Banishing Verona : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review:

As were her earlier novels, Margot Livesey's Banishing Verona is characterized by beautiful writing, a gripping plot, and a cast of characters who are, at one and the same time, both delightfully quirky and disconcertingly familiar. What makes this novel even more thrilling than her earlier ones, for this reader, anyway, is the achingly suspenseful story of two improbable lovers who are briefly brought together by fate only to be wrenched apart by it. This novel sounds the question: how can one ever know the heart of another? and the answer comes back, subtly, through the emotional confusion, like an echo through a fog : how can life be bearable if one cannot?


Rating:
Summary: Livesey's Funniest, Wisest, Best!
Review: I loved "Banishing Verona". For the record I enjoyed and admired Livesey's "Eva Moves the Furniture", but the mystery of the mother-daughter connection at its center didn't affect me the way it did female readers I know who speak reverently of the book. But I feel reverent about Zeke and Verona and this novel's articulate third person voice. Same goes for all the truly interesting little digressions that keep popping up in the dialogue and the wisdom that's layered into each page. It's such a funny, deeply charming book. And it's all handled with enormous craft and economy. Even the second tier characters and subplots (Zeke's parents for instance) shine whenever they're on stage. Livesey's handling of them (and marriage / relationships in general) is really funny and quite serious at the same time. And so what if Verona and Zeke's separation gets a bit convoluted in the second half? By then I'd built up such affection for the characters and had taken such satisfaction in the novel's craft and wisdom that I sailed right on through to the end. I had a very hopeful sense of the book when I read the excerpt from it in the New Yorker a few years back. Great to see it all pan out so well. It's Margot Livesey's deepest, funniest, most affecting, and best book.

Rating:
Summary: Nice story
Review: Banishing Verona was a nice story. Well written with a sense of hope at the end.

Rating:
Summary: Another beautiful novel by Margot Livesey!
Review: Ever since I read The Missing World, Margot Livesey has been one of my all-time favorite authors. Her novels are often dark and thought-provoking, but with a prose so beautiful that you cannot put her books down. I couldn't wait to read another one of her novels. I am so glad I read Banishing Verona. Zeke is a twenty-nine-year-old house painter and handyman in London. He is described as having the face of a Raphael angel. But Zeke is not good at dealing with people. He possesses communication problems that are not unlike that of an autistic person. However, the appearance of a strange woman changes things in his life in dramatic ways. No sooner does Verona appear at the house that he is working on than she vanishes. Zeke soon finds himself in a cat and mouse chase, trying to track down Verona, while at the same time dealing with unfinished business regarding his family. There are various twists throughout the novel.

Once again, Margot Livesey delivers a dark, beautiful novel that enthralls from beginning to end. This novel, while a little complex to describe in a short plot summary, is a literary marvel. It is in some ways better than Eva Moves the Furniture, my favorite Livesey novel. Zeke is a wonderful and abstruse character, and Verona is as elusive as a character could get. The development of the story is a little disjointed in the beginning, but falls into place quickly enough. There are a few disarming surprises in this novel that are not unlike the ones in Criminals and The Missing World, but without the shock factor of the aforementioned novels. The one thing I did not like in the story was how one of the characters settled in and was employed soon after arriving to Boston from London. That bit of the book is quite unrealistic. Other than that, Banishing Verona is a must-read in more ways than one. I urge readers to try Margot Livesey if they haven't done. She is without a doubt one of the best British writers of today.

Rating:
Summary: very entertaining read
Review: I am giving Banishing Verona 5 stars because it is such an entertaining book. If you are having a reading slump, I highly recommend this to jump start your reading.

The book tells the tale of a pregnant single woman named Verona, who meets a man named Zeke. Zeke has mild Aspergers syndrome, and in the course of a day or so, and under rather unusual conditions, they fall in love. They are separated, and spend the majority of the book trying to get back together.

The middle of the book was my favorite part, and it dealt with the recollections and life of Verona's grandfather. That was the book I really wanted to read, and that story elevated this novel to 5 stars in my opinion.

For me personally, I had trouble buying into the relationship between Verona and Zeke, although it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book.

So this book is recommended. It held my interest from page one, right through to the end.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent writing, plus a real plot!
Review: I was immediately drawn in by the characters, Zeke and Verona. I so much wanted their relationship to work out, that when at one point I wasn't sure it would, my "heart fell."

They were totally alive to me, as were the supporting cast of parents, brothers and friends. The descriptions of the way Zeke responded to life were clear and fascinating. I was particularly charmed by his encounter with the nurse, Jill, and their few days together in Boston.

There were a few tiny points that might have been hard to believe, such as Jill's beginning her work as a nurse the day after she arrived in Boston from London, but I accepted it all because it was so obvious that Livesey cared about her characters.

I recommend this highly to anyone who has suffered through books whose characters' actions make no sense and through books that are written only to confuse the reader. In this case, I knew exactly how I was supposed to feel when it ended.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing overall
Review: If you like simple, romantic reads and aren't a stickler for detail, you'll probably enjoy this novel. If you look for a little something more though, pass it by.
I just finished this book and was pretty disappointed, particularly after reading a decent review about it in a magazine. There were a few things that I really had trouble getting past- namely, that the title character, Verona, is heavily pregnant throughout the novel, yet the pregnancy is, for the most part, an afterthought. As a new mom, I can tell you that Verona would've spent her final trimester thinking primarily about the location of the nearest bathroom, the size of her ankles, the baby's every move, and the next time she could eat. She would not have the time or energy to attract and bed a new lover and go traipsing around the world, thinking of her pregnancy only when the mood hit her.
Also, for an author so interested in minor details and with so much backing from Emerson College and the MacDowell Colony, you'd think Margot Livesey would get her American dialect straight. But no. We're treated to several conversations with working class Americans who use all kinds of British turns of phrase. Have you ever heard of a maintenance man "longing" for something, for example? I didn't think so.
"Eva Moves the Furniture" was much better, and even that novel was just okay. Skip both altogether and read "The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing" instead.

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous
Review: Margot Livesey's Banishing Verona is simply a wonderful novel. The novel concerns the relationship between Zeke, a 29 year old painter and handyman who suffers from mild Asperger's Syndrome (similar to autism) and Verona, a single, pregnant woman in her mid-30s in contemporary London. Zeke's Asperger's makes it difficult for him to understand human relationships. He once asks a therapist why he has to always respond to people who greet him. "What if I don't feel like it?" He is painting a house at the beginning of the novel when he encounters Verona. The two share a connection that defies reason. She leaves the next day, but the two spend the next several weeks struggling to find one another. Zeke's difficulties with human relationships in general and his relationship with Verona in particular accentuate the notion that no one can understand human relationships. Some may be able to perform better on the surface than others, but in the end, don't we all behave badly? Banishing Verona is a marvelous, compelling read. Very enjoyable and highly recommended.