The Madness of Love

December 13, 2004
It's love triangle within love triangle in this sly modern take on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
. Beautiful English teacher Melody Vye is the object of much affection in her Welsh town. Her student Fitch and her headmaster, Mr. Boase, both adore her, but most smitten is Fitch's piano teacher, Leo Spring, a childhood friend but decidedly not Melody's dream man ("His gestures, his flailing arms had embarrassed her. His hair had embarrassed her"). Hoping to woo her, Leo hires Valentina, a writer posing as a gardener, to revive his neglected grounds. Valentina, bereft after her twin brother Jonathan's departure on a "solo voyage of rediscovery," is surprised to find herself falling for Leo, who fails to see how it pains her when he begs her to play Cupid for him and Melody. The women bond over their losses—Melody's brother has committed suicide—but one misinterprets shared grief as love: "It was a madness that grew inside her like the tendrils of a voracious climbing plant." Between Melody's staging of the school play (Twelfth Night
, natch) and the big party for Leo's revitalized garden, there's little question that everyone will find happiness, even if it's in unexpected ways. Published as A Good Voyage
in Davies's native Britain, this debut has a subtle sophistication and lovely, lyrical prose, and will charm readers with its warmth and sweetness. Agent, Caroline Dawnay.

January 1, 2005
Published in Great Britain in 2004 as A Good Voyage, Davies's quirky first novel is unabashedly based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, with perhaps a touch of A Midsummer Night's Dream thrown in and updated to the 21st century. Valentina, a bookseller, cuts off her hair and disguises herself as a gardener to follow musician Leo to his estate in Wales. Leo is in love with Melody, the young school headmistress who is grieving over the suicide of her brother but comes to life again as she falls in love with Valentina. Melody's student Fitch and fellow teacher Mr. Boase are also in love with Melody. All this takes place in Wales, while Valentina's twin brother goes off to Sri Lanka. The plot is grounded in true tragedy but, like Shakespeare's, is full of the light and dark comedies of infatuations, minor gender bending, and the dreamlike enchantments of gardens and celebrations. Both plot and style are deft and light but never saccharine. Highly recommended.-Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, OR

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2005
The latest contribution to the long tradition of adapting Shakespeare's plays recasts " Twelfth Night" as a charming romantic comedy of contemporary manners. Leo, the musician son of a hippielike couple (now deceased), returns after years of far-flung research to the deserted family estate in Illerwick. He is smitten by Melody Vye, a childhood chum who is now the local schoolmistress, and whose brother, Leo's boyhood pal Gabriel, has just ended his life. Also taken with the lovely schoolmum is her student (and, at the piano, Leo's, too) Fitch, and bow-tied schoolmaster Boase, who masturbates to the scent of her wadded-up handkerchief. Meanwhile, Illerwick denizen Valentina's twin breaks their childhood vow by returning to their native Sri Lanka. On a whim, she cuts her hair like a boy's, quits her bookshop, claims a horticultural degree to work on the long-neglected grounds of the fellow with the dazzling smile--Leo, who dreams of Melody as he transforms his garden side-by-side with grubby, disguised Valentina. Characters and motives converges at Leo's subsequent, deliciously comic midsummer garden party.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)