The Spiral Path

Rating:
Summary: My one and only 3 star MJP book
Review: Since discovering MJP, I have read everything of hers I could get my hands on. I really did enjoy her groundbreaking work in The Burning Point relating to spousal abuse, and the interesting backdrop. This latest contemporary fell short, and I was somewhat surpised myself.

Like Robin Schone, MJP is unafaid to tackle the "not so nice" things that society doesn't always like to talk about, or romance readers want to read. In this case, the hero Kenzie Scott has a tortured sexual past with some allusions to homosexuality and his childhood prostitution. Raine Marlowe is a movie actress who has her own problems with intimacy, being illigitamate and insecure. The couple is estranged, until Rainey
decides to direct a movie that stars Kenzie and later raises Kenzie's inner demons. The couple slowly comes back together and reconciles with the past.

The problem with this novel is that it strains credibility to the utmost. Rainey is the writer, star, and director of a major motion picture (oh and totally gorgeous to boot and a fabulous actress) and Kenzie's past is totally buried,despite gossip columnists. This seems impossible, especially with today's technology and the fact that you find dirt on anybody. The explanation for Rainey's success in directing her movie is so contrived. Only in a romance, but give the readers a little credit. When you bring up sensitive material and an unusual backdrop, I think reality has to be brought up just a notch, or it's just melodrama. The horrible hokey Oscar ending only added to this. I hope in her next contemporary some groundbreaking stuff is brought up, but the
resolution is better. I'm sure some readers aren't so picky, but this romance just didn't ring true.

Rating:
Summary: Oh, my God!
Review: That was all I could say as I read this book. This is probably the finest thing I have ever read in print. Mary Jo Putney's contemporaries know how to tackle the tough topics, but this one really blows the glass ceiling off the romance genre. Forget the cover, and the teaser on the back, this book will blow your mind.

Though the plot description reads like any other husband-wife reconcilliation line, that is definiately not what this is. Rainey asks her soon-to-be-ex-husband to do her a favor and star in a independant film she is directing, little realizing that some details of the life of the character (John Randall, a fictional British soldier) are too close to Kenzie's darkest places. Raine herself is a pretty deep and intersting character, and the very realistic depiction of the world of filmmaking will keep you riveted, but the real star of the movie is John Randall, and the real star of the book is the actor who plays him, Kenzie Scott.

Kenzie Scott is nothing like any romance hero you'll read about anywhere else. He is vulnerable in ways that no hero has ever been before, and he is a man spiraling down a mental path to self-destruction. It's his story that grabs you and pulls you down with him as he falls. Rainey is his lifeline, but it's Kenzie that opens up a world of pain and dicovery, and takes the reader to the depths and heights of the human heart. You have to buy this book, and buy a copy for your mother, and your sister, and if they will read it, for your father and brother. Get one for anyone you know who is walking, "The Spiral Path."

Rating:
Summary: Hero with tortured soul; but lacks some emotional depth
Review: This is the second of MJP's contemporary novels, and I assume that she's planning more with Kate's other friends (I vote for Val and Tom, preferably as a couple, next!). This is the story of Rainey and Kenzie, the apparently-perfect Hollywood couple, whose marriage was not as fairytale as everyone believed.

The story opens as Rainey and Kenzie's divorce is progressing, although along the way we get flashbacks which tell us the story of how they got together (playing the leads in a film adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel). We know that Rainey filed for divorce because of something Kenzie did and which made her believe that he no longer wanted to be married to her; we also know, though, that Kenzie loves her desperately and longs for them to be together still. However, for some reason - and this is the first hint of his tortured soul - he thinks she's better off without him.

Rainey wants to make a career as a director, and she has the perfect script: The Centurion, about a Victorian army officer who is tortured and abused in Africa and then returns home, ashamed and emotionally crippled, and has to try to rebuild his life. She wants Kenzie to play the lead; what she doesn't know is that the storyline hits very close to home for him, and unlocks the key to his hidden past, which he's always refused to discuss with her. When she ends up playing the female lead opposite him, she sees even more closely the torment the role is causing him.

Eventually, the whole painful story comes out... and Kenzie is left an emotional wreck. Can her love for him, and his for her, manage to put him back together again?

For some reason, although this premise should have been a real tearjerker and although MJP's writing has certainly made me cry before (The Rake; Thunder and Roses; One Perfect Rose), The Spiral Path didn't do it for me. While reading about Kenzie's situation and what had happened to him - even scenes in his POV - I felt detached from the emotions, rather than connected with them in any way. I don't think Putney actually got deep enough into Kenzie's mind - maybe because his revelations are so shocking, she felt it was too much detail, but without that detail, without Kenzie's journal (which he wrote but we weren't shown), and without more depth of introspection, I felt in the end that the emotions were rather superficial.

