On Green Dolphin Street
by Sebastian Faulks
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"Daniela Guiterrez has been in love with her brother's best friend for as long as she can remember--until he went missing a year ago during an archaeological expedition. But on a trip to Greece, the intrepid librarian discovers that Theo is very much alive, although he is not doing well. An expert in Ancient Greek archaeology, Dr. Theo Galanis has been abducted by artifact smugglers in search of a priceless gemstone. Now, with less than six days to find the jewel, underground societies, show more mythological beings, and pesky abductors are only half the battle. Because among the ancient ruins and temples Daniela and Theo explore is an even bigger danger: falling in love."--Back cover. show lessTags
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Faulks' writing is very lyrical, it absorbs you even when you don't know where the plot is going or what Faulks is trying to say. But luckily, these moments are few. On Green Dolphin Street is a very intense novel about choices. Do you live for yourself or other people? Do you choose to put your own happiness first or that of other people? Is it good enough to enjoy while it lasts when you cannot have it for eternity? These are the choices that Mary, and to a certain extent, Frank, had to make. Mary thought she can juggle her family and her relationship with Frank, and she vacillated between staying with Charlie and leaving him. Frank didn't want to decide for Mary. When he finally decided what he wanted and rushed to the airport, it show more was too late as he kept getting obstructed by the traffic. On the other hand, Mary had such a smooth ride to the airport and ended up being very early as the flight was delayed by an hour. Frank could have made it if he hadn't given up. But this is life. And this is why I love the ending. show less
Heart-breaking finale, with each and every step simultaneously luminous in its orchestration. I hate how this slowly undos you right up from Charlie's almost-suicidal breakdown, right up to the moments of Mary and Frank's last meeting, but if something can arouse such strong emotion in you, then that's a testament to the power of Faulks's writing....
On Green Dolphin Street began strongly, with all the sense of period and the kind of photographic impressionism which marks Faulks' writing at its best. He is very good at capturing a sense of the time and place in which the van der Lindens were living—Washington and New York and London in the heady days of Kennedy's race for the White House, a world of embassy parties and diplomatic intrigues and beat poets—as well as sketching out the kinds of people which they were. And yet as the novel progressed, I found it all rather... well, uninspired, I suppose, a little novel-by-numbers, which impression was not weakened by the ending. The last third of the book felt as if it tipped over more and more into a weak melodrama; some of the show more dialogue which he put into Mary's mouth, in particular, made me raise my eyebrows. Not Faulks' best. show less
This is kind of a troublesome book to review. It is full of awkwardnesses and infelicities, some of them laughable, including that horrible trash-novel American thing where it's like "Jim O'Doul leaned back on his stool at O'Doul's, the eponymously named bar that had been in his family since temperamental Paddy O'Doul had come over from County Clare with his flame-haired bride, Catherine, pinched the bridge of his freckled nose with his strong working man's hands, and sighed as he looked down at the newspaper before him, which proclaimed that Vice-President Nixon would be stopping in Riverbend, their Ohio town of 1500, before the primary on Thursday, a triumph for Jım's gormless yet inexplicably successful elder son, Willie, who had show more embarrassed the family by becoming a Republican and held ambitions for state offıce."
Okay, it's not that bad (although that was fun). But that thing where you introduce everyone awkwardly because you want to show how true to life everything is and claim some kind of pseudo-reporter status as if that's an honour - that's here. And in general this is not a well-written book - it's workmanlike with the occasional dip into unfortunate, and in all fairness the occasional bounce into efficiently heartwrenching.
And yet, and yet . . . it s compelling. Forget Jim O'Doul - the central love triangle, Mary and Charlie and Frank, really does grab you, and you really do feel it. And the period details are all quite periody and good. Maybe it's just that I've reached, prematurely, the middle-agey point in life where you identify hard with these poor dudes, with their fear and bewilderment about how it all went wrong and determination to set ıt right and oh, the way it feels to love someone who's not yours and still yet someone who is, and to be pulled between, when you're old enough to understand a bit what love really means and what you owe them both . . . .
