[.ca] Claire Marvel: A Novel (ISBN 0375719156)

From Amazon.com:
Die-hard romantics will find it hard to resist John Burnham Schwartz's novel Claire Marvel. Reminiscent of Erich Segal's Love Story, this is the tale of a great yet tragic love, one foretold in the novel's first sentence: "There was before her and now there is after her, and that is the difference in my life." Boy (Julian Rose) meets beautiful girl (Claire Marvel) in a spring shower in 1985 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they attend Harvard as graduate students. They fall in love and spend a difficult yet idyllic time in the French countryside, but she is stolen away by Julian's treacherously suave advisor. Julian flees Boston for his hometown of New York City, where he starts a new life. He and Claire encounter each other again years later, and eventually Claire comes back to Julian, but only indirectly, again in France. --Susan Biskeborn

Pretty good:
I thought this book was worth it for the feelings about young love and lost love. I enjoyed how the love experiences of the different family members brought varying perspectives to the main story line. BUT...the first part, the development of their relationship rang false and the writing was affected. The metaphors felt like lists from work, and the rhythm was very annoying. Also the main character was quite the wimp, and although he was young, the whole tormented young love thang felt like a Herman Hesse novel (I'm over that phase, thank you). The remaining two thirds of the book was good, but I don't recommend it unless you're into being melancholy and love-torn for the duration...

Much more than a love story:
This novel is one you will read and read again, discovering new layers of richness brewing under its subtle, elegant prose.

I Marvel that I Managed to Finish This Book:
Most of this book was pointless fluff. Why do we need to know every detail about the main character's teaching and his marriage and blah blah blah? The few chapters with Claire in the beginning were not enough to convince me of a great love -- and the reason for their (prolonged) seperation didn't convince me either, so nothing in-between held me. At many points I wondered what I was reading for. He seemed obsessed, she seemed morose -- I didn't care one way or the other by the end. And I'm a romantic!!!

A MARVEL:
Astonishingly beautiful. Astonishingly wise. A timeless love story written by one of the most talented young novelists today. You must read this book.

A Beautifully Written Novel - Much More Than A Love Story!:
"Claire Marvel" is a simple love story told with extraordinary grace. Author John Burnham Schwartz writes with spare elegant prose about disparate characters who come together for a time, to love and to betray. But "Claire Marvel" is also a character study and a commentary on how insecurity, poor timing and lack of decisiveness can destroy the closest relationships. It delves into the consequences of action and lack of action, the ability to be courageous in life, to act on conscience, and the growth of character. Claire Marvel and Julian Rose meet serendipitously during a rain storm. He seeks cover at the Fogg Art Museum where Claire is waiting for the rain to abate under an umbrella the color of buttercups. The two are graduate students at Harvard, he in political science, she in art, studying the Pre-Raphaelites. Claire is a free spirit, very visual, absorbed by images, color and line with an artist's sensibility - much more than that of an art historian. She is a "traveler who through circuitous wandering had stumbled upon an unchartered place beyond explanation." Julian is a believer of empirical truth. "It is hard for him to bump up against anything without immediately supplying or reaching for definition." They both carry the baggage of their dysfunctional families. And yet they are kindred spirits and come together effortlessly. Claire's father is dying and asks her to spend some time in France at a small house in the countryside where he had spent some of the happiest moments of his life. She asks Julian to accompany her. Their time together is idyllic. However, flaws in Julian's character cause problems and missed opportunities. The novel explores his past and the reasons for his development as a passive, almost cowardly, man. So the novel becomes much more than a love story. I found the parts of the novel dealing with Julian's relationship with his doctorial advisor to be fascinating. Julian is writing a dissertation on the various incarnations of the Progressive Party. His advisor, Carl Davis, is a powerful professor with close ties to Ronald Regan and the Republican Party. Julian disagrees with Davis' politics but is drawn to his authority and powerful presence. This relationship play a major part in the storyline. Some critics have compared "Claire Marvel" to Erich Segal's novel "Love Story." The only commonalties I found are that Julian and Claire attend Harvard and live in Cambridge for a period. There is little "schmaltz" or sentimentality here. The prose and the author's use of language is often quite beautiful. The tension is taut, as the story unfolds through memory and direct confrontation with the past. I was very moved by the author's compassionate exploration of relationships, passion, regret and loss. Bravo John Burnham Schwartz! JANA