The Marriage of the Sea

Jane Alison is excellent in her sophomore novel "Marriage of the Sea," a plotlessly beautiful tale of several people with lives that loosely intersect, based on love and longing. It's a beautiful, engrossing book with plenty of interesting characters and a lush prose style that is unforgettable.Old, wealthy Oswaldo lives in a decayed house, reflecting on his aged body and lonely life, until he decides to create a "water villa" like nothing anyone has ever seen. Max travels from London to New Orleans to woo a beautiful woman he has fallen in love with, gets an American makeover, and puts on a spectacular Futurist banquet -- all to get her attention.Sensitive artist Anton and his depressed wife Josephine struggle to have a child, even as Anton goes to Venice to work for Oswaldo on his "water villa." And Lach leaves his girlfriend Vera for the beautiful Italian Francesca, only to learn that Vera is also in Italy -- working on a portrait for Oswaldo. As the story unfolds, the lives of these friends, lovers and acquaintences mingle together.Water is the center of this novel -- a sea-themed banquet, a water villa, mentions of levees and the Sargasso Sea. And "Marriage of the Sea" itself is like water -- going quickly from one story to another, mingling all of them together into one fluid mass that is always shifting around. There isn't much of a plot, nor much in the way of humor (except Max's pitiful efforts to impress Lucinde), but the half-dozen subplots serve to keep it afloat.At first glance, Alison's view of New Orleans and Venice don't have much in common besides water. But as "Marriage" progresses we see that they share a sense of genteel decay, with the boarded-up ballrooms and decrepit villas sinking into the sea. Her sense of atmosphere is outstanding, recalling A.S. Byatt at her best; the entire book has a sort of liquid, murky feel.And the characters are, if not well-rounded, then engagingly realistic -- the confused, artistic Anton, the depressed Josephine, the puppy-like Max, and the creepy Lach. Each one is searching for something -- a lover, a home, a baby -- and Alison draws us into their respective quests without making them pathetic.Jane Alison's "Marriage of the Sea" is a liquid, languid journey to New Orleans and Venice, with a dash of dark humor and some mild tragedy. A beautifully-written second novel.

The Marriage of the Sea is a very well written novel about love and coincidence in contemporary Venice and New Orleans. The novel has a wonderful flow, and moves back and forth among a number of characters all in search of some relationship-related satisfaction while all chasing satisfaction with careers. This is a quick, compelling read without much of a plot. The beauty of the novel lies rather in the crisp, fresh writing. This evocative novel has a certain timelessness to it that makes it a wonderful read. Enjoy.

Once again, Jane Alison's poetic, nuanced prose enchants the reader in this, her second novel. As in The Love-Artist, her themes include the meaning of creation, the quest for immortality, the nature of art, the power of the bonds between lovers. Here, however, she sets her tales in several waterfront cities, primarily Venice and New Orleans, and handles those themes and others in a modern context. One character, boating across the lagoon of Venice, "thought about all that had once sailed here from over the waters: vermilion, serpentine, lapis lazuli, and silk that would sometimes be so subtly woven as to have the look of the sea, moire, or to sparkle like the paths of fireflies."The novel works almost like a minuet, with the stories of several characters who exchange partners with each other, seizing or relinquishing creative and emotional ties as the tide seizes and relinquishes treasures or trash from the sea. Alison's exploration of creative effort and agony is complex and moving. This book was highly praised in the New York Times Book Review and was listed in that publication's And Bear In Mind column (editors' choices of recent books of particular interest). I highly recommend it!

Powerful and lyrical tale told with admirable restraint and understatement. Hints and innuendo propel the six characters of The Marriage of the Sea between the two irresistibly romantic settings of Venice and New Orleans as fluidly as a sleek sailboat upon the waves. This ornate and complex novel explores aging and decay (physical, spiritual, and architectural), marriage, barrenness in its many manifestations, lonliness, and the complex nature of relationships.A piece of writing as finely drawn as the lines of Venitian canals and as richly layered as the levels of New Orleans society.A winner. May Jane Alison write many more this good.

This novel, the author's second, scores because it is intelligent, fresh in its characters and settings, broad and deep in the themes it explores, and tantalizingly under-written. So much is left unsaid, because the reader already knows--from the questions the characters ask themselves, to their gestures, to the way one would feel in the same place. There are Lachlan and Vera, artists drawn to Venice, and a couple until Lach experiments with Francesca, only to discover her flaws later; Anton and Josephine, who met by accident, but have little holding them together; Max, who is desperate to love, and Lucinde, incapable of love. And the incomparable Oswaldo, the patron, whose fancies power so much of the others' frustrations.This is a wonderful novel. The pairing of New Orleans and Venice is brilliant, as is the use of the sea throughout, encroaching on everything, stranding us occasionally, always returning.