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Kitty and Virgil
Kitty Crozier first laid eyes on Virgil Florescu, a dissident poet who swam across the Danube to escape Ceausescu's Romania, in the hospital. She woke up after surgery to find a stranger sitting beside her bed gazing at her. He just smiled at her, stood and left the room. She next saw him in London’s Green Park picking up litter from the grass with a long spike. So begins the most important, most demanding, most exhilarating relationship of Kitty's life. As their love for each other deepens, their previous lives and very different families reveal themselves to be oddly connected.
- GenresFiction
280 pages, Hardcover
First published September 3, 1998
5 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Paul Bailey
173 books28 followersPeter Harry "Paul" Bailey was a British novelist and critic, as well as a biographer of Cynthia Payne and Quentin Crisp.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 20, 2022
I learned of Paul Bailey through his appreciation of the author Elizabeth Taylor. This is a love story. Not a romance. Delicately told. Threaded with darkness. The love of British Kitty and Romanian Virgil. Love of family, friends, city, country and culture. "Kitty and Virgil" gradually crystallize through whisps of memories and relationships shared with one another...and us.
I started this at night...reading for about an hour before going to sleep. I woke up from a dream that seamlessly continued "Kitty and Virgil".
I started this at night...reading for about an hour before going to sleep. I woke up from a dream that seamlessly continued "Kitty and Virgil".
February 25, 2021
Moving and tragic love story. Rich characters.
January 6, 2024
If Paul Bailey was cereal, it would be Special K with added cranberries. Mouthfuls of saminess, a sense it's probably good backed up by what's on the cover, with knowingly bitter parts scattered throughout. It's worthy, made up of the right things, and if you were to ask me what's in it now, I can't honestly remember.
We have a Romanian exile with an impressive escape story, self-effacement and rich interior life, a love story, trauma-induced aversion to meat, and 1970s sitcom style asides that can make Bailey a little grating at times. He upped the fruit ratio for Sugar Cane, which like Gabriel's Lament before it, packed more of a punch. This one was nice enough but I will be surprised if I even remember the title in a year's time.
We have a Romanian exile with an impressive escape story, self-effacement and rich interior life, a love story, trauma-induced aversion to meat, and 1970s sitcom style asides that can make Bailey a little grating at times. He upped the fruit ratio for Sugar Cane, which like Gabriel's Lament before it, packed more of a punch. This one was nice enough but I will be surprised if I even remember the title in a year's time.
January 17, 2023
Intr-o zi, in viata linistita a tinerei londoneze Kitty Crozier, apare Virgil Florescu. Un poet roman exilat, ce duce povara ororilor infaptuite de tatal sau, si simte ca trebuie sa plateasca pentru acestea.
Intre cei doi se creeaza o poveste de dragoste tandra, o tragedie profunda plina de emotii contradictorii, o aventura plina de umor si tristeti.
Acest roman ne arata modul ingrozitor in care oamenii din doua culturi complet diferite si moduri de a privi lumea, se pot gasi si apoi se pot pierde reciproc.
Intre cei doi se creeaza o poveste de dragoste tandra, o tragedie profunda plina de emotii contradictorii, o aventura plina de umor si tristeti.
Acest roman ne arata modul ingrozitor in care oamenii din doua culturi complet diferite si moduri de a privi lumea, se pot gasi si apoi se pot pierde reciproc.
December 4, 2022
Romanian is the language I heard at my mother's breast. I did not acquire it, as I acquired the other languages. It was given to me.
St Felix, the breaker of hearts that have the capacity to mend.
St Felix, the breaker of hearts that have the capacity to mend.
May 20, 2013
A novel of sensibility and a quirky novel, both in form and with respect to the characters. Although there’s a tragic underlying theme related to the fascist and pseudo-communist history of Romania, it’s for the most part a light, playful novel.
The novel wanders, both in terms of history (there are numerous parenthetical sections, most of them short, that take place in another time or, sometimes, place) and in terms of character. And yet it works. Bailey’s sensibility holds it together somehow. It’s certainly not the characters, or even the themes, that work. Just the writing and the sensibility.
It’s no surprise that this novel hasn’t made it in the U.S. American readers aren’t looking for sensibility. Few readers looking for Romanian tragedy would make it far enough to find it. And those looking for sensibility would likely be thrown for a loop by the last part of the novel.
The novel wanders, both in terms of history (there are numerous parenthetical sections, most of them short, that take place in another time or, sometimes, place) and in terms of character. And yet it works. Bailey’s sensibility holds it together somehow. It’s certainly not the characters, or even the themes, that work. Just the writing and the sensibility.
It’s no surprise that this novel hasn’t made it in the U.S. American readers aren’t looking for sensibility. Few readers looking for Romanian tragedy would make it far enough to find it. And those looking for sensibility would likely be thrown for a loop by the last part of the novel.
November 23, 2016
My true rating is 3.5 stars.
A very unusual novel.
Virgil is a Romanian refugee living in London. He & Kitty fall in love. He's a poet with a fragmented past, which haunts him. The tone of the story is light, but with dark undercurrents. It's a strange book, dotted with Romanian folk tales, vignettes of the dictator Caucescu's brutal oppression of his country. The Romanian reminiscences are interspersed with Kitty's story : her twin, the difficult Daisy, and her polar opposite adulthood, their self-centred father Felix and his campy factotum, Derek; Kitty's down-to-earth mother.
Poor Virgil succumbs to gloom and tyhe weight of the past. He's alone in Paris, where he kills himself.
The narrative jumped all over the place, but I was sufficiently interested to continue reading. In fact, I finished the book in a day. Recommended, if you're looking for something different.
A very unusual novel.
Virgil is a Romanian refugee living in London. He & Kitty fall in love. He's a poet with a fragmented past, which haunts him. The tone of the story is light, but with dark undercurrents. It's a strange book, dotted with Romanian folk tales, vignettes of the dictator Caucescu's brutal oppression of his country. The Romanian reminiscences are interspersed with Kitty's story : her twin, the difficult Daisy, and her polar opposite adulthood, their self-centred father Felix and his campy factotum, Derek; Kitty's down-to-earth mother.
Poor Virgil succumbs to gloom and tyhe weight of the past. He's alone in Paris, where he kills himself.
The narrative jumped all over the place, but I was sufficiently interested to continue reading. In fact, I finished the book in a day. Recommended, if you're looking for something different.
January 30, 2008
A timeless love story about two lost souls.
The reader will sympathize with the characters and laugh and cry.
The reader will sympathize with the characters and laugh and cry.
November 30, 2007
An unforgettable love story about two lost souls.
July 13, 2013
Sad love affair between Romanian man and English woman, moves between times and places.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews