- Paperback: 293 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (17 July 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340896485
- ISBN-13: 978-0340896488
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11.2 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,779,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Margarettown (German Edition)
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Product Description
Review
'MARGARETTOWN is a lovely short novel, a new type of love story: filled with classic romanticism and postmodern cynicism and introspection. Zevin is clearly talented and her first novel is highly recommended.' (Bookreporter.com )
'Zevin, who seems to have an innate understanding of the absolute unpredictability of love, has created a rich cast of characters and a truly captivating novel.' (Bookpage.com )
‘A droll piece of romantic whimsy, with an unexpected resonance.’ (Library Journal )
'An intricately woven story of love and loss, MARGARETTOWN stays with you in the way that any hard-earned prize makes its place in your heart.' (944 magazine )
'What it means to be in love with one person (do you love all of them? or just one?). A droll piece of romantic whimsy, with an unexpected resonance.' (Kirkus Reviews ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
'Zevin, who seems to have an innate understanding of the absolute unpredictability of love, has created a rich cast of characters and a truly captivating novel.' (Bookpage.com )
‘A droll piece of romantic whimsy, with an unexpected resonance.’ (Library Journal )
'An intricately woven story of love and loss, MARGARETTOWN stays with you in the way that any hard-earned prize makes its place in your heart.' (944 magazine )
'What it means to be in love with one person (do you love all of them? or just one?). A droll piece of romantic whimsy, with an unexpected resonance.' (Kirkus Reviews ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
"* 'MARGARETTOWN is a lovely short novel, a new type of love story: filled with classic romanticism and postmodern cynicism and introspection. Zevin is clearly talented and her first novel is highly recommended.' - Bookreporter.com * 'Zevin, who seems to have an innate understanding of the absolute unpredictability of love, has created a rich cast of characters and a truly captivating novel.' - Bookpage.com * 'A droll piece of romantic whimsy, with an unexpected resonance.' - Library Journal * 'An intricately woven story of love and loss, MARGARETTOWN stays with you in the way that any hard-earned prize makes its place in your heart.' - 944 magazine * 'What it means to be in love with one person (do you love all of them? or just one?). A droll piece of romantic whimsy, with an unexpected resonance.' - Kirkus Reviews"
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I picked up this book in an airport, thinking it to be one of those light romantic holiday books that you read just to fill in the time of day. How very wrong I was! Margarettown, although it is a romantic story, was so different from any other book I have read before. Yes, it is strange -and it must be mentioned part fairy tale - but it is strange in a way that makes you want to read on and find out the outcome.
In a nutshell, Margaret Towne comes from Margarettown, and lives there with her various 'sisters' - it leaves the reader to wonder though, whether these sisters are real or whether they are just aspects of the same person. She is in love with the narrator of the story, who follows their romance from young adults to parenthood, and who constructs the story in a clear and often humourous way.
Margarettown is unlike any book I have ever read before, and it is for that reason it is one of my favourites. I really do reccommend this book to anyone looking for an easy, humourous escape from reality.
In a nutshell, Margaret Towne comes from Margarettown, and lives there with her various 'sisters' - it leaves the reader to wonder though, whether these sisters are real or whether they are just aspects of the same person. She is in love with the narrator of the story, who follows their romance from young adults to parenthood, and who constructs the story in a clear and often humourous way.
Margarettown is unlike any book I have ever read before, and it is for that reason it is one of my favourites. I really do reccommend this book to anyone looking for an easy, humourous escape from reality.
Format:Paperback
Despite how rather bizzare it was, I actually really enjoyed this read. I've only read Elsewhere by Zevin before and whilst I enjoyed it, I didn't love it, but I thought I'd give this one a go. Unfortunately, I was confused before I even started the book - by reading the blurb, I think anyone would agree, it looks like it must require a lot of concentration and re-reading. However, once I sat back and got into it, it really wasn't that difficult. Though it's not fully explained, if you don't look too far into it, the concept is a very interesting one. N (the narrator) is writing a book to his daughter about his life with her mother, Margaret who was in actually several different bodies - it is the same woman who inhabits different bodies which are all aged at different times in her life. I guess we all have variations within us and this just makes us more aware of what changes within us when we get older. The book is a telling of how N deals with all of the variations of Margaret which makes for a very interesting read. This book is quite philosophical but not typically or overtly so - the subtlety in the writing is quite beautiful and the very imperfect narrator made me feel a lot closer to the story. Definitely quirky and quite unique, I would recommend this to anyone searching for something different to your average love story.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Margarettown
26 Sep 2005
Format:Hardcover
Gabrielle Zevin's debut novel tells the unusual story of N. and the woman (or women) he loves. He meets Maggie (nee Margaret) Towne in college, they fall in love, and she takes him home to meet the family. She's from a town called Margarettown and it is inhabited by 4 people; Old Margaret, the giggling youngster May, brooding teenager Mia, and the sour middle-aged Marge. The only one missing is the suicidal Greta. And they are all the same person, only at different ages. I'm not giving much away to reveal that these women are all the same woman ("you won't find a woman in the world that doesn't have a couple other women inside her," she says), however whether Margarettown is a real place or of N.'s invention is left in doubt. The explanation given by Old Margaret, of what happened to make her split into many different Margarets) is strange yet also strangely understandable.
This novel is a wonderful portrayal of how one's identity is effected by life experience and aging. At times I was afraid Zevin wouldn't be able to hold all her plots together but they came out at the end all neatly tied in a bow. This story is darkly whimsical and the writing lighthearted, yet poignant.
This novel is a wonderful portrayal of how one's identity is effected by life experience and aging. At times I was afraid Zevin wouldn't be able to hold all her plots together but they came out at the end all neatly tied in a bow. This story is darkly whimsical and the writing lighthearted, yet poignant.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
A story portraying the evolution of a woman throughout her lifetime
24 Jun 2005
Format:Hardcover
I was another person back then," people are apt to say when explaining past deeds or ideologies. It is interesting to explore this idea of who we are and how we are ever changing, sometimes radically, over time. Through the course of our lives we have many roles, we often feel or seem like very different people than we once were. But there is a constant, an essence of who we truly are. Gabrielle Zevin, in her amazing debut novel MARGARETTOWN, explores this theme from three different angles --- by looking at how one man understands the woman he loves, how that woman understands her emotionally fractured self, and how their daughter will use the story of her parents, especially her mother, in her own life.
When N. meets Maggie Towne, he is a graduate student teaching assistant and she is a mysterious undergrad. N. is both frustrated and entranced with Maggie and will continue to feel that way the rest of his life. Their relationship moves fast and soon N. is on his way to upstate New York to visit Margaret's family in a town called Margarettown. There, instead of her parents, he meets Margaret's "family," the women who occupy her life. Old Margaret, Marge, Mia and May all live together in a house called Margaron. There is one other, Greta, who went crazy and killed herself. Still, Greta's ghost, her presence, is strong in the house. N. comes to realize that all these women are Maggie, or better said, Maggie is all these women. May is the carefree child she was, Mia the pouty and artistic teenager. Marge is the disappointed middle-aged woman she may become and Old Margaret the peaceful, reflective old woman. Greta is the dark side of Maggie, her fragile self barely under the surface.
How is N. to navigate a life with Maggie when she is ever changing and unpredictable? Can he love the bitter Marge and the damaged Greta? In examining these questions N. examines the nature of partnership and unconditional love. He examines his own successes and failures with Maggie and tries to understand fully the complex woman he is in love with.
Here the reader understands that Zevin is writing broadly about the complexity of all women and the challenges of all loves.
N. is not merely recalling his life with Maggie, reminiscing about the past and their love. He is dying and Maggie is already dead, and he is compelled to share the story with their daughter, Jane. For Jane, this story --- the story of N., Maggie and Margarettown --- will become the story, full of contradictions and metaphors, of her family and the mythology of the mother she grew up without. For Jane, N. tries to capture the elusive nature of Maggie and the magic of their love.
Zevin's prose is lyrical, funny, simple, elegant and bittersweet. The plot is interesting, original and magical, although verging on being overly contrived at moments. N.'s tale is part truth and part fairy tale, and he admittedly bends or reinterprets the truth as he writes for Jane (N.'s sister Bess, while demonstrating Zevin's point about the evolution of a woman through her lifetime and the transformative power of love, also serves as a voice of reason asserting itself from time to time throughout the novel). The Truth, Zevin seems to say, is subjective and often not as essential as the details.
