Double honeymoon

by Evan S. Connell

Hardcover

Genres: Novels

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Evan Shelby Connell Jr. (August 17, 1924 – January 10, 2013) was a U.S. novelist, poet, and short-story writer. His writing covered a variety of genres, although he published most frequently in fiction.

In 2009, Connell was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize, for lifetime achievement. On April 23, 2010, he was awarded a Los Angeles Times Book Prize: the Robert Kirsch Award, for "a living author with a substantial connection to the American West, whose contribution to American letters deserves special recognition."

Connell was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the only son of Evan S. Connell, Sr. (1890–1974), a physician, and Ruth Elton Connell. He had a sister Barbara (Mrs. Matthew Zimmermann) to whom he dedicated his novel Mrs. Bridge (1959). He graduated from Southwest High School in Kansas City in 1941. He started undergraduate work at Dartmouth College but joined the Navy in 1943 and became a pilot. After the end of World War II, he graduated from the University of Kansas in 1947, with a B.A. in English. He studied creative writing at Columbia University in New York and Stanford University in California. He never married, and lived and worked in Sausalito, California for decades.
(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

He's so great. This is not quite as good as his supernal Bridge books but it's pretty close.

[Robert Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

An insular narrative, just like companion novel "The Connoisseur." On the plus side, this novel very accurately depicts the effect a stunningly beautiful woman can have on even the most stolid, resigned man.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is about the apparent power of feminine beauty to overcome the rationality and good sense of an intelligent and sensitive guy. It is about the allure of feminine psychopathy, the weird charm of a beautiful nut case. It is about the promise of adventure, love, a new start to a middle-aged man feeling trapped in the rat race. It is about how stupid men can be when confronted with a beautiful woman. It is about the power of youth, in all its silliness and potential, to affect the feelings of a mature person. Mulbach gets enamored of Lambeth (impossible name!) at a party where she is disdainful, unsocial, aloof to the point of rudeness. She is 20, a wild-child of uncertain parentage, no education and flighty personality (to say the least!); he a mid-40s, a widower with two kids, a housekeeper/nanny and a safe but boring job in insurance. So of course he gets involved with her.
It's a Connell, so it is very good. He is wonderful with dialogue, capturing the rhythms and phrasing of a variety of characters. The interludes with Mulbach's visit to the Japanese print exhibit at the Met, and his engrossment with his son's hand-me-down stamp album, are beautifully written, but rather mysterious in terms of the relevance to the rest of the story, though those scenes certainly do provide a stark contrast with his "dates" with Lambeth.
I will remember Connell's take on the May-December romance, his ability to capture the emotional tones of Mulbach, Lopez, the randy little Guatemalan who so vividly points out that Lambeth is a rather morally compromised young woman (the porn flick), and Jarvis, the sweet, accepting young doctor at the end, who tells Mulbach of Lambeth's death, and confirms for him the essence of the bullshit stories she told Mulbach. An oddly fun novel.

[Pascale · Rating 2 out of 5]

A colossal disappointment. Since this book features Muhlbach, the protagonist of "The Connoisseur", I expected some reference to his sudden passion for Pre-Colombian artifacts, which is the core of the earlier book. However, no connexion is established, and this book concerns itself exclusively with Muhlbach's infatuation with Lambeth, a gorgeous young woman who is a complete mess: a pathological liar, serial shoplifter and aspiring porn actress (give me Stormy Daniels any day!). While the story might have been of some interest if Connell had shown Muhlbach falling for this girl on the rebound from his love affair with antiquities, as it is it's just another boring tale of a middle-aged male falling for smooth skin. Granted, Connell writes like a dream, but in the absence of an interesting subject, his stylistic powers are completely wasted.

[Myles · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a difference an editor makes! This is the sequel to his incredible paean to art and obsession, “The Connoisseur.” This reads like Connell fan fiction.

[Charles White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always enjoy Connell but this one feels pretty thin.

[David Wasser · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretentious, boring, lacked direction, etc. It all started reading like "yada, yada, yada". Did I mention it was pretentious. Couldn't make it past page 100.

[Addison V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a very good, compelling novel. Fans of the Bridge novels would enjoy this novel, albeit should know that this is not written in the same manner (i.e., ultra-short chapters) as those books. I also found this novel considerably superior to The Connoisseur (which features the same protagonist).

[Franc · Rating 4 out of 5]

The jacket copy of an old short story collection, long out of print and superseded, describes Evan Connell as: “an assiduous collector of historical absurdities, coincidences, contradictions, artifices, outrages and insanities.” The character of Karl Muhlbach is the closest Connell came to an alter-ego. All the stories and novellas together could be bound published as a volume called, Muhlbach:

1. “Arcturus”
2. “Otto and the Magi”
3. “The Mountains of Guatemala”
4. “St. Augustine’s Pigeon”
5. “Puig’s Wife”
6. The Connoisseur
7. Double Honeymoon which reworks and extends “The Mountains of Guatemala”