The Characters of Love

by Susie Boyt

THE CHARACTERS OF LOVE beautifully captures the fledgling emotions of a young woman in thrall to her hungry heart. Susie Boyt reveals a shockingly acute ability to depict the triumphs and disasters of love.

234 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 1997

About the author

Susie Boyt (born January 1969) is a British novelist.

The daughter of Suzy Boyt and artist Lucian Freud, and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. Susie Boyt was educated at Channing and at Camden School for Girls and read English at St Catherine's College, Oxford, graduating in 1992. Working variously at a PR agency, and a literary agency, she completed her first novel, The Normal Man, which was published in 1995 by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. She returned to university to do a Masters in Anglo American Literary Relations at University College London studying the works of Henry James and the poet John Berryman.

To date she has published four novels. In 2008, she published My Judy Garland Life, a layering of biography, hero-worship and self-help. Her journalism includes an ongoing column in the weekend Life & Arts section of the Financial Times. She is married to Tom Astor, a film producer. They live with their two daughters in London.

Reviews

[CanadianReader]

Rating: 1.5

What begins as the story of a young girl, Nell, and her mostly absent, cerebral, psychiatrist/psychoanalyst father turns into a tedious and melodramatic story of a nineteen-year-old girl’s obsessive love for her unbalanced university teacher, a poet called Bill Marnie, who is so obviously not who he says he is. It seems that the reader is supposed to believe this ill-fated affair is due to Nell’s issues with abandonment by her sometimes charming, but essentially emotionally deficient dad. While there are hints of Boyt’s potential in this—her second—novel, they are few and far between. It took some effort for me to finish this book. I think I succeeded mostly because the thing is so short. Not recommended.

[Suanne Laqueur]

A short novel of obsessive love. Another one that I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not, but I thought about it for a while after I’d finished reading. It was a well-written, complex portrait of a troubled woman, but a lot of loose ends left dangling at the end... I guess that’s why I kept thinking about it later.

[Lizp]

I think that Susie Boyt is underrated as a writer. She is brilliant at drawing characters. I found this book to be very poignant, and I felt deep compassion for its main character, Nell.

Nell's father was absent for the first 13 years of her life. When he finally did appear, he only offered her a conditional relationship. At 17, Nell continues her search for a father figure. She meets him in Bill Marnie, her university tutor, and she develops a huge crush on him. They have an unequal relationship that is doomed for failure.

The Characters of Love is very well written. Nell’s obsession, confusion, and angst is palpable. I recommend this book to anyone who likes Rachel Cusk’s books. Boyt’s The Normal Man is another cleverly and beautifully written book.

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

I read The Normal Man years ago and enjoyed it enough to remember the author's name (that's less of an insult than it sounds really!) but it's taken until now for me to turn up another book by Boyt. It turns out this is actually her first book, I don't know if she ever published a third one.

This is the story of Nell, who grows up mostly without a father in London and goes on to fall in love with her poet tutor at Oxford. What's great about it is how well the characters are drawn and how deeply embarrassed I was about Nell's crush while I was reading it. It brought back memories of things that I'd rather have forgotten but it was all the better a book for having that effect on me.

[David]

Unfortunately, this is my last Susie Boyt book as I have read all her others. As her second novel, I didn't think it was up there with her best. The story follows Nell from childhood to her early twenties, combining her relationships with an absentee father and that with her much much older tutor at university. Nell is a strange creation. A difficult girl in some ways, but highly intelligent and resourceful. I guess the author is trying to compare these two men in her life, who are not really the best for her fragile mind. But at that impressionable age, these things can happen. The writing is as brilliant as ever, especially some of the dialogue. I will now have to wait until her next book is published.

[Sadie]

I feel the book flap, which describes this story as being about an obsessive love, missed its mark. Perhaps I'm biased (having had more than one rollercoaster ride relationship in my youth) but I thought Susie Boyt's clear eyed depiction of love (both romantic and filial) and the lengths we go to maintain our connection to others, despite many obstacles, was tremendously moving. I am so happy I found this book.

[Katie Mcsweeney]

I read this in a few hours last May (2010) on the morning of one of my exams. I intended to read a few pages to give my brain a break and then go back and study but I got sucked in and read the whole thing... very good story but perhaps i was looking for a distraction!

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance]

English love; college student for 40ish professor.