false 7479 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 7479 17 941638 2001 On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel total:316|5:50|4:86|3:132|2:38|1:10| 316 1076 428 35 4229 3.63 4789 793 10869998 705453 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.43 269 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 3 3 false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Dec 22 09:32:42 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 22 09:43:17 -0800 2007 more...]]> 66458349 684246 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 4 0 false Wed Aug 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 06 14:11:12 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 06 14:18:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 39952871 115473 937055 009927583X 9780099275831 3 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179614065m/937055.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179614065s/937055.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/937055.On_Green_Dolphin_Street 3.23 26 It's 1959 and the presidential battle between Kennedy and Nixon is heating up. Just as the country stands between two men so does Mary van der Linden, the wife of a British embassy employee in Washington and lover of political newspaper reporter Frank Renzo. All three are damaged by their experiences of war; death and decay are everywhere: through the men's memory of war, Mary's dying mother, van der Linden's declining health and the readers' knowledge that in only a few short years Kennedy will be dead and Nixon disgraced.

Previously, Faulks has described in bloody detail the horrors of the trenches and the brutality of the battlefield. Here he comments on the hollowness and politics of war and the human cost. With the personal mirroring the political so closely, the inevitability of the doomed love affair at the centre of the novel hardly inspires one to great heights of empathy. Consequently, the characters' fervour often falls flat:

"He raked his fingers through her hair, down to the skull, as his body filled hers. All the way, he thought, I will go all the way, till I find her; and with her head between his hands he too let out a cry, because he felt pity for her soul."

Faulks, whose previous novels have included bestsellers Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, has the capacity to sweep his readers up in his historical sagas and excels in his unflinching treatment of war. Unfortunately, the switch here from the battlefield to the political arena is not as compelling and, considering he is writing about one of the most exhilarating periods in US history and its most exciting city--New York (something Douglas Kennedy captured far more successfully in The Pursuit of Happiness), On Green Dolphin Street simply does not leap to the same heights as his earlier novels. --Alex Freeman

]]> 2001 3 0 false Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Dec 12 10:35:03 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 04:09:35 -0800 2009 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...more...]]> 35483036 1496571 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 3 0 false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 16 13:09:55 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 03 17:05:55 -0800 2008
...more...]]> 62346778 948394 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 3 0 false Sun Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 10:43:22 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 10:46:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 34057304 202888 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 5 1 false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Sep 28 14:31:24 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 28 15:04:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 60265895 2427571 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 4 0 false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jun 18 23:34:52 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 07:03:00 -0700 2009 more...]]> 42934070 1852136 1743992 0091794226 9780091794224 1 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1743992.On_Green_Dolphin_Street 4.00 1 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 4 0 false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 13 13:02:40 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 13 13:06:24 -0800 2009 63627588 26319 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 5 0 false Thu Jul 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 14:03:13 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 19:54:46 -0700 2009 46115249 1956252 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 5 0 false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Wed Feb 11 22:55:28 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 22:55:59 -0800 2009 44162163 1933110 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 5 1 false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jan 24 07:38:48 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 24 07:40:53 -0800 2009 35456307 67949 937055 009927583X 9780099275831 3 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179614065m/937055.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179614065s/937055.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/937055.On_Green_Dolphin_Street 3.41 316 It's 1959 and the presidential battle between Kennedy and Nixon is heating up. Just as the country stands between two men so does Mary van der Linden, the wife of a British embassy employee in Washington and lover of political newspaper reporter Frank Renzo. All three are damaged by their experiences of war; death and decay are everywhere: through the men's memory of war, Mary's dying mother, van der Linden's declining health and the readers' knowledge that in only a few short years Kennedy will be dead and Nixon disgraced.

Previously, Faulks has described in bloody detail the horrors of the trenches and the brutality of the battlefield. Here he comments on the hollowness and politics of war and the human cost. With the personal mirroring the political so closely, the inevitability of the doomed love affair at the centre of the novel hardly inspires one to great heights of empathy. Consequently, the characters' fervour often falls flat:

"He raked his fingers through her hair, down to the skull, as his body filled hers. All the way, he thought, I will go all the way, till I find her; and with her head between his hands he too let out a cry, because he felt pity for her soul."

Faulks, whose previous novels have included bestsellers Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, has the capacity to sweep his readers up in his historical sagas and excels in his unflinching treatment of war. Unfortunately, the switch here from the battlefield to the political arena is not as compelling and, considering he is writing about one of the most exhilarating periods in US history and its most exciting city--New York (something Douglas Kennedy captured far more successfully in The Pursuit of Happiness), On Green Dolphin Street simply does not leap to the same heights as his earlier novels. --Alex Freeman

]]> 2001 3 1 false Thu Oct 16 08:01:43 -0700 2008 Wed Nov 12 08:37:00 -0800 2008 more...]]> 62191869 1101705 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 3 0 false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 05:38:49 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 05:41:08 -0700 2009 62215941 2127369 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 2 0 false Thu Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 10:58:04 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 11:02:34 -0700 2009 62751494 863147 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 5 0 false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jul 09 05:50:18 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 05:51:34 -0700 2009 16276353 800521 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 2 0 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 24 17:03:02 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 24 17:42:28 -0800 2008
Faulks' narrative is rich and intellectual without appearing stilted. A...more...]]> 49939648 1552130 1106075 1856867234 9781856867238 1 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181042690m/1106075.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181042690s/1106075.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1106075.On_Green_Dolphin_Street 4.00 3 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 4 0 false Sat Apr 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 21 03:20:12 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 05 07:49:28 -0700 2009 74907502 2839733 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 2 0 false Sun Oct 18 07:21:26 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 07:21:43 -0700 2009 35647168 1538791 7479 0375704566 9780375704567 29 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491m/7479.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165620491s/7479.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7479.On_Green_Dolphin_Street_A_Novel 3.41 316 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 Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 2001 3 0 false Sat Oct 18 15:25:34 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 18 15:27:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 12316647 774321 937055 009927583X 9780099275831 3 <![CDATA[On Green Dolphin Street]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179614065m/937055.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179614065s/937055.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/937055.On_Green_Dolphin_Street 3.41 316 It's 1959 and the presidential battle between Kennedy and Nixon is heating up. Just as the country stands between two men so does Mary van der Linden, the wife of a British embassy employee in Washington and lover of political newspaper reporter Frank Renzo. All three are damaged by their experiences of war; death and decay are everywhere: through the men's memory of war, Mary's dying mother, van der Linden's declining health and the readers' knowledge that in only a few short years Kennedy will be dead and Nixon disgraced.

Previously, Faulks has described in bloody detail the horrors of the trenches and the brutality of the battlefield. Here he comments on the hollowness and politics of war and the human cost. With the personal mirroring the political so closely, the inevitability of the doomed love affair at the centre of the novel hardly inspires one to great heights of empathy. Consequently, the characters' fervour often falls flat:

"He raked his fingers through her hair, down to the skull, as his body filled hers. All the way, he thought, I will go all the way, till I find her; and with her head between his hands he too let out a cry, because he felt pity for her soul."

Faulks, whose previous novels have included bestsellers Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, has the capacity to sweep his readers up in his historical sagas and excels in his unflinching treatment of war. Unfortunately, the switch here from the battlefield to the political arena is not as compelling and, considering he is writing about one of the most exhilarating periods in US history and its most exciting city--New York (something Douglas Kennedy captured far more successfully in The Pursuit of Happiness), On Green Dolphin Street simply does not leap to the same heights as his earlier novels. --Alex Freeman

]]> 2001 3 0 false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 12 06:24:47 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 12 06:25:22 -0800 2008 more...]]> 8 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=7479