Laura Rider's Masterpiece

"Laura Rider's Masterpiece" is a short, humorous and totally unexpected novel by Jane Hamilton, author of "A Map of the World" and "The Book of Ruth." In its own small way, it may be a masterpiece, too.

Laura Rider is a successful businesswoman who, with her husband, Charlie, runs a greenhouse and garden business in Wisconsin. Although she admits Charlie is a perfect lover, she decides as she enters middle age that she has had enough sex for one lifetime, and she exiles him to a separate bedroom. Charlie, though frustrated. accepts this with little complaint. Laura, clearly, is in charge.

Although she reads little and has written little besides her business newsletter, Laura yearns to become a writer of romances. Stuck for a plot, she show more decides to orchestrate a real-life romance featuring her unassuming husband.

One day Charlie happens by accident to meet Jenna Faroli, host of a popular radio show that Laura listens to regularly. When she hears about this meeting, Laura sees her chance to create a romantic plot. She encourages Charlie to see Jenna again and to maintain an e-mail correspondence, with Laura writing most of Charlie's e-mails for him.

The romance turns hot. Jenna's husband remains in the dark, while Charlie's wife manipulates events to thicken her plot.

Laura is a strange character, intelligent yet at the same time mindless and heartless. When the affair, thanks to her, becomes a public scandal, she simply revels in the story she has created. She has her masterpiece, never mind the pain it has caused others.

Jane Hamilton obviously had fun writing this short 2009 novel, and her readers will have fun reading it, though they may find themselves a bit disturbed, as well. show less

I feel guilty about being too critical, but the word "masterpiece" has no place being used anywhere in reference to this book. Perhaps it is intended to come off as trashy, as some sort of commentary on the romance novel Laura hopes to write, but that intention is swallowed up beyond any hope of ironic redemption.

Foremost among the book's sins is that Hamilton seems to have no idea how people talk. Consider the first conversation in the book, between Laura and Jenna, which is little more than a series of lengthy non sequiturs, with each woman rambling along some weird tangent. All the characters in the book, to be sure, speak as if reciting some carefully-constructed, previously-written dissertation.

Even aside from the awkwardness of show more their dialogue, Hamilton's characters are insufferable boors -- pretentious, yet somehow still ignorant. They seem to exist in a state where their every utterance could be a precursor to some grand personal revelation. They orate from a limited sphere of cultural references, as if they'd selected ten items from some list of topics about which learned people think and discuss, and so must constantly return and rereference Faulkner or the Clintons.

To her credit, Hamilton does manage to glimpse some of the goofiness to which otherwise reasonable people might succumb in the throes of new love or obsession, but buried beneath the weight of her nauseatingly florid prose, the only hope that a reader can have for Laura Rider's Masterpiece is that it will end. show less

Laura Rider leads an ordinary Midwestern life. She and her husband Charlie own and run a thriving nursery and neither one of them have ever strayed far from their hometowns, let alone Wisconsin. Laura is gifted at designing beautiful gardens and Charlie does the heavy lifting and is gifted at making love. She enjoys gardening, but she harbors a secret desire to write a romance novel. She sees no irony in the fact that she wants to write romance novels when she refuses to sleep with Charlie because he wears her out. When Jenna Faroli, a Wisconsin NPR host whom Laura idolizes, moves to Hartley, Laura sees and seizes the opportunity to make her dreams come true.

All is not what it seems in Laura Rider's Masterpiece. Laura Rider is a show more deliciously unreliable narrator. My first clue that something was not quite right took place at the Garden Club meeting. She was thinking about how badly a relationship with one of the member's brothers ended. Two traumatic things happened as a result that caused her to leave town for a year, but they are mentioned almost as an after thought. I stopped and re-read that section to make sure that I read it correctly. Time and distance diminishes pain, but there was something unsettling about how removed she was from her own past.

After Laura returned to town, she did all that she could to ensure that she remained in control. She didn't marry Charlie so much because she loved him as that she could make him heel. He wasn't one to create waves when she what was best for their business and made plans for its future. He simply provided the muscle needed to get the job done. Despite the fact that she was no longer sleeping with him, allowing her to be in control enabled him to stay young at heart. When she encourages Charlie to develop a friendship with Jenna, it's as if she is throwing him a bone for being such a loyal companion. Laura is a psychopathic gardener, planting and fertilizing her seeds to suit her own designs, then ruthlessly ripping the plants out of the ground when she finds that they've borne fruit. It is difficult to say whether it would be best to be on her bad side or her good side. Laura doesn't make a distinction.