MARGARETTOWN is a lovely short novel, a new type of love story: filled with classic romanticism and postmodern cynicism and introspection. Zevin is clearly talented and her first novel is highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
When N. meets Maggie Towne, he is a graduate student teaching assistant and she is a mysterious undergrad. N. is both frustrated and entranced with Maggie and will continue to feel that way the rest of his life. Their relationship moves fast and soon N. is on his way to upstate New York to visit Margaret's family in a town called Margarettown. There, instead of her parents, he meets Margaret's "family," the women who occupy her life. Old Margaret, Marge, Mia and May all live together in a house called Margaron. There is one other, Greta, who went crazy and killed herself. Still, Greta's ghost, her presence, is strong in the house. N. comes to realize that all these women are Maggie, or better said, Maggie is all these women. May is the carefree child she was, Mia the pouty and artistic teenager. Marge is the disappointed middle-aged woman she may become and Old Margaret the peaceful, reflective old woman. Greta is the dark side of Maggie, her fragile self barely under the surface.
How is N. to navigate a life with Maggie when she is ever changing and unpredictable? Can he love the bitter Marge and the damaged Greta? In examining these questions N. examines the nature of partnership and unconditional love. He examines his own successes and failures with Maggie and tries to understand fully the complex woman he is in love with.
Here the reader understands that Zevin is writing broadly about the complexity of all women and the challenges of all loves.
N. is not merely recalling his life with Maggie, reminiscing about the past and their love. He is dying and Maggie is already dead, and he is compelled to share the story with their daughter, Jane. For Jane, this story --- the story of N., Maggie and Margarettown --- will become the story, full of contradictions and metaphors, of her family and the mythology of the mother she grew up without. For Jane, N. tries to capture the elusive nature of Maggie and the magic of their love.
Zevin's prose is lyrical, funny, simple, elegant and bittersweet. The plot is interesting, original and magical, although verging on being overly contrived at moments. N.'s tale is part truth and part fairy tale, and he admittedly bends or reinterprets the truth as he writes for Jane (N.'s sister Bess, while demonstrating Zevin's point about the evolution of a woman through her lifetime and the transformative power of love, also serves as a voice of reason asserting itself from time to time throughout the novel). The Truth, Zevin seems to say, is subjective and often not as essential as the details.
MARGARETTOWN is a lovely short novel, a new type of love story: filled with classic romanticism and postmodern cynicism and introspection. Zevin is clearly talented and her first novel is highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Hella Good!
15 Sep 2005
Format:Hardcover
The novel Margarettown, written by Gabrielle Zevin was a very captivating story about the relationship of one man and one women with several other women inside of her. N tells a story about learning how to love multiple women in one, losing her, trying to get through a summer with her family (all females) and going through an affair.N begins writing this novel for his daughter so she knows every detail about her decised mother before he passes away. During the first 100 pages or so, I wasn't very interested in the novel. I found it to be moderately slow paced and dull. The main idea seemed ridiculous and I couldn't understand why it was recommended. Eventually it started to change pace and it became a lot more interesting. I felt that the interaction between the two main characters was very realistic even though it may seem completely fiction when you're reading it.
Since the author of the novel is a female, I found that one of the most compelling features of the book was that the story is told MAINLY from a male's point of view. At first I found that to be awkward, but after reading it I changed my mind. Once I completed this novel, I was very satisfied. It was a short book and an easy read. I felt that the ending was appropriate and realized that if the beginning didn't have so much stress on just two topics, then there would be no point to the story. This isn't an immature novel, but when recommending this book, I belive that the young adult reader may enjoy it a little more. Generally it MAY be more preffered to a younger audience. Overall, Gabrielle Zevin definately produced a great first novel that is worth reading.
Since the author of the novel is a female, I found that one of the most compelling features of the book was that the story is told MAINLY from a male's point of view. At first I found that to be awkward, but after reading it I changed my mind. Once I completed this novel, I was very satisfied. It was a short book and an easy read. I felt that the ending was appropriate and realized that if the beginning didn't have so much stress on just two topics, then there would be no point to the story. This isn't an immature novel, but when recommending this book, I belive that the young adult reader may enjoy it a little more. Generally it MAY be more preffered to a younger audience. Overall, Gabrielle Zevin definately produced a great first novel that is worth reading.
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