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Title: Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard ISBN: 0-14-010747-9 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 31 January, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A richly constructed book
Comment: I just finished the Transit of Venus and enjoyed it so much. As the other reviewers have noted, it does require you to pay close attention. But there is great reward in doing so. It is filled with rich imagery and universal truths that resonate with the reader. It has remained very much in my mind since I finished it. If you are willing to take your time and challenge your mind a little more than with the usual modern novel, you will be in for a wonderful journey.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Brilliant Novel - Not for the Pat Booth Crowd
Comment: The Transit of Venus is the only novel I return to again and again through the years. When Shirley Hazzard writes the line, "Although the dissolution of love creates no heroes, the process itself requires heroism," it speaks not to the mind trying to follow a plot line, but to the depths of the heart and soul. Early on in the book there is a scene, that serves no essential purpose for advancing the plot. The two would-be lovers are on a bus. The bus doesn't lurch and they are not thrown together in an embrace. Not moved by fate, their orbits take them in different directions. It's a very subtle interaction, one that will surely be lost on the Harlequin crowd. This novel took seven years to write. It is one of the finest, most delicately constructed works of art, you will ever read.
Rating: 3
Summary: Dangerous liaisons
Comment: Basically I liked TRANSIT OF VENUS. Ms Hazzard is adept at characterization, and there are many gems along the way about human psychology and relationships.
At the same time, the novel seems to adopt the premise that only adulterous affairs are interesting or passionate. Every character seems to indulge in one--or two or more. I'm not a churchgoer, so my objection is not that of conventional morality, yet I do value loyalty, faithfulness, and commitment. Even if one fails at these, they seem to be the standard that one should try to meet.
SPOILER: Caro is the protagonist, but Ted turns out to be the moral center. As Caro discovers at the crisis/climax, it is longsuffering Ted who has uprightly refused to take unfair advantage of an amoral rival in his quest for Caro's love. And it is this discovery--from the rival himself after he has lost interest in Caro--that causes Caro to suddenly love Ted. One problem, Ted is married, to a woman whom he had earlier desctibed as "all things lovable" (or words to that effect). And yet in a moment, he leaves her for Caro.
As a contrast, I recently saw THE HOURS (Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Ed Harris), and found it both intriguing and touching. It dealt with love WITHIN marriage--and yet it did not show that this love solved all problems. It showed people remaining true to those they loved--but it also showed that even such love is not enough. The Julianne Moore character, for instance, is loved, but feels the love as oppression. Yet she does not seek another man, but considers only suicide or abandonment of her family as escapes.
Perhaps the comparison is not fair, since the tone of THE HOURS is more tragic than that of TRANSIT--but still......
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Title: The Great Fire: A Novel by Shirley Hazzard ISBN: 0374166447 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Bay of Noon: A Novel by Shirley Hazzard ISBN: 0312422873 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Greene on Capri : A Memoir by Shirley Hazzard ISBN: 0374527776 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 04 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Namesake : A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri ISBN: 0395927218 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali ISBN: 0743243307 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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