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A talented author writes another

November 17th, 2008 Lisa - Central

Valerie Martin is a wonderful writer.  Somehow she grabs you from the first sentence, makes you love her characters, and holds your interest to the very end. Each of her novels is different: Mary Reilly features the maid of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Italian Fever is a ghost/mystery story; and Property involves a slave and her owner before the Civil War (she won the Orange Prize for this one, beating Zadie Smith and Donna Tartt).  Yet Martin brilliantly mines the intimate relationships of her characters and her writing is always hypnotic.

In her newest novel, Trespass, Martin explores a woman’s reaction to her son growing up.  Chloe and Brendan Dale are a middle-aged parents of Toby, a student at New York University.  Chloe has been hired to illustrate a new edition of Wuthering Heights; Brendan is working on a history of the Crusades.  Chloe has a fabulous studio (well, I think it’s fabulous) out in the back acreage of their rural home, heated by a wood stove and frequented by the local fauna and her hunter cat Mike.  Her peace is disturbed, however, by a man who hunts these animals on her private property.  That, the impending Iraq War, and her son’s new girlfriend have set her completely on edge.

I found it difficult to understand why Chloe doesn’t like Salome - I thought she was cool.  She’s a student at the university, from Louisiana, where she, her father and brother escaped to from Croatia during the Serbo-Croatian War after her mother was killed.  Salome is beautiful, sensuous, direct, and very mysterious.  Toby is totally smitten.  Chloe thinks he’s making an awful mistake - to Chloe, Salome is obviously a golddigger - and can’t hide her feelings.  So when Salome gets pregnant and the couple decide to marry, Chloe is furious and says some awful things to Toby.

But then all hell breaks loose.  Salome goes missing right after she and Toby elope.  She’s decided her mother was not dead, and goes to Croatia to find her.  Toby can’t stand being away from his pregnant wife, understands why she wants to be with her mother, and so quits school to join her.  Soon Brendan is there also, trying to get the kids to come home.

I have a couple of minor complaints about Trespass, but don’t let them keep you from reading it.  Martin ends the story a bit too neatly and abruptly, and it seems to me, sacrifices a character to wrap it all up.  And I had wished she had drawn a stronger connection between the horrors of the 2 wars that provide the backdrop of the novel.  But there’s more to this story than what I have covered.  Salome’s dad, Branko, and her brother, Andro, are interesting characters, and a compelling narrative of the Bosnian War give a chilling record of that hideousness.  A great read.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction