Mirrors: Essays on the American Working Class

It's no wonder that Mirrors was nominated for a Lammy. Marianne Martin tackles so many issues that confront us all, guilt, commitment, concern, harassment, insecurity, religion, professionalism, and, of course, love. Mostly, Marianne Martin writes about the heroism that occurs in ordinary lives. Sound overwhelming? Not really because of the ease in which she imbues her characters with these human qualities and emotions. Is this a Romance novel? You bet it is. Does it break the rules? It does so marvelously. Mirrors is the story of two professional women who find themselves more adept at doing the appropriate thing than finding the right thing within themselves. As with all romance novels, they fall in love, but that's when things really start to get complicated. As Bette Davis said in "All About Eve", "Fasten your seatbelts; we're in for a bumpy ride." And what a ride it is? Martin keeps us guessing as to the outcome of several situations up until the end. She also makes us, the reader, look into our own mirrors to view our own behaviors more clearly.Tautly written, humanly portrayed, and realistically fraught, Martin's characters leap from the page to become your next-door neighbor or one's own niggling conscience. Just as easily, some of these characters could be drawn from today's headline news stories. Buy this book. You'll be happy you did. It makes for an excellent read.

This is not your traditional form of formula romance. Marianne Martin has successfully raised the level of what I now want and expect from this genre. She has created a unique blend of drama, from real life situations, and love, as it evolves from internal struggle.I was surprised by the depth and complexity of emotions that her characters evoked from me. They ran the gamut from sensing the pain and guilt that Shayna carries from her childhood, feeling the confusion and fear Jean suffers from her Catholic upbringing, to the intensity of love in its many varied forms. As in real life, love is not easily defined or catagorized, but Mirrors offers wonderful reflections of parental love, friendship love, and intimate love.Mirrors is filled with rich descriptions, full characterizations, well-crafted tension, and some of the best internal dialogue I have read. If you are expecting a romance, Mirrors will give you that and more. If you are expecting a realistic look into the lives of contemporary lesbians, you will not be disappointed. This is an excellent book, one you will enjoy reading and re-reading.

While reading MIRRORS, I found myself wondering; "Do I know these women? They could be my neighbors, my former teachers, the women at the next table in my favorite restaurant." The depth at which I got to know the characters made them as real as my own friends that I wish I could advise and console. And as with real friends, they followed their own sometimes surprising paths and drummed up courage I didn't know they had.When I got this book as a gift, I wasn't thinking much past the generosity of the friend who gave it to me. After reading the book, though, I realized that the author also gave me a gift. That gift was the effort and painstaking attention to detail that Marianne Martin made in sharing these women with me. She put them in familiar territory and let me know that, often, my struggle with guilt, passion and courage is every woman's struggle. She reminded me that a rare, genuine friendship can survive the most uncertain and painful of situations, and that a soul mate will truly love you no matter how difficult you try to make it. We could all probably stand to be reminded of these things on occasion, and reading MIRRORS is by all accounts a great way to be reminded.

MIRRORS is the kind of story and Marianne Martin the kind of writer that raises this novel heads above the typical lesbian romance. As a reader I want to know what makes characters tick. Martin understands that. She doesn't tell me that Shayna is a workaholic, she shows me what her days and nights are like and lets me into her head so that I understand why. She makes me feel the love between Jean and her husband and the guilt that Jean holds in her heart. I went to church with Jean and listened to the struggle that she has fought in her head since she was a young girl. These are not characters anymore, they are people that I know and care about. When a crisis arises that threatens their happiness and challenges their courage I worry, and find myself wondering what I would do if it were me in their shoes. All this because Martin knew how to put me right in the middle of their world. I want them to be happy, I want them to be courageous. And I don't know if either is possible for them until the last page of the book. That's why this is such a fine novel and Martin the very best in her genre.

Marianne Martin's latest novel, "Mirrors", is the kind of literary prose that tenderly pulls at the strings of your heart and the deep recesses of your mind in regards to love, duty, and friendship. With her well-crafted ability to bring us into the very soul of her characters, Martin introduces us to Jean Carson; a special type of teacher that students look up to and who goes the extra mile to make a difference everyday in their lives. Jean's passion for her career and the stability of her life is upturned when she must face coming out after being in the comfort zone of a heterosexual marriage. Her struggle; a not so uncommon, yet life-altering one, is paralleled in the personal strife of a young, female student who is victimized from being seemingly different to her peers. Shayna Bradley is a confident, sharp lawyer with a sense of justice and a desire to help mothers and their children. Shayna is the kind of friend any woman would want in their back court, but when it comes to relationships work tends to run into over time and romance lingers on the sidelines. Despite this she is grounded in her loyalty to family and friends and drawn deeply to the needs of both. Intertwined by a cherished friendship and lined up together in the battle of conformity versus differentiation, Jean and Shayna must each view what is mirrored in the reflective pool of their hearts. Like soup, Ms Martin once again manages to warm the soul with a stirring, personal look at two women who share a similar consciousness. This is the type of good literature that delves deep, splinters and fragments into a thousand glass pieces for each reader to see a portion of themselves glimmering back from within its pages.