Lovesong

3.50 out of 5 (3 ratings)

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Format:: Paperback
Pages:: 368
Publisher:: Allen & Unwin
Publication Date:: 01 July 2011
Category:: Modern & Contemporary
ISBN:: 9781742376332

Description

Strangers did not, as a rule, find their way to Chez Dom, a small, rundown Tunisian cafe on Paris's distant fringes run by the widow Houria and her young niece, Sabiha. But when one day a lost Australian tourist, John Patterner, seeks shelter in the cafe from a sudden Parisian rainstorm, a love story starts to unfold. John and Sabiha's becomes a contented but unlikely marriage-a marriage of two cultures lived in a third-and yet because they are essentially foreigners to each other, their love story sets in train an irrevocable course of tragic events. Years later, living a small, quiet life in suburban Melbourne, what happened to them in Paris seems like a distant, troubling dream to John. He confides the story behind their seemingly ordinary lives to Ken, an ageing, melancholic writer who sees in his neighbours the possibility of one last simple love story. Told with Miller's distinctive clarity, intelligence and compassion, Lovesong is a pitch-perfect novel, a tender and enthralling story about the intimate lives of ordinary people. Like the truly great novelist he is, Miller locates the heart of his story in the moral frailties and secret passions of his all-too-human characters.

Reader Reviews

Showing 1-3 out of 3 reviews.

Reading this is like sitting down with someone much older and much wiser who has a lot of things to say about life and love and women. Of course, whether or not that person is actually qualified to talk on these things is another matter, but he comes across as very credible, if you don't know too much about life, and love, and women.There are parts of this novel that you want to copy out and share with friends, so touching and apparently authentic are the observations. Ultimately, Miller is playing a sockpuppet game here, mixing up the story of the writing of the story with the story itself, and then [SPOILER ALERT] mixing in another perspective on the story right at the end. It's no Atonement, but it does do interesting things with the role of the writer in the story of a love affair gone strange.Personally, i found John's reaction to Sabiha's pregnancy problem a little... too understanding. But that's just me.

4.00 out of 5

projectbluebox
This didn’t blow me away at first - it’s a quiet, gentle novel – but I must say it grew on me afterwards as I reflected on it. Well worth reading.The title suggests this will be a simple love story but it’s much more complex than that. The opening paragraph struck me as dull, disappointing and