The Confessions of Edward Day: A Novel
by Valerie Martin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Valerie MartinEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2009-08-11
ISBN: 0385525842
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Book Reviews of The Confessions of Edward Day: A Novel
Book Review: Standing Ovation
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Confessions of Edward Day" is light on its feet, packed with the energy of a good thriller and pulls you in like a gripping Patricia Highsmith--almost as if Highsmith had found a slightly more literary voice. Even the New York setting evokes Highsmith's work and both Edward Day and his friend-nemesis Guy Margate display the determined, relentless drive of some of her darkest characters. Just when I thought "The Confessions of Edward Day" might morph into a soap opera (such as during the summer theatre scenes in Connecticut) a nifty surprise or two brought the plot roaring back. The ending, as neatly timed as "Noises Off," had the potential to turn trite--a gun backstage, "Uncle Vanya" on stage--but was buoyed by Martin's dazzling touch. When the denouement carries a sweet last morsel of suspense, you find yourself thinking of "Confessions of Edward Day" as the finest, most well-crafted book you've read in a long time and you ask yourself, "how did she do that?"
All three characters in the love triangle are up-and-coming actors when we meet them and one of the strengths of "Confessions" is living inside the head of an actor who is learning his craft and also watching others learn theirs.
Thinking about Guy's growth as an actor, Day thinks: "He could never see himself from himself. He created character from the outside looking in, he constructed a persona. Basically anyone can do it, politicians can do it nonstop. It's not, perhaps, a bad way to start. But Guy could never inhabit a character because he was himself so uninhabited. Nobody home, yet he wasn't without strong emotions. I didn't know that last part then."
The writing is brisk, clever. This will be one of the fastest 286-page books you might ever read.
You inhale in a few gulps and yet try to relish each breath.
Samples:
"Their applause sounded like dried peas rattling in a can."
"He gave me another long, magnified look, opening and closing his prune lips a few times like a fish trying to catch a wafer of food in an aquarium."
The relationship between Day and Margate is prickly, tense and full of foreboding. When Margate rescues Day from drowning in the ocean early on, we know the debt will play a significant role. And that's just it--the roles, the conflicts between inner dreams and what you let your friends and associates see--and what you don't let them see.
Summary of The Confessions of Edward Day: A Novel
Acclaimed author Valerie Martin returns with a dark comedy about love, sex, an actor's ambition, and the perils of playing a role too well. In this fictional memoir, Valerie Martin brilliantly re-creates the seamy theater world of 1970s New York, when rents were cheap, love was free, and nudity on stage was the latest craze. Edward Day, a talented and ambitious young actor finds his life forever altered during a weekend party on the Jersey Shore, where he seduces the delicious Madeleine Delavergne and is saved from drowning by the mysterious Guy Margate, a man who bears an eerie physical resemblance to Edward. Forever after, Edward is torn between his desire for Madeleine and his indebtedness to Guy, his rival in love and in art, on stage and off.Amazon Exclusive: Jane Smiley Reviews The Confessions of Edward Day
Jane Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres and more than ten other works of fiction, as well as three works of nonfiction, including a critically acclaimed biography of Charles Dickens. In 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in northern California. Read her exclusive Amazon guest review of The Confessions of Edward Day:
Novels about actors are often very sour and condescending (I am thinking of you, Somerset Maugham!), but The Confessions of Edward Day is such a lovely book. It really is a self-contained gem, like a pearl or a faceted stone, never purporting to be more than it seems to be (a tale of ambitious young actors struggling to get ahead in the New York theater scene in the 1970s), but with such real beauty and resonance that the reader can?t help appreciating Valerie Martin?s unfailing wisdom and skill. Edward himself is a sympathetic character, and I always admire a woman writer who seems to write effortlessly from a man?s point of view (especially if she has also written effortlessly from a woman?s point of view in the past, as Valerie Martin has done so often). Lovers of the theater (of any era) will love this book because of its insights into how plays come together (or don?t) and, I hope, because of its play-like structure (very neat, and yet suspenseful, too). As with Property and Mary Reilly especially (two of my Martin favorites), I really felt the depth of Martin?s knowledge of her subject, and yet she carries it easily. Lovers of the novel are in for a treat. I couldn?t help marveling at Martin?s ability not to make a mistake?to make me feel absolutely present at those sometimes quite dramatic scenes, and yet to keep all those thematic balls in the air, to juggle her motifs ever so gracefully, to honor the mysteriousness of her subject, but make those mysteries crystal clear. I read this in two days--after about page ten, I didn?t want to put it down. I do think Valerie Martin is one of the best novelists we have. There is always more in every book than meets the eye. The Confessions of Edward Day--highly recommended! --Jane Smiley
(Photo © Mark Bennington)
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