Items related to Burning Marguerite
A haunting weave of lives, secrets, and memo-ries—a powerful work of psychological suspense and emotional intensity.
Waking to the chill of a snow-cloaked morning, carpenter James Jack Wright finds ninety-four-year-old Marguerite Deo lying dead in the woods outside his cabin. As he confronts the mystery of her death—why would Marguerite, his “Tante” since his infancy, walk out into the cold winter night?—an unexpected tale unfolds, moving from the present back to James Jack’s childhood, to New Orleans during the Depression and World War II, and finally to a windswept New England island at the turn of the century. At the heart of the story are a forbidden love, a violent crime kept secret for years, and above all, Marguerite’s relationship with a little boy named James Jack, a bond that deepens after a terrible accident changes both their lives forever.
Burning Marguerite is a debut novel of rare depth and artistry.
Waking to the chill of a snow-cloaked morning, carpenter James Jack Wright finds ninety-four-year-old Marguerite Deo lying dead in the woods outside his cabin. As he confronts the mystery of her death—why would Marguerite, his “Tante” since his infancy, walk out into the cold winter night?—an unexpected tale unfolds, moving from the present back to James Jack’s childhood, to New Orleans during the Depression and World War II, and finally to a windswept New England island at the turn of the century. At the heart of the story are a forbidden love, a violent crime kept secret for years, and above all, Marguerite’s relationship with a little boy named James Jack, a bond that deepens after a terrible accident changes both their lives forever.
Burning Marguerite is a debut novel of rare depth and artistry.
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Review:
From the first incantatory sentence in Burning Marguerite ("I can see spring in winter") to the last, Elizabeth Inness-Brown draws us into a north-country winter's tale with all the strange power of a dream. The novel is set on remote Grain Island, reachable only by ferry. First settled by the French, Grain Island now has two distinct populations: wealthy summer folks and hardy year-round inhabitants, who while away winter days ice fishing. Burning Marguerite begins in winter with a mysterious death, and goes on to reveal other mysteries and other deaths, including a violent crime. It alternates between the third-person point of view of 35-year-old James Jack and the first-person musings of Tante, the 94-year-old woman who raised him after his parents drowned when he was 4 years old. To all appearances a spinster, Tante has many secrets, including how she lost the little finger of her left hand and why she fled Grain Island for New Orleans as a young woman and never returned until after her parents died. James Jack keeps a secret of his own--a promise he made to Tante, one that embroils him with the island's sheriff, who almost adopted him, and an unhappily married woman. Burning Marguerite is a poetically written and haunting debut novel. --Susan Biskeborn
From the Back Cover:
"A powerfully conceived first novel. . . . Inness-Brown is blessedly free of pretentiousness and gimmickry. . . . Masterfully conceived and structured, Burning Marguerite is a moving, satisfying, and deeply affecting love story."
–David Walton, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Riveting. . . . Strong metaphors and memorable characters make this a terrific read."
–Library Journal
"Inness-Brown employs a narrator whose voice carries the reader back through time with a compelling honesty. . . . From the poetic imagery of Marguerite's thoughts as she dies in the snow, back to the crucial, violent act that defines her life and her subsequent actions, the author tells a story that won't let the reader go, even long after the book is read. In producing this story of "a love so hot as to incinerate all doubt," Inness-Brown incinerates any doubt that she is a wordsmith worth reading."
–BookPage
"Inness-Brown probes her characters deftly and thoroughly. . . . There's no doubt about this author's ability to convey the complex passions of her characters. Following on the heels of two well-reviewed short story collections (Satin Palms and Here), this novel represents a solid building block in the foundation of a promising career."
–Publishers Weekly, (starred review)
–David Walton, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Riveting. . . . Strong metaphors and memorable characters make this a terrific read."
–Library Journal
"Inness-Brown employs a narrator whose voice carries the reader back through time with a compelling honesty. . . . From the poetic imagery of Marguerite's thoughts as she dies in the snow, back to the crucial, violent act that defines her life and her subsequent actions, the author tells a story that won't let the reader go, even long after the book is read. In producing this story of "a love so hot as to incinerate all doubt," Inness-Brown incinerates any doubt that she is a wordsmith worth reading."
–BookPage
"Inness-Brown probes her characters deftly and thoroughly. . . . There's no doubt about this author's ability to convey the complex passions of her characters. Following on the heels of two well-reviewed short story collections (Satin Palms and Here), this novel represents a solid building block in the foundation of a promising career."
–Publishers Weekly, (starred review)
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- PublisherKnopf
- Publication date2002
- ISBN 10 0375411968
- ISBN 13 9780375411960
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages256
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. No Stock Photos! We photograph every item. light edge wear to boards and jacket, pen scribbling on front endpaper; One winter morning James Jack Wright finds ninety-four-year-old Marguerite Deo?the woman he has always known as ?Tante??lying dead in the woods outside his cabin, clad only in a flowered nightgown. With this arresting scene, Elizabeth Inness-Brown ushers readers into her mysterious and lyrical narrative, the story of two closely braided lives that forces a reconsideration of our notions of maternity, loyalty, love, and perhaps death itself.As James Jack sets out to fulfill Marguerite?s unusual last wishes, the narrative unveils the secrets of their pasts. It arcs from Depression-era New Orleans to a barren New England island at the turn of the century, from an illicit passion and an unforgivable crime to the relationship between a small boy and a tough, reclusive woman who turns out to possess an unsuspected capacity for love. Seller Inventory # 056461
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