The Green Hour: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: Quite simply, one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. A heartbreaking and intellectually challenging novel about the complicated life of a fascinating woman, Dominique. A book for novel-lovers, art-lovers, and anyone with an interest in left wing politics as well. This books moves quickly and yet gives so much; a mother's love for a child, a woman's love for a man, art at the Prado, rebellious radical politics--it's all here. Eloquently written--words matter to this writer. I couldn't put it down. Not to be missed!

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable read but with something missing
Review: There was nothing particularly disagreeable about this book, and the story was absorbing and entertaining enough. At the same time, it did not live up to my expectations as far as style and character development. Tuten's writing did not appeal to my aesthetics, although that is only a matter of taste. My biggest problem was that even though he explained in painstaking detail exactly what Dominique, the main character, was feeling at any given time, her changes of heart and mind made little sense to me. I found it on the unbelievable side that she stayed obsessed with Rex for so long, especially when his character never became anything other than childish and naïve. Still less believable was her strong attraction to his son, Kenji. The author clearly tried to show emotional growth in Dominique, but it comes off only as emotional wishy-washiness. Rex's lack of growth just becomes irritating and frustrating. In the end, the novel is entertaining but left me feeling as though I were swimming through Dominique's world, brushing up against her thoughts and feelings, out of chronological order, and with little connecting threads.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable read but with something missing
Review: There was nothing particularly disagreeable about this book, and the story was absorbing and entertaining enough. At the same time, it did not live up to my expectations as far as style and character development. Tuten's writing did not appeal to my aesthetics, although that is only a matter of taste. My biggest problem was that even though he explained in painstaking detail exactly what Dominique, the main character, was feeling at any given time, her changes of heart and mind made little sense to me. I found it on the unbelievable side that she stayed obsessed with Rex for so long, especially when his character never became anything other than childish and naïve. Still less believable was her strong attraction to his son, Kenji. The author clearly tried to show emotional growth in Dominique, but it comes off only as emotional wishy-washiness. Rex's lack of growth just becomes irritating and frustrating. In the end, the novel is entertaining but left me feeling as though I were swimming through Dominique's world, brushing up against her thoughts and feelings, out of chronological order, and with little connecting threads.

Rating:
Summary: "life, art, passion and reason..."
Review: This small novel takes a slice of time, fills it with unusual characters and offers the reader a glimpse into one woman's heart and the men she loves. The protagonist of this story, Dominique, idealistically pursues the transcendence of ideas, her feet on the ground, but her head stubbornly remains in the clouds. An art historian and graduate student, Dominique enjoys the aid of a mentor, but in her youthful hubris, she fails to recognize the true nature of the professor's affection. Unaware, she bruises his sensibilities and fragile ego with tales of her romantic adventures. Dominique is the kind of woman who carefully attends her own inner life, but is remarkably careless of others, throughout her life.

Dominique's heart is engaged in a love affair, begun in her graduate days, that lasts throughout her life, intermittent, but unwavering in its passion. Rex, her lover, is unable to stay in one place for long, frequently traveling abroad as a self-styled political revolutionary. Although their devotion is mutual, they both acknowledge that Dominique harbors a bourgeois heart. Rex believes they are soul mates, even when he is elsewhere, in search of new causes. Their most idyllic times are spent in Paris, where they share a flat. Such days live in Dominique's memory long after her lover's side of the bed is abandoned.

Eventually Dominique is introduced to Eric, worldly enough to realize that this wealthy man can offer the security and emotional stability she needs. Serenity is attractive, especially after a bout with cancer, now in remission, that has shaped an awareness of her own mortality. Yet, when Rex beckons, she runs to his side. Curiously, Eric accepts the duality of his beloved's affections, understanding that Dominique is torn between youthful passion (read: addiction) than romance and a mature appreciation of deep affection.

Dominique discovers Rex again in Paris (where else?), while living there with Eric. By this time, Rex has an infant son, Kenji, whose mother has returned to Japan. This third "man" in Dominique's life is pivotal to the story and captures her heart irrevocably. Dominique, Rex and Kenji live together blissfully, until one tragic day when Kenji is unexpectedly kidnapped. Predictably, Rex is undone, wandering the earth in despair, leaving Dominique to manage her own grief.

Tuten's novel is an eccentric fairy tale, believable only when viewed through the strict constructs of the plot. There are flaws: most noticeably, Dominique's freedom from money issues, the tenure at her mentor's university and Eric's financial generosity over the years. Indiscriminate hours are spent rhapsodizing over "the green hour" (le heuer verte): early evening in 1980's Paris cafes, when customers drown their troubles in absinthe (not yet illegal in the late 1900's). Tuten's elegant prose perfectly defines Dominique's sophisticated world, carving out her esoteric niche in "the green hour", where everything else fades into background noise. Ultimately, Dominique only desires the return of Kenji, the one person in her life, other than herself, she is able to love unconditionally. Luan Gaines/2003.

Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Read
Review: Tuten is a one of those jewels that people who are in the know hold dearly to themselves. The Green Hour is his finest novel to date, and that said, the rest of his work is wonderful and thought-provoking. Tuten's work, like the work of many of his more well known peers, (Philip Roth, John Updike, Doris Lessing) grows on itself, deepens, his form and style becoming more and more fluid, seemless, sure and just beautiful. He is a man who thinks words matter, that beauty matters, as well as art, love and political beliefs.
The heroine of The Green Hour, Dominique, thinks that all those things matter, too. An art historian and academic, she embodies much of the idealism and ambivalence of those reaching adulthood during Vietnam. She loves a man named Rex, who, among other things, organizes labor strikes in Mexico. She loves the child left in his life by a Japanese anarchist heiress, Kenji. And she grows to love another man who eventually takes care of her, something she is loathe to admit she needs. Interspersed throughout the years of Dominique's life are profoud inquiries into the importance of all things--what matters in life? Who are we? These are the question Tuten poses, and he tells a beautiful story while probing the aches of our souls.