[.ca] Breakable You (ISBN 0156033178)

SUBTLY CRAFTED, REMARKABLY WISE:
Author Brian Morton returns to New York, a setting he painted to perfection in A Window Across The River (2003 ). Once again his characters are fully realized, passionate, funny, and flawed, perhaps microcosms of ourselves. Adam Weller is 63 years old, a novelist, and some may say hectored, others may say encouraged by his younger ambitious mistress, Thea. She's new to the City and the ways of it. Incredibly beautiful she's a former high school beauty queen and Miss Junior Wyoming. Now working as an assistant producer for Charlie Rose, she likes to call Adam by his last name because "she thought it made her sound cynical and worldly like Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not." However, what Adam needs is a bestseller, not reminders that he's a has been. His former wife, Eleanor, suffers from his rejection, although she was aware of his previous affairs she had not expected him to leave. Adam had left "because of the explosive combination of Thea and viagra." Although she's a psychologist, Eleanor is overweight and resentful, initially spurning the approach of the first man she loved and left for Adam. Maud, Adam and Eleanor's daughter, is a rather fey spirit who is deeply immersed in her studies of philosophy. She suffers from depression and seems committed to the life of a student until she meets Samir, an Arab American, with whom she begins a torrid affair. Fate has a way of intervening in Adam's life when the promising manuscript of a late colleague comes into his hands. The man was his mentor and friend yet Adam takes the manuscript as his own. The intermeshed lives of these people provide the plot lines in this remarkable novel, subtly crafted, unforgettably wise. - Gail Cooke

Morton Understands:
Having been previously entranced with Morton's "Starting Out in the Evening", I felt the need to read all of his novels, in an attempt to see to what lengths his style can expose the stories of fascinatingly complex New York intellectuals and their families. I found that with "Starting Out in the Evening" as well as this novel, the beginning lacks a lot of character agency. I found Heather Wolfe in the aforementioned to be a one-dimensional male fantasy but by the end of the novel, I felt that the only part lacking was a way into her character's motivations and fascinations earlier in the novel somehow, as the Heather from the beginning and the Heather from the end were entirely different characters. Similarly, "Breakable You" starts off slowly. One of the protagonists, Maud, seems boring, unrealistic and underdeveloped. Yet, she is the novel's most complex and interesting character, aside from her Arab boyfriend, the emotionally stunted, grieving Samir. At its bare bones, the novel's rapidly unfolding events, albeit seasoned with an odd, calming and contemporary sense of humour and irony, are over-dramatic and far-fetched. A plot like this in way less capable hands would have been a melodramatic romantic comedy waiting to happen. However, the subtlety, understanding, clear-eyed pathos and well-drawn memories, not to mention Morton's excellent grasp of intellectualism and philosophy, make this a well-rounded, intricate slice of various lives in contemporary New York City. Not only is it an addicting read, but a meaty and valuable one, not to be taken lightly or discarded (or for that matter, read on the beach). Morton understands people more than he understands life's plot twists; however, in this novel the plot missteps are far overscored by his wonderful, heartbreaking characters, and the ways in which they cope with what their lives have given them. Full of wisdom, intelligence and sympathy, this novel is well worth reading and has further proved what I already thought after reading "Starting Out in the Evening": that Brian Morton is one of my favourite authors, and one of the most underrated contemporary novelists today.