One Sunday Morning: A Novel [Paperback] Review

If Edith Wharton were alive and writing now, who would she be? Dominick Dunne is the first novelist who comes to mind, especially his first few novels. But Dunne's books are, more often than not, jump-started by a crime; for Wharton, a social gaffe was sufficient to fuel a plot. And Wharton's books were rich in subplots and subtext.

You could, I think, make the case that Amy Ephron is our Wharton. This seems, on the surface, improbable. Ephron lives in Los Angeles, where roots do not run deep and Society goes back only a handful of generations. She has worked --- gasp --- in the movie business, where people with a provenance rarely venture. And she writes novels that are painfully short: ONE SUNDAY MORNING runs to 214 pages only because the book is small and the margins are vast.

What Ephron shares with Wharton: Her books are not so much written as carved. Every word counts. And, like Wharton, every word is about the story --- there are no digressions, no riding of an authorial hobbyhorse. And, like Wharton, Ephron is concerned how a small event can be inflated into a large one.

In ONE SUNDAY MORNING, the event is a view from the window of a Gramercy Park townhouse: young Lizzie Carswell leaving a hotel in broad daylight with Billy Holmes, a man engaged to one of her friends. Lizzie's mother had to go abroad because of a scandal; have mom's degenerate genes been passed on? And what will Clara Hart, Billy's intended, do when she hears the news (as she most assuredly will)?

Wharton material, to be sure. But there's a tension here you wouldn't find in a Wharton novel --- the story is set in 1927, and so, very much bubbling under the Society plot, is the reckless mood of that era. Alcohol. Drugs. Homosexuality. These add a Fitzgeraldian spice to the strict moral tale that is Ephron's legacy from Wharton. And, just in case you're nostalgic for Somerset Maugham, there's a man just back from very interesting travels in Asia. Maybe he's a lost soul. Maybe he's a potential suitor.

This isn't to say that Amy Ephron has cherrypicked her influences (though if she did, she couldn't have done better). You read this book for itself, and for the precise portraits she draws. Sample: "Clara was nursing a gin and tonic. She had a Piaget watch on her right wrist that Billy had picked up for her at an antique store. It had a simple black band and a plain gold rim around its face so the numbers themselves were the set-piece, distinctly Piaget. Billy's linen suit was appropriately wrinkled. It occurred to Mary that they fit into Paris in a way that she never would."

Mary will, of course, get a big surprise. So will the other characters. It turns out that quite a lot can happen in 214 pages --- that is, when the writer is a master storyteller like Amy Ephron.

--- Reviewed by Jesse Kornbluth

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Mornings with Mailer: A Recollection of Friendship [Paperback] Review

The story is touching and honest. The depiction of Provincetown is spot on without being trite. Having grown up on Cape Cod I often see stories set on the sandbar that play too much into the quintessential view of the iconic summer playground and as a result lose the essence of the experience of really being there. This was not the case in Mornings With Mailer. I was most impressed by the way Raymond crafted the story of a young man who lost his father in his early childhood befriending an elderly man in his final years. The raw truth on Raymonds part of woe that preceded the friendship, the drinking and "lost years" provided a backdrop to the fertile ground on which the friendship grew. Following Raymonds process of healing in which he and Mailer developed a companionship that at once filled the father void and gave focus to Raymond after an extended period of searching, provided an interesting view of what it is to be male in a culture that too often sees our boys growing up without a strong male role model in their life. Adding to this poignant tale the fact that the octogenarian is the iconic Pulitzer Prize winning Norman Mailer. The book allows those of us who knew the legend to sneak a peek into the reality that was Norman Mailer. A pleasurable read. I would highly recommend it!

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