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Adult Books - Fiction - General Fiction
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The Master.
Toibin, Colm (author).
June 2004. 352p. Scribner, hardcover, $25 (0-7432-5040-0).
REVIEW.
First published April 1, 2004 (Booklist).
This distinguished Irish novelist boldly offers a fictional depiction of the last two decades of the life of the great god of American letters, Henry James. We come in on James at a low point in his career, the 1895 failure on the London stage of his play Guy Domville . This setback ignites “months of lethargy and pain and disappointment.” What Toibin has so boldly done--and done so brilliantly and successfully--is forge a sympathetic but not mushy imagining of James’ interior life at this crossroads, a picture that renders “the Master” astonishingly lifelike. Toibin gives him ordinary human qualities, such as fear and loneliness and longing, in a shaping and shading process that has not been an easy task, even in the most thoughtful, scrupulously researched biography. Obviously, by Toibin’s illustration, fiction is the best way to achieve such a result, the best approach to infusing this somewhat cold, distant, and removed-from-real-life literary icon with an embracing degree of warmth and humanity. Even the reader who knows little about Henry James or his work can enjoy this marvelously intelligent and engaging novel, which presents not on a silver platter but in tender, opened hands a beautifully nuanced psychological portrait. — Brad Hooper
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Features That Discuss This Work:
1. Booklist Editors' Choice : Adult Books, 2004
2. Stonewall Book Awards : 2005
3. Top 10 Historical Novels : 2004
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