Amherst

December 22, 2014
Nicholson (The Trial of True Love) offers up a cinema-ready exploration of love and lust in New England past and present. Present-day heroine Alice, an aspiring screenwriter, travels from England to Amherst, Mass., to conduct research for her screenplay about Emily Dickinson’s affair. Alice’s own story—which includes a passionate affair with a much older man—alternates with the story of her historical subjects: Emily Dickinson’s brother, Austin, and his younger lover, Mabel, the married wife of an Amherst College professor. Their story suggests that Emily, who permitted the couple to liaise in her house, was herself obsessed with Mabel, who eventually championed the poet’s work after Emily’s death. The historical segments—in many ways more vivid and lively than the somewhat melodramatic contemporary ones—are well researched, although passages from the subjects’ letters and diaries are injected awkwardly into the text. Both Austin and Mabel are complicated characters, and though there’s nice balance between the dual narratives, one senses that Nicholson struggled with the dilemma of how to impose a fictional story onto real-life events.

December 15, 2014
Two love affairs, more than a century apart, are influenced by Emily Dickinson in novelist and screenwriter Nicholson's latest novel. Alice Dickinson (no relation to the poet) is a young British woman who has appeared in some of Nicholson's earlier novels; she's now an advertising copywriter hoping to write a screenplay based on the scandalous romantic entanglement of Austin Dickinson, Emily's staid brother, and Mabel Loomis Todd, an alluring, much younger woman. It's not clear how much of a role Emily played in aiding and abetting the romance, but Mabel eventually became the champion of the mysterious poet's work after her death. Alice travels to Dickinson's hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts, to do research; while she's there, she meets Nick Crocker, a local literature professor, to whom she's been referred by her ex-boyfriend Jack. Matters are muddled by the fact that Nick was an early boyfriend of Jack's mother and has a reputation as a Casanova. Alice's attempts to understand Austin's and Mabel's motivations become intertwined with her own efforts at deciphering her complicated feelings for Nick; she must unravel not only the mores of the Amherst community a century earlier, but also the etiquette of a contemporary love affair between partners with differing views of life. Relying heavily on extensive research into the Dickinson-Todd affair, Nicholson peppers the novel with summary explanations of events in order to propel the plot forward (a convention similar to calendar pages flying off the screen in the movies). Extensive dialogue between Alice and Nick about life, love, death and desire will provide readers, particularly those in reading groups, with grist for discussion. Nicholson's (Motherland, 2013, etc.) parallel love stories hold classic appeal, while the historic aspects of the tale provide interest for those seeking "the real story" of one of America's most revered poets.

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Starred review from January 1, 2015
Londoner Alice Dickinson, age 24, is working on a screenplay about the real-life love affair between Austin Dickinson, poet Emily Dickinson's solemn older brother, and the younger, spirited Mabel Loomis Todd. Alice heads to Amherst, Massachusetts, once home to the Dickinsons, now the site of an extensive Dickinson collection, to begin her research. There she connects with 55-year-old professor Nick Crocker, who offers her use of a guest suite at his house. As Alice begins uncovering unexpected facts about the long-ago relationship, she gets involved with the charismatic yet complicated Nick. Acclaimed British novelist and screenwriter Nicholson (Motherland, 2013) alternates between Alice and Nick's tangled affair and his imagined version of the romance between Austin and Mabel, from their first meeting, in 1882, to a deepening commitment and somewhat unconventional arrangement (Mabel's spouse is aware of and encourages their liaisons), which lasts until Austin's death, in 1895. Nicholson also draws on the mystique surrounding the reclusive poet. Mabel is captivated by Emily and determined to publish her work posthumously, while Alice's vision of Mabel shifts and sharpens. Weaving voices of the past and present, Nicholson creates an engaging, many-faceted novel that deftly explores the timeless torments of love and loneliness.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2014

Nicholson (Motherland) is graced with BAFTA and Tony awards and two Academy Award nominations, background that figures here. Alice Dickinson leaves London for Amherst, MA, to research a screenplay about the adulterous affair between an Amherst college faculty wife and Austin Dickinson, brother of the poet. Of course, she launches an affair of her own with a married English academic.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2015

Nicholson's new novel is about two love affairs that center on the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson. Londoner Alice Dickinson (no relation) is a young advertising executive who takes time off to work on a screenplay. Her topic is the scandalous real-life love affair between Mabel Loomis Todd, a young faculty wife, and the much older Austin Dickinson, Amherst College treasurer and Emily's brother. Alice travels to Amherst, MA, to do research and is invited to stay with Nick Crocker, a married academic from England in his 50s. As Alice looks into Mabel and Austin's relationship, she begins an affair of her own with Nick, which they both know echoes the past. VERDICT Nicholson is an accomplished novelist (Motherland) and Oscar-nominated screenwriter in whose hands this meticulously researched and thought-provoking exploration of the nature of passionate love soars. Told in alternating chapters between the past and the present and using the poems of Emily Dickinson throughout, this work will appeal to literary readers and those familiar with Nicholson's earlier novels (some characters recur), but it is accessible to all and should be welcomed by book groups. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 8/22/14.]--Nancy H. Fontaine, Norwich P.L., VT

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015

Nicholson's new novel is about two love affairs that center on the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson. Londoner Alice Dickinson (no relation) is a young advertising executive who takes time off to work on a screenplay. Her topic is the scandalous real-life love affair between Mabel Loomis Todd, a young faculty wife, and the much older Austin Dickinson, Amherst College treasurer and Emily's brother. Alice travels to Amherst, MA, to do research and is invited to stay with Nick Crocker, a married academic from England in his 50s. As Alice looks into Mabel and Austin's relationship, she begins an affair of her own with Nick, which they both know echoes the past. VERDICT Nicholson is an accomplished novelist (Motherland) and Oscar-nominated screenwriter in whose hands this meticulously researched and thought-provoking exploration of the nature of passionate love soars. Told in alternating chapters between the past and the present and using the poems of Emily Dickinson throughout, this work will appeal to literary readers and those familiar with Nicholson's earlier novels (some characters recur), but it is accessible to all and should be welcomed by book groups. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 8/22/14.]--Nancy H. Fontaine, Norwich P.L., VT

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.