Good Things I Wish You

Ansay loves this book and no wonder. I finished reading it at three this morning, and found it worth every bit of midnight oil. I absolutely love the structure - could imagine the critics twisting about it - and the depth. Each of the characters slid in beneath my bones. Such graceful writing.

Award winning novelist Manette Ansay (Vinegar Hill, Midnight Champagne, Blue Water) doesn't seeem to shy away from challenges. She set quite a task for herself in crafting a work of fiction focusing on two complex relationships - one historical and the other contemporary. While the author assures readers in an Author's Note that this is purely a work of fiction, the inclusion of letters and diary excerpts penned by Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms tend to create a feeling of historical accuracy. To my knowledge the question of whether or not Clara and Johannes were close friends or lovers is still the subject of discussion. One can draw his or her own conclusions when reading some of their correspondence included in this story. From Johannes to Clara in 1856: " I wish I could write you as tenderly as I love you and tell you all the good things that I wish for you. You are so infinitely dear to me, dearer than I can say....." From Clara to Johannes in 1858: "I wish I could find longing as sweet as you do. It only gives me pain and fills my heart with unspeakable woe." The other relationship explored takes place over a century later and involves 42-year-old Jeanette Hochmann, a novelist who is working on a book about the bond between Clara and Johannes. Recently divorced she is wounded, alone save for her young daughter, Heidi. Through a dating service she meets Hart, a handsome German businessman . By coincidence his native home is Leipzig, which was also Clara's, and he offers to help Jeanette with her research by translating for her. Of course, more than translation develops. For this reader the lives of the Schumanns and Brahms proved more intriguing than the connection between Jeanette and Hart. Nonetheless, the play of a historical pairing with a modern one does result in entertaining reading reminding us that the stories of love truly are timeless. - Gail Cooke

I've read a couple of books - SISTER, MIDNIGHT CHAMPAGNE - by A. Manette Ansay, and always enjoyed them. When her new book came up on my HarperCollins list, I was pretty excited and knew that I wanted to read and review it. This book weaves in the love story of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms with that of the narrator, Jeanette, and a German man, Hart, that she meets through a dating service. Jeannette is writing a book on the two, and over dinner learns that Hart also has an interest in the two composers. They become friends and he helps her translate letters and diary entries. I found both love stories compelling, though I didn't necessarily understand them. I felt like I was trying to understand Jeannette and Hart's relationship, just as Jeannette was trying to understand Clara and Brahms'. In both relationships, the couple starts out intending only for a friendship over a shared passion - in Brahms and Clara's case, the piano; Jeannette and Hart both have an interest in Brahms and Clara's story and in their music. As time goes on, they become closer and deal the age-old question of whether or not men and women can ever be friends. Ansay includes pictures of Schumann and Brahms and excerpts from those letters and diaries in her novel, which I liked. Aside from giving the reader a little of the history, it made Jeannette's research feel more real and more authentic. There are a couple of sections where the conversation between Hart and Jeannette is put on the left and right side of the page, respectively, so that the reader can see where interruptions occur (and frequently are ignored). At first, I thought there was something wrong with my book and found it a little distracting. However, it was kind of interesting to read a conversation like that; it felt a bit more real. One thing that I really liked is the title of the book. It's taken from a letter that Brahms wrote to Schumann, and it's so bittersweet - this longing and wishing for intimacy and closeness, while knowing that it's futile. Also, being an English nerd, I get a kick out of metafictional things; I enjoyed the fact that the narrator is writing the novel that the reader is reading. Overall, I would recommend this. It's a quick, interesting and thought-provoking read.

Recently divorced, forty-two years old Floridian Jeanette Hochmann is struggling with balance. She works at the university, is raising her four years old child virtually alone, and is writing her novelization of the four decade relationship between nineteenth century German pianist Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, her spouse Robert's protégé as composers. Jeannette, a child prodigy classical pianist, hopes to bring freshness to the legendary triangle, but instead feels lethargic and despondent following her acrimonious divorce war. Through an agency Jeanette meets slightly older entrepreneur Hart, the first man she dates in nineteent years. He coincidently comes from Clara's hometown Leipzig, Germany. Hart kindly helps her with translations of her research from German to English though they seem to have nothing in common except they are attracted to one another. In fact she realizes his ten year old daughter, a musical prodigy, is much more like her than Hart is. As they travel Germany and Switzerland together, their relationship heats up yet increasingly seems to emulate that of Clara and Johannes. This is a fascinating look at the legendary triangle between the Schumann duo and Brahms in which the nineteenth century subplot with original photos and letters is extremely gripping; but in turn makes the modern day entry seem intrusive. The cast in both centuries are fully developed, however once again the historical persona steal the show. Although GOOD THINGS I WISH FOR YOU might have been better as an exclusive look at the historical relationship, fans will enjoy A. Manette Ansay's fine tale of how convoluted life is then and now. Harriet Klausner