Claire Marvel (part 1)

Today's book is Claire Marvel, by John Burnham Schwartz. It came out sometime in 2002 or 2003. Now that I am not tied into reading history book after history book, I revisited a list of "books to read" that I had started before moving to DC and am, courtesy of the LA Public Library, slowly working my way through it. I don't remember what review I must have read that prompted its inclusion on the list. (Some days I am more exclusive than others about what I might want to read.)

This is one of those books, written by a man, that serve for certain female readers like me as a reassurance that men fall in love as hard, and manage to mess it up through their own uncertainties just as women do. In short, it's a love story with a man as protagonist. And with our narrator Julian a grad student, this book is in some ways strikingly like this novel. (Use this link if the other one doesn't work.)

I feel for this couple; they've touched me. And yet, on page 178 of 316 or so, I am wary. Books that trick me into caring about the characters' plight run the risk of having a dissatisfying ending. Too often the author promises me that I should care about his or her creations, but then allows the ending to trickle away into something lesser. Leaving me feel betrayed. (High on this list is Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy.) You could just say I'm a sucker for a happy ending, and that's probably most of it, but there's more at stake when you deny characters the ending they deserve.