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40th out of 156 books
—
32 voters
On Green Dolphin Street
The bestselling author of Birdsong and Charlotte Gray delivers an enthralling, vibrantly evocative novel set in America in 1960, when the country stood poised between the paranoia of the Cold War and the ebullience of the New Frontier.
Faulks' heroine is Mary Van der Linden, a pretty, reserved Englishwoman whose husband, Charlie, is posted to the British embassy in Washingt...more
Faulks' heroine is Mary Van der Linden, a pretty, reserved Englishwoman whose husband, Charlie, is posted to the British embassy in Washingt...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
January 7th 2003
by Vintage
(first published 2001)
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This was the first Faulks book I've read, although I know we have the French trilogy. The writing was gorgeous, which is good, because it wasn't the greatest story ever. It's about a British diplomat's wife who has an affair while living with her husband in Washington DC. I did like the depictions of the emotions involved in infidelity. She loves her--(Non sequitor: Hey, there's no male word for mistress, is there? That's weird, there should be. Mister? Master? Neither of those are right. It's l...more
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From the author of Birdsong, one of my all-time favorites, and of other books which were also good if not great. So I tried it, although I had been warned that it's a romance. So it is, and beautifully done at that. Set during the cold war era and presidential campaign of 1960, a happily married woman meets her soul mate and enters into an agonizing affair. The refreshing thing about this book is the depth of the characters, although I do think that, of the two main characters, Faulks does the...more
Set in 1959 USA during the Kennedy /Nixon campaign Mary is the wife of Charlie Van der Linden – an emissary in the British Embassy in Washington – whose life is one long round of parties and lunch meetings and general socialising. You’d think she’d have a great life but Charlie is slowly disappearing into the bottle (3 dry martinis before lunch?) and she has attracted the attentions of one of the many American journalists who attend the parties at the Van der lindens home. When Mary and Charlie...more
This is a love story and a story of the effects of WWII on the men who served and on their loved ones. The novel is set in Washington D. C., New York and mainly revolves around 3 characters: Charlie, who is posted to the British Embassy, his wife Mary and her lover Frank, a journalist. It is set in 1960 when the Eisenhower years were drawing to a close and the ruthlessly competitive Nixon/Kennedy presidential campaign signaled the beginning of a different decade. This is the world of martinis, c...more
I wrote an initial review on this one that said "I think I might sit on the fence with this one. I am undecided if I liked it or not". Well, after giving it a couple of days thought I have decided that I did in fact enjoy it. I find myself still thinking about the story and the characters and can't help but wish that there was a little bit more and so come to the conclusion that yes, I liked it.
I normally like the kind of story that has a beginning, a middle and an end and everything gets tied...more
I normally like the kind of story that has a beginning, a middle and an end and everything gets tied...more
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First, an absorbing story; I read it to see what happened next. But ultimately the beautiful expression of a variety of loving – for children, for older wife/husband, for failing husband, for first boyfriend and ultimate ‘other-half’ lover. Faulks delves deep into the emotions, thoughts, fears and actions of lovers and expresses it in a way that must be used by lovers everywhere. The attempt by Mary to develop a mentality that could embrace both lover and family obligations was not clear to me,...more
Faulks is best known for "Birdsong" and "Charlotte Gray" both of which I enjoyed. I’ve also read, but found disappointing, "A Fool’s Alphabet" so I was keen to see what I thought of this book.
Blurb from back cover:
America, 1959. With two young children she adores and an admired husband, Charlie, working at the British Embassy in Washington, the world seems an effervescent place of parties, jazz and family happiness to Mary Van der Linden. But when Frank, an American newspaper reporter, enters th...more
Blurb from back cover:
America, 1959. With two young children she adores and an admired husband, Charlie, working at the British Embassy in Washington, the world seems an effervescent place of parties, jazz and family happiness to Mary Van der Linden. But when Frank, an American newspaper reporter, enters th...more
Sure I have been a fan of Sebastian Faulks for awhile but I really wasn't prepared for how GOOD "On Green Dolphin Street" would be. Granted there are some specific touchstones for me, including the title which comes from a Miles Davis tune, and he's my fall time favourite jazz musician. And I have always had a fixation on the early sixties as Kenedy came to power. But really it's the writing that drew me in. Faulks is so descriptive in a really lyrical way, without laying it on too thick. This i...more
You could never accuse Sebastian Faulks of playing on past successes or staying to mine a particularly profitable seam. The diversity of his stories, set in a variety of periods and locations, with their different styles and themes, means you never know what his next work will be like. I came to Faulks through his 'Engelby' of 2007, an unusual and gripping story set in Cambridge University in the 1970s and told from the first person perspective of a disordered mind - while the central mystery of...more
I've read a number of Faulks novels and wasn't sure whether I would like this, given that it is a love story. It is well written and I made good connection with the characters, plus the ending was suspenseful enough to keep me interested. I am not as impressed with this one as I have been with A Week in December, and Human Traces, but then this is such a different story it is hard to compare them.
