The Honeymoon

March 8, 2004
The bond between mother and son becomes a stranglehold in Haythe's debut novel, an elaborate, unsettling character study that uses Venice as the setting for a strange honeymoon. Shy, sheltered Gordon Garraty spends most of his childhood traveling with his eccentric mother, Maureen, a dilettante who is constantly hopping around Europe to work on an art guide book that remains in a perpetual state of near-completion. Maureen's flamboyant dominance of her son leaves Gordon a bit of a blank slate, until he heads off to college in London and meets a sly, coy waitress named Annie who inexplicably breaks off her engagement to another man and agrees to marry Gordon after a disturbingly brief courtship. The unlikely union seems to surprise both bride and groom, and Gordon's rather tepid relationship with Annie comes completely unraveled when Maureen and her new fiancé, the over-tanned Gerhardt, invite the newlyweds on a trip to Venice. Haythe's prose is smooth and probing, and the narrative stakes rise when Annie hints at the possibility of incest between Maureen and Gordon after deciding to leave Venice early. But Haythe's focus on Maureen makes Gordon a shadowy, incomplete figure, and the novel's conclusion is more bizarre than climactic. Haythe shows promise as a stylist, but the combination of muddled climax and uneven character development hinders this otherwise impressive debut. (Apr.)

Forecast:
Fans of Patricia Highsmith will enjoy this noirish novel, with its European setting and cast of morally ambiguous characters.