Laura Rider's Masterpiece is an unusual novel. When Jenna was introduced, her almost condescending world view seemed as much out of place in Hartley as it was with the novel. Laura saw Jenna as her every woman, but to me she stuck out like a sore thumb. However, from the moment I caught a glimpse of what Jane Hamilton was be doing with the story, I couldn't and didn't want to turn back. I was hooked. With the exception of Charlie, a character I adored from the beginning, my opinions and attitudes about Laura and Jenna radically shifted from the beginning to the end. All of these elements combined for a refreshing read. If you enjoy novels with untrustworthy and perhaps antisocial narrators, this is a book you should pick up. The lingering chill from Laura's icy heart will help keep you cool this summer.

http://literatehousewife.com/2009/04/152-laura-riders-masterpiece/ show less

I didn't understand the book. And I'm worried about the fate of at least one of the characters. I guess I don't read enough books like this. It made me want to take a literature course and learn more about literary devices.

Jenna is smart and knowledgeable and elitist. She believes that being a great writer requires a lifetime of preparation, self-awareness, and insight. I'm sure there are important, meaningful stories created by people who did not immerse themselves in books; although, admittedly, none comes to mind. Laura, on the other hand, thinks reading a few books, watching some movies loosely based on great literature, and maybe taking a writing workshop is more than enough to write the ideal romantic novel. Most disturbing is show more that Laura likes the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice; it never occurs to her that she should read the book, that Jane Austen's genius lies in her descriptions of her characters' thoughts and actions. Maybe Hamilton mentions Laura's opinion as a pointer to the fact that Laura is an unreliable narrator. SPOILER: There is a wonderful scene where Jenna tries to show Laura how ridiculous her hopes of being a writer are, but Laura is too unaware to realize she is being insulted; instead, she is inspired by their discussion. Nevertheless, clueless as she is, Laura is the character who makes the deepest comment, reminiscent of the mystical concept of how the world was created:
“Maybe the whole point of love was to break each other so that from those shattered selves you could build a better, a sturdier self, so that you could go forward - not hand in hand but a comfortable arm’s length apart. Ideally, if both parties were conscious in the romance, Every Man and Every Woman would enter the relationship with arms spread wide open, ready for the adventure of being broken to pieces and reassembled.” show less

From this week's Entertainment Weekly Must List: "Why this novel? Well, who wouldn't want a peek inside the mind of an aspiring romance writer who cuts off sex with her hubby, then engineers an affair for him so she can study it?"

Me: Did I just read the same book?

Laura Rider's Masterpiece is a satirical love/lust triangle of sorts mixed with a character study in novel form. The triangle involves Laura Rider, an aspiring novelist and successful garden business owner; her husband, Charlie, whom everyone in their small Wisconsin town thinks is gay, but whose main gift in life is his sexual prowess; and Jenna Faroli, a local turned syndicated public radio show host who has moved to town because it is equidistant between the radio station show more and her judge husband's courthouse. Laura idolizes Jenna, and is eager to start a friendship.

I love Jane Hamilton's novels, but one of my favorite things about her novels is that it's always easy to relate to the characters, regardless of their background. Laura Rider's Masterpiece started off well. I was instantly intrigued with Laura's wit and honesty as a narrator. Her description of small-town life was comedic and spot-on. As the narrative shifted to Jenna as the narrator, I again found myself mesmerized by her experiences and perspective.

As the novel wore on (and it's hard to say it wore on at all, given it's only 214 pages), it became more satirical, which made the characters less accessible. I was torn between feeling sorry for them and not caring about how things turned out. For such a great start, I did not enjoy the second half of the book. The setup was more enjoyable than the fulfillment. I really wanted to like this novel, and I loved the first half of it, but ultimately, it was underwhelming. show less

Laura Rider's Masterpiece was fun and funny, filled with eccentric characters and interesting details. Now that I've finished, I still can't figure Laura Rider out: she is either a stranger to her emotions or is without feeling, as she coldly and deliberately manipulates the lives of others (her loved ones!) in order to understand how they tick.

I read this quickly, as it was entertaining and the characters felt real. What is missing, for me, is a little more depth: there is a great deal of grief in all of the characters, but which I felt somewhat distanced from. I think the form and content are well-married, though, and Jane Hamilton's writing is refreshing and witty. It appears to be an exploration about the mysteries of motivation, show more of people who do not always behave in ways that are predictable to themselves and others. It raises quite a few questions about human nature, especially at mid-life, especially in regards to love, sex and marriage.

I'll read more by her. show less

This book is quite a departure from Jane Hamilton's other novels, which are harrowing and strike to the heart. (I love them but I can only read one about every five years as they haunt me thereafter. Thankfully, she is not prolific in her output.) Here, she allows her detailed observations of human frailties, foibles, ego and love to emerge in humorous, satirical ways.