relives a tortured family history complete with living in a town named for her ancestor, a mysterious feud that left her parents refusing to speak to Martha's parents, and an earthy great-aunt who in her declining years came to live with the familyand who later accidentally set fire to their house. Struggle as she might to stay focused on the trip at hand, Jane alternates her musings on speciation with these blasts from the past, and when a mild flirtation with a tour member seems threatened by Martha, she has an emotional, and physical, melt-down. Eventually, however, she realizes she doesn't have to blame herself for long-ago breachand with that insight comes new information about the family's darker secrets. In spite of genteel trappings and an exotic locale, which serves as little more than a painted backdrop: a penetrating, smooth, and often clever portrait of a woman finding herself. (First printing of 75,000; author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
A best friend is a terrible thing to lose, especially in Schine's (The Love Letter, LJ 4/1/95) quirky world. Twenty-four-year-old Jane Barlow Schwartz is widely consoled when her husband walks out after six months of marriage, but she is more bereft about the end of her relationship with distant cousin and best friend Martha Barlow years earlier. A diverting trip to the Galapagos Islands for longtime Darwin fan Jane?who's long wondered about how to distinguish a species?only ratchets up her vexations, for the tour guide is none other than Martha. Schine plays it all like a fine instrument: Jane's musings about evolution and friendship, the Jane-Martha interaction and the whispered-about Barlow family feud, the camaraderie among the disparate tour members, and descriptions of the islands and their flora and fauna. Thought-provoking and amusing, this is a literary treat.
-?Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
On the occasion of Janet's divorce after a very brief marriage, her mother, recalling Jane's childhood fascination with Charles Darwin, sends her off on a restorative vacation to the Gal pagos Islands. There Jane discovers that the tour guide is none other than her distant cousin and childhood best friend Martha, who one day years ago simply ended their relationship without explanation. Perplexed and distressed, Jane never understood the reasons for Martha's actions, even in light of the family feud that had been going on for generations. Their friendship had been above all that--or so it seemed. As Jane follows in the footsteps of Darwin, accompanied by tour mates as fascinating as the exotic birds and giant tortoises they encounter, she questions the seemingly arbitrary distinctions and similarities that define a species, while she desperately tries to figure out why her best friend ended their solid--if sometimes oppositional--youthful friendship. The family feud offers some rich possibilities for explanation, but if Martha knows more about those hushed family secrets than Jane, why has she chosen not to share? Or had Jane at some time unknowingly done something terribly offensive? The tour, like the book, is over all too soon--but not without a few surprises. Told with witty sophistication, this is an entertaining story that does not lack substance. Schine is also the author of The Love Letter (1995). Grace Fill
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
