Synopsis
Set in a small town in Montana, a novel charts the inner life of construction worker Mark Singer as he weds serious Olivia, one of the four Stavros sisters, and then falls in love with one of her sisters. 15,000 first printing.
Reviews
Long remains in Montana for his first novel (Blue Spruce, stories, 1995), the pleasant, homely tale of a young man without a family of his own who gets mixed up--in more ways than one--with the daughters of a Greek-American restaurant owner. Mark Singer's father died in a bar brawl and his mother disappeared, so he came to be raised--during the 1940s--by his grandmother in the town of Sperry, Montana. And where was his favorite place to pass the time? Well, the Vagabond Cafe, owned and run by Nick Stavros with the help of his wife (until her death in 1947) and four daughters, these being, from oldest to youngest, Linny (short for Evangeline), Celia, Olivia, and tomboy Helen. It's 1952 when the story opens with Mark's marriage (at 22) to the serious-minded and sweetly domestic if moody Olivia, who gives him two kids in fairly quick time, but who doesn't--well, keep life compelling enough to prevent Mark from falling into the arms and bed of long-limbed, restless oldest-sister Linnie upon her sudden return from a handful of incognito years (she'd even missed Celia's wedding) in the beatnik streets and alleys of San Francisco. As for plot, there's not much more. Mark's passion, however, and his guilt mount in almost equal degree, until one night, ``as if he's doing them all an enormous service,'' he tells all to an Olivia who's already been deeply depressed of late. A third of the novel is left, and let it only be said that all works out in an oddly undramatic but satisfying way--and that, from start to end, there's a steady feast of detail to be supped on as Mark goes through workdays (as a contractor's helper), night drives, outings into the countryside, and trips into memory. A closely observed tale of domestic life that remains real all the way through. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Long is a writer of extraordinary sensitivity and grace. In examining the complex relationships of the close-knit Stavros sisters--Linny, Liv, Celia, and Helen--he provides myriad insights into the love and dependence that tie us together and the rivalries and obstinacies that isolate us. The sisterly bonds, as well as the eight-year marriage of Liv and construction worker Mark Singer, are severely tested when Mark and Linny embark on an affair. The corrosive infidelity does its work both before and after it comes to light, but it cannot utterly prevail unless those most affected surrender to it. Set in a small Montana town in the 1950s and 1960s, Long's first novel, like Larry Watson's Montana 1948 (1993), depicts and illuminates the drama of daily life with a fine perception and with nary a false note. It marks the arrival of an important talent. Dennis Dodge
Not since John Updike's Marry Me, perhaps, has there been such an honest and unflinching moral examination of marital infidelity as this finely crafted novel by the author of the prize-winning story collection Blue Spruce. Set in Montana during the Eisenhower era of the early 1950s, it explores the emotional life of Mark Singer, a construction worker who marries young, fathers a couple of kids, and then finds himself inexorably drawn to his wife's seductive older sister. The pair enter headlong into an affair, which, not surprisingly, proves painful to all three of the parties concerned. While many readers will recognize this real-life scenario, Long displays a deft hand in dealing with it. And in the process, he manages to unearth some powerful truths about love, family, and the "forces that fling people apart." Recommended.
-?David Sowd, formerly with Stark Cty. Dist. Lib., Canton, Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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