A personal gripe: while I'm very sure that Putney did her research thoroughly, the mystical healing properties of labyrinths just didn't do it for me. I couldn't suspend disbelief in those stages of the book. Oh, and like other readers, I felt that the Oscar ceremony was cliched and not up to the standard of the rest of the book. :/

It's still a very good book and one which I'll read again; I'll certainly buy other contemporaries by Putney, too. But I want more historicals, set in England in the same time-frame as Thunder and Roses!

Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: Well, Ms. Putney has done it again! Given us another powerful story with another subject that has, up until now, never been seen and has been off limits in the romance genre. One that is filled with characters you can sympathize with and love. Before it was rape and incest (Dearly Beloved), then it was spousal abuse (Burning Point, the prequel to this) and now it's, shock of shockers, pedophilia. She does it masterfully in the character of Kenzie Scott, a man who uses the art of acting to escape from the terrible tragedy of his past. He became a master at it until a sequence of events caused his wall to come crashing down, almost destroying him. Rainey is wonderfully crafted as the loving and supportive wife who helps bring him back from the abyss of despare,and in the process brings about her own healing from memories of a mother who died from a drug overdose and was mostly absent from her life. The way Ms. Putney brings them through the paths they must take to heal and be whole again is wrenching at times, but necessary. One thing I was looking for in the classic MJ Putney style but was missing was the dramatic scenes that gave glimpses of what the characters went through. But with this particular subject matter, there are things better left unsaid. Thank you for sparing us that, Ms. Putney. At times though it got a bit bogged down in the minucia of movie making, but that didn't take away from the fact that I could not put this book down to save my life. That's the reason I gave this 4 stars and not 5. Also, because it was a great first read, but not a keeper. The dialogue was a bit flat as well sometimes. But I look forward to seeing these characters again in her future books about this circle of friends. Brava, Ms. Putney!

Rating:
Summary: A compelling and emotional keeper!
Review: What do you do when your favorite auto-buy writer comes out with a book about movie stars-and you don't like Hollywood books? That was my dilemma when I received a copy of The Spiral Path. Then again, considering that Mary Jo Putney was the writer, someone who could no doubt make a vacuum cleaner infomercial riveting, I figured that it would have to be better than the typical Tinsel town story of glitz and glamour.
Turns out that it was way better than that. The Spiral Path is a compelling, emotional story that deals with overcoming the traumas of a man's childhood, healing and learning to trust someone enough to love them unconditionally.
With deft skill, Putney moves the reader back and forth through time, using flashbacks to tell the the beginning of Kenzie Scott and Raine Marlowe's relationship and marriage. Through the filming of the movie we see Kenzie slowly unraveling as he is forced, really for the first time, to confront the horrors of his past . Something Kenzie has to do if he is to have any hope for a future with Raine.
The metaphor of a labyrinth (a place constructed or filled with confusing or intricate passageways) plays well through this book. Not only as a place that Kenzie retreats to for healing, but also to describe the twists and turns in the story. Just when you think you've reached a climatic point, as in a maze you turn the corner and realize there's more waiting. Even with all those ups and downs, I found that the pace and energy of The Spiral Path strong to the end.
As a longtime fan of Putney's historical work, I am delighted that her contemporary work has the same depth and elements that has made her historicals keepers in my collection. The Spiral Path is a welcome addition to my keeper shelf.

Rating:
Summary: 4 and 7/8 stars!
Review: When I first bought this book it was with a bit of trepidation. I had been let down by Mary Jo Putney books before and was not what you would call a fan. But, the back cover was enough of an enticement to make me plunk my money down and give this book a whirl. I am so happy that I did for it has been a long time since I have been as enthralled with a book as I was with "The Spiral Path"!!!
There is the admitted attraction and glamour of hollywood life but the true focus is on the real, deep, and dark issues that shape people. It authentically raises and deals with how life isn't a fantasy ride but rather a grueling experience that is coupled by periods of boundless joy followed by deep depression but mainly separated by mundanity and the tasks that create a daily grind. Kenzie and Rainey are fabulous characters that start feeling more like friends rather than fictional creations! This sense of intimacy is primarily created through a supporting cast of characters, not just the main ones, that are vivid and multidimensional people as well.
There are only 2 reasons for my not giving this a full 5 star rating, 1) I am a very harsh grader and rarely bless a book with this status :) and, 2) I believe that the end was a bit rushed. After having spent so much time suffering through the pain and anxieties of our main chracters, the healing process is only a few pages and just maybe is not long enough to let us feel that all will certainly be well.
Honestly, if you are looking for a contemporary novel that takes you through all levels of emotions then put this in your shopping cart and begin to anxiously await the delivery man's arrival!