I liked the setting and the sub-texts that the era provided, and that this provides a good backdrop...more
I liked the setting and the sub-texts that the era provided, and that this provides a good backdrop...more
Revolves around British Dipolmats in America following the McCarthy era. A blend of fact and fiction from the political era of the Kennedy's. Could not sympathize with the adulterous Diplomats wife and her finding her soulmate in a reporter while deeply loving her husband and unable to bear the thought of life without her children but then offering to sacrifice them at the end. I was bored with the affair but loved the political parts as the thoughts and emotions of both sides were expressed wit...more
One of the most heartbreaking novels I have read - and I mean that in a good way. His character development was masterful, and I was drawn totally into their separate lives. To call this a romance or a love story is almost an insult to the deeper themes of the novel: familial unity; the role that morality, integrity, and responsibility plays in our lives; the occurrences in our lives that tear us apart mentally and emotionally. Faulks expressed the conflicting emotions of the lovers beautifully...more
so many interesting things about this book... interesting times/places/themes - the foreign service in the cold war. exciting parties that last all night but be careful who your friends are. the great concern that maybe diplomats are fratenising with communists...
there was another element of this book, the great love between two star crossed lovers who just weren't supposed to be in love. she is married with children and has a duty to her husband (lovely but very crippled with his own problems,...more
there was another element of this book, the great love between two star crossed lovers who just weren't supposed to be in love. she is married with children and has a duty to her husband (lovely but very crippled with his own problems,...more
Mar 21, 2012
Maria
added it
No, Maria,is not finished On Green Dolphin Street, Maria gave up on it, unfinished. Which is a shame, cos as my initial status said, I was really enjoying it at the start. And some of it was really interesting, I did not tell a lie. Specially the bit about the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in French Indochina in 1954. Amazingly, the victorious Vietminh general from that action - General Giap - is still alive! Couldn't believe my eyes when I googled him and there was a dob, but no dod. The man w...more
The van Linden's are a diplomatic couple in 1959 USA. Charlie is an analyst at the British Embassy, and was something of a rising star. But his career is starting to wane, mostly from his drinking. When Frank Renzo re-introduces himself at a party, it results in an affair between him and Mary van Linden. This comes to a head when Charlie has a breakdown during a trip to Moscow, and Mary has to go and fetch him. If I'd thought Charlotte Grey was slow, then this is almost stationary. I definitely...more
America 1959. When I read that as the start of the blurb on the cover, thought I would give Sebastian Faulks another try - the last book of his I gave up on.
It was an absorbing enough read for the historical detail, two of the characters are involved with the Kennedy/Nixon election, one as a journalist, and the other in the British Diplomatic Service. Background and insight to the two presidential candidates was very interesting, especially as we have the benefit of how both candidates played ou...more
It was an absorbing enough read for the historical detail, two of the characters are involved with the Kennedy/Nixon election, one as a journalist, and the other in the British Diplomatic Service. Background and insight to the two presidential candidates was very interesting, especially as we have the benefit of how both candidates played ou...more
The story of a doomed affair between the English wife of a diplomat and a journalist set in 1950's America. The characters felt well rounded and believable and the time and place of the novel was wonderfully described. Enjoyable, despite the rather melancholy tone, because of the quality of the writing.
On an additional nerdy note there were a couple of scenes in the book concerning the past military experiences of the characters that were very familiar to me having just watched The Pacific (Gibs...more
On an additional nerdy note there were a couple of scenes in the book concerning the past military experiences of the characters that were very familiar to me having just watched The Pacific (Gibs...more
Can't remember why I picked this up at the library but it was a good novel set in 1960 and centers around Kennedy's election to the presidency. The 2 main male characters have both been in the war, one now a british diplomat and the other an american journalist. The setting moves between Washington DC, New York City, Moscow and London. Mary, the wife of Charlie, the british diplomat, has reached a transitional point in her life and falls in love with the journalist, Frank. The characters are rea...more
On Green Dolphin Street began strongly, with all the sense of period and the kind of photographic impressionism which marks Faulks' writing at its best. He is very good at capturing a sense of the time and place in which the van der Lindens were living—Washington and New York and London in the heady days of Kennedy's race for the White House, a world of embassy parties and diplomatic intrigues and beat poets—as well as sketching out the kinds of people which they were. And yet as the novel progr...more
This was another great book by Faulks. I may not be the best literary critic for Faulks because I enjoy anything by this author. He can be very detailed at most times, but I personally enjoy the style in which he attacks details. I will find myself reading about an insignificant detail, but still enjoy the description and then later learn that the detail had a role to play in the larger picture.
