Elizabeth Inness-Brown

BURNING MARGUERITE (2002) is one of those exquisite little gems of a novel that so often falls through the cracks of my reading radar, but then gets discovered years later. The story of Marguerite Deo and her adopted son, James Jack, the novel is set, mostly, on a remote island in Lake Champlain (VT), but with revealing flashbacks to 94 year-old Marguerite's childhood and younger years, on the island and, later, in New Orleans.

This is one of those character-driven novels with a strong sense show more of place. In fact you can almost feel the bone-numbing cold of the Vermont winter, especially when it's denizens venture out onto the lake to fish. But the characters remain front and center as the story circles slowly and inexorably toward its inevitable, heartbreaking conclusion.

I loved this little book, and will shelve it and its author, Elizabeth Inness-Brown, alongside a few other favorite Elizabeths - Strout, Berg and Hay. But I should add that her writing also brought to mind another nearly unknown contemporary writer whose work I have loved, Jeannie Burt. (Don't know her? Look her up; her books are delightful.) in the meantime, MARGUERITE gets my highest recommendation. I

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

Marguerite Ann Bernadette-Marie Deo, otherwise known as Tante, has passed away. Burning Marguerite starts with James Jack's third person perspective, and at first, you think it's going to be his story. However, Marguerite, in her own voice, tells the genesis of her nearly one hundred years and how the orphan James Jack came into her life. The reader gets to know Tante more James, which, in my opinion, is a missed opportunity. James Jack is a character ripe for exploration. As it stands, he show more is a thirty-plus-year-old man who has never strayed too far from his sheltered island home somewhere in Vermont. He rarely has romantic relationships. The reader does not hear of friendships. His only mission is to take care of Tante. She is all he has ever known since his parents died in a tragic accident when he was just a baby. Meanwhile, Marguerite has lived a colorful life, experiencing great loves and losses from turn-of-the-century Vermont to 1920s New Orleans and back to the island of her childhood to live out the rest of her days as a hermit. A word of caution: Marguerite's history is harsh. The more I read, the more I wept for her. A third character is the island as it lives and breathes, influencing the townspeople as if it had a personality of its own. Its harsh winters and small-town gossip do well to feed a sense of unease. show less

This stunning debut novel about love and death is set in New Orleans. One morning James Jack Wright finds his 94-year-old Tante Marguerite dead outside his cabin in the snow – what follows is the moving story of her life from the present in New England to the past, as a teenager in love in New Orleans around the Great Depression.

Much of the tale unravels from Marguerite’s absorbing perspective and the reader gains a strong sense of this mother’s love for the child in her care. The show more story hinges on the tender relationship between her and James Jack, whom she adopted when he was orphaned as an infant.

The writing is wonderful and Inness-Brown uses the metaphors of fire and ice so superbly they almost become additional characters in the book. This is an effortless engaging read. show less

I loved the way this book was written. I sat down to read and when I looked up two hours had passed because I was totally immersed in the lives of Marguerite, James Jack and the others. This is a wonderful relationship book but it also has a bit of a mystery and the author gives hints but withholds the 'rest of the story' which is unraveled in its own good time and by the right person. Once I started I couldn't put this book down and would gladly reread it immediately--not a claim I make show more often about books. show less