Spring

October 10, 2011
If you’ve ever wondered what two people were thinking when they became a couple, wonder no more. Award-winning British novelist Szalay (London and the South-East) parses a romantic relationship with exquisite—and excruciating—attention to subterranean emotions. James, whose entrepreneurial streak caused him to skip university and, with money from a food franchise, make his mark in the film business, rode the dot-com boom to its inevitable failure. He now depends on a horseracing scheme to bolster his once palatial, currently more ordinary, lifestyle. Katherine works at a posh hotel where she intends to learn the ropes and open her own establishment, and is rebounding from an unsatisfying marriage to a cheating husband. After meeting at a wedding, they begin a relationship rife with incredible awkwardness, missed signals, and misinterpretations as well as dazzling promise—their sexual relationship marked with similar highs and lows. Szalay’s insights into the perspectives of both sexes illuminate the complexity and fragility of romantic coupling. His knowing eye and exacting prose (“Their weekend together had been pared down to the pathetic rind of Sunday evening”) bring perspicacity to the complications of love.

January 15, 2012
A precise portrait of a blurry affair. The third novel (and American debut) by the Canadian-born Szalay, one of the Daily Telegraph's Best 20 British Novelists Under 40, is a somewhat cold but nuanced and bracingly intelligent dissection of contemporary London life. James is a 30-something one-time dot-com megamillionaire now reduced to a meager middle-class existence with his dog, and reduced, too, to eking out a living via various iffy schemes, among them a shady business as a horse-racing tipster. Katherine, manager of a luxury hotel, is estranged from her husband, Fraser, an aging paparazzo who strayed with an underwear model, was exiled and now--perhaps a bit too desperately and adoringly for her comfort--wants his wife back. Szalay vivisects the awkward, tentative relationship that develops between Katherine and James, a sporadic companionship-with-benefits that is shadowed and complicated by the possibility of a resumption of her marriage to Fraser. She blows hot and cold, can be remote and enigmatic; he can seem needy and sex-obsessed. But both have appeal, too. James exudes a boyish sweetness and eagerness, and Katherine's hesitation and unreadability have less to do with emotional remoteness or with being a belle dame sans merci than with her genuine grief and confusion about what happened to her marriage. Both lovers are prone to ruthless postmortem examinations of their every encounter, and Szalay provides a sharp and occasionally humorous portrait not only of these two people but of the mores of 21st-century romance among those for whom romance has had its old glamour grubbed up a bit by age, world-weariness and the demands of everyday life. Subtle in its psychology, elegantly written, with lively and amusing minor characters--an impressive novel, but one with a slight morguelike chill.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2011

James and Katherine, confused London hipsters, have recently entered into a relationship of sorts in Szalay's third novel (after The Innocent), which is also his U.S. debut. James is a wheeler-dealer who won and lost a fortune in the Internet boom and bust and has since embarked on a series of ventures of dubious legality. Katherine works in a posh London hotel, where she first met her estranged husband, a paparazzo stalking a starlet. It's not clear what James sees in Katherine, who is emotionally unavailable and does not appear to enjoy his company. Most of their conversations consist of: "What do you want to do?" "I don't know." The chapters are narrated from different perspectives, alternating among those of James, Katherine, and a couple of minor characters. VERDICT This novel may offer an accurate depiction of a contemporary relationship, in which nothing happens and no one can articulate what he or she wants, but it doesn't make for absorbing reading. Szalay's fine writing and flashes of insight can't rescue this novel from its insipid, tiresome, and self-absorbed characters.--Lauren Gilbert, Sachem P.L., Holbrook, NY

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2011
Set in London, Spring unfolds around the lives of James and Katherine. James is at a low point in his life. After the dot-com bust of 2006 and a failed business venture, he has sunk his last assets into a race horse with a marginal track record. He meets Katherine, a hotel manager, at the start of a blustery British spring and clings pathetically to her affection as his last hope for happiness. Katherine, however, is anything but happy to let down her guard. After dating a married man, she waffles in and out of love with James, creating a hot-and-cold romance with him that verges on the torturous. Szalay, who was listed as one of the Daily Telegraph's 20 best writers under 40, gets to the heart of what it means to encounter disappointment and heartache. His characters, particularly James, are skilled in picking up the pieces of their broken lives and moving on to something better, however elusive better may prove to be.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)