Trio Sonata

I was so surprised at how absorbed I became in this book. Someone randomly recommended it to me, but laughingly because I am straight. They didn't think I would appreciate some of the more graphical parts of the novel. However, the book is so well written and the characters' lives are so engaging that I just forgot that they were gay and I enjoyed their lives and enjoyed seeing how the story progressed. I'm so impressed by the fact that this is the author's first novel. I hope she does another one soon.

Trio Sonata is a wonderfully written novel. Here's something new...a story about an erotic relationship between two gay men and a straight woman. Off-beat subject matter, yet a story so beautifully told. I just love Ms. Sarkessian's writing style. The development of characters is superb. I felt I got to really know each of the three main characters, enabling me to feel compassion for all of them. After they entered territory none of them had ever explored, I couldn't imagine how their situation could ever be resolved...keeping me even more enthralled. Sarkessian, however, cleverly handled the broken pieces. The ending made me cry and it made me smile. It was real and I was captivated. I highly recommend this book and look forward to future works by this brilliant new author.

I don't read much fiction, and have never read a "gay" or "lesbian" novel. However I would encourage readers who do not typically look for "gay and lesbian" novels to read this one. Juliet Sarkessian warmly describes feelings of lost so beautifully: loss of one's past, loss of one's future, loss of one's family and friends, loss of one's home. She also can powerfully recall moments from the lives of the main characters with great clarity and color. There are chapters here for many different types of readers. Ms. Sarkessian writes from the first person for three different characters. All are done with much carefulness, warmth and reflection. The author handles topics that should be brought out into the artistic community for contemplation without prejudice. Juliet without hesitation and without hatred (towards life's unfairness) gives her characters a chance to live their lives with the hope of becoming whole and healed.This novel helps one to better understand how remembrances, loss, loyalty and the search for completeness shapes one's destiny.

I liked this book very much. I thought the writing was detailed and thought provoking. The characters became very vivid to me. The ending of a book is the most important part to me and this story without a doubt had an ending that while bittersweet tied the entire work together. I would recommend this book to my friends and I hope that the writer will publish more books in the future.

Lesbian writes about straight woman in love with a gay male couple. Has this ever been done? Probably not. It's a brilliant book. The characters are all richly and compassionately drawn; Sarkessian writes as if she has known them for years. The subject matter is provocative, even a little subversive, but there's also an air of "Why didn't anyone think to write about this before?" -- the story feels that natural, as if it were a found artifact rather than the result of a creative process. Trio Sonata is a fine balancing act: brainy without being academic, lush without being purple, and erotic without being smut. If only it were longer...