Faulks seems to me to be a person of great, photographic yet impressionistic insight into the human emotional makeup that is simply not matched by his powers of evocation, and with a comprehensive feel for the era, from h-bomb jitters to Formica tabletops and humble material culture, that is imperfectly displayed by his efforts at description. A very smart and observant sort, all of which is to say, but not a great writer. Which isn't a bad place to be in life, all things considered, especially if you still manage to get yourself paid for writing books. show less
Okay, it's not that bad (although that was fun). But that thing where you introduce everyone awkwardly because you want to show how true to life everything is and claim some kind of pseudo-reporter status as if that's an honour - that's here. And in general this is not a well-written book - it's workmanlike with the occasional dip into unfortunate, and in all fairness the occasional bounce into efficiently heartwrenching.
And yet, and yet . . . it s compelling. Forget Jim O'Doul - the central love triangle, Mary and Charlie and Frank, really does grab you, and you really do feel it. And the period details are all quite periody and good. Maybe it's just that I've reached, prematurely, the middle-agey point in life where you identify hard with these poor dudes, with their fear and bewilderment about how it all went wrong and determination to set ıt right and oh, the way it feels to love someone who's not yours and still yet someone who is, and to be pulled between, when you're old enough to understand a bit what love really means and what you owe them both . . . .
Faulks seems to me to be a person of great, photographic yet impressionistic insight into the human emotional makeup that is simply not matched by his powers of evocation, and with a comprehensive feel for the era, from h-bomb jitters to Formica tabletops and humble material culture, that is imperfectly displayed by his efforts at description. A very smart and observant sort, all of which is to say, but not a great writer. Which isn't a bad place to be in life, all things considered, especially if you still manage to get yourself paid for writing books. show less
On Green Dolphin Street defies categorization and analysis. I had forgotten, or rather lost faith in Faulks as an author. Still quite at a loss of whether and whither the story would take off after the first 100+ pages, it isn't until the final 70 pages that it turns into a page turner and becomes a very compelling and moving love story.
The novel is very evocative of the late 1950s era in the USA and Moscow but has a very one dimensional image of London. New York in particular is very well drawn, the noises, smells and people of the city very vivid.
The characters were less clearly defined for me and I found them difficult to engage with and I was constantly thinking - do people really behave like this? By the end the only character I felt much sympathy for was Charlie, the diplomat and husband. It is possible that Sebastian Faulks intended to write a melodrama. The final chapters hurtle full tilt in to this melodrama and had the sense of a film of that time - although made much earlier, Brief Encounter was constantly in my mind.
Well researched and constructed novel show more that was OK for a diverting read. show less
The characters were less clearly defined for me and I found them difficult to engage with and I was constantly thinking - do people really behave like this? By the end the only character I felt much sympathy for was Charlie, the diplomat and husband. It is possible that Sebastian Faulks intended to write a melodrama. The final chapters hurtle full tilt in to this melodrama and had the sense of a film of that time - although made much earlier, Brief Encounter was constantly in my mind.
Well researched and constructed novel show more that was OK for a diverting read. show less
A wonderfully visual and evocative tale set during the Nixon-Kennedy election campaign. It reminded me of Mad Men: there's a simplicity and stillness in the telling. As always Faulks gives us well written and sympathetic characters, who I grew to care for. I am still musing on the ending... it was tough! But maybe right. Great book, from a fast becoming favourite author. Definitely recommend.
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36+ Works 21,442 Members
Sebastian Faulks is the author of Where My Heart Used to Beat, which made the New Zealand Best Seller List 2015. (Bowker Author Biography)
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- Canonical title
- On Green Dolphin Street
- Original publication date
- 2001
- People/Characters
- Mary van der Linden; Charlie van der Linden; Frank Renzo
- Dedication
- To Richard and Elizabeth Dalkeith
- First words
- The van der Lindens' house was distinguished from the others on the street by the creeper that covered half the front, running up to the children's rooms beneath the eaves, where at night the glow from the sidewalk lamp gave ... (show all)to Number 1064 the depth and shadow of a country settlement, somewhere far away from this tidy urban street.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He poured himself a drink and went over to the big window that overlooked the Jersey shore, holding the glass in his hand. He gazed for a long time into the night,and up there he saw the wing-lights of her plane as it turned towards the East; he watched intently as the small light went flashing, off, on, off, on, off in the black snow clouds; and he raised his glass to it, he drank to it in a gesture of love and forgiveness, as in the uprushing hours it blinked once more, then vanished, swallowed by the dark.
- Blurbers*
- Massie, Allan
- Original language*
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Popularity
- 20,681
- Reviews
- 13
- Rating
- (3.38)
- Languages
- 8 — Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Latvian, Spanish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 36
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 10