The topic for this novel was interesting since it dealt with a married woman and her affair, among oth...more
The topic for this novel was interesting since it dealt with a married woman and her affair, among oth...more
Mar 15, 2010
Marte Patel
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
pearson-book-club,
fiction
I would give this two and a half stars if I could - it was in between 'it was ok' and 'I liked it'. I struggled to get into it, as the book is sometimes unnecessarily verbose, but once I got used to the writing I started to enjoy it more. I particularly enjoyed learning about the First Indochina War, the experiences the main characters had from WWII, the Kennedy-Nixon election campaigns and life in 1960s Washington, New York, London, Moscow... It wasn't as good as I expected a Sebastian Faulks n...more
While not a Faulks aficionado (Birdsong - brilliant, Human Traces - good but stalled half way through) this rates as a good read but not Faulks at his best!
The pace of the book ebbs and flows - slow to start and nearly stalling once along the way ..... but definitely worth staying with. The slower sections sit in contrast to the sections where the characters and events come alive.
Overall, an enjoyable story of a woman's love ..... for her children, her mother, her husband and her lover...... se...more
The pace of the book ebbs and flows - slow to start and nearly stalling once along the way ..... but definitely worth staying with. The slower sections sit in contrast to the sections where the characters and events come alive.
Overall, an enjoyable story of a woman's love ..... for her children, her mother, her husband and her lover...... se...more
Enjoyable book but not really one of Faulk's best. Good things about the book were how well written it was and the style of the language that I have come to expect and truly adore from a Faulks novel. As usual his way of invoking the sense of place is outstanding, got a real feel for Washington D.C and particularly 1950's New York. The development of character and story was also decent although both the characters and the storyline was not as memorable, thought provoking or in some ways as beaut...more
Well, Faulks' "Birdsong" is one of my all-time favorites. I enjoyed this one, but it certainly didn't have the intensity of "Birdsong". Interestingly, the few minor war scenes in this novel were very vivid -- perhaps Faulks is a real "war novel" kind of guy.
The central story here is of a wife, her formerly delightful (and now mentally ill and alcoholic) husband and diplomat, and a NY-based journalist who becomes the woman's lover. There are beautifully rendered scenes of Mary and Frank's time to...more
The central story here is of a wife, her formerly delightful (and now mentally ill and alcoholic) husband and diplomat, and a NY-based journalist who becomes the woman's lover. There are beautifully rendered scenes of Mary and Frank's time to...more
I couldn't finish this. From the self-centered characters to the slow-paced plot, I found nothing about this book enjoyable. I loved Birdsong and Charlotte Grey but I really couldn't get through this
This was an extremely solid read in so many ways. Set in Washington DC at the end of the 1950s it revolves around a British couple at the embassy. It covers the events and feelings of the times, the McCarthy era, the morals, the Cold War, and Kennedy vs Nixon election, the hope and the dreams. It weaves aspects of time, the lack or it and waste of it, how some individuals occupy their lives with responsibility, family, friends, country, beliefs, and passion while others see the end coming and re...more
First Faulks book I've read and I was impressed. In some ways a fairly traditional love / lost love story about an English couple living in the USA during the Nixon / Kennedy presidential race. But also some nice images of comparative life in UK and USA, the pressures of diplomatic work, a marriage stretched to breaking point, the moral quandaries of a wife deeply attracted to another man. Very well written, and held my attention well.
This book's a strange one for me. The blurb, coupled with the fact that it's written by Sebastian Faulks, had me thinking that it was right up my street; a 1960's American love story intertwined with contemporary issues of politics, depression and alcoholism.
As I expected, I loved parts of it. Never before has a book made me cry but there were sections of this (particularly the death of Mary's mother and Charlie's breakdown) that had me tearing up. Some parts I really enjoyed and I couldn't put...more
As I expected, I loved parts of it. Never before has a book made me cry but there were sections of this (particularly the death of Mary's mother and Charlie's breakdown) that had me tearing up. Some parts I really enjoyed and I couldn't put...more
This was another one my mom picked up at the airport for me. I had never heard of the author before, but it turned out to be a lot meatier than I expected. All about the Communism and McCartyism era in the US, and an unexpected love affair which is quite touching between an American guy and married British woman. I have never read the other books by Faulks, but have heard of Charlotte Gray, and am going to put it on my reading list.
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Faulks is the son of Pamela (Lawless) and Peter Ronald Faulks, a Berkshire solicitor who later became a judge. He grew up in Newbury. His mother was both cultured and highly strung. She introduced him to reading and music at a young age. Her own mother, from whom she was estranged, had been an actress in repertory. His father was a company commander in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, in which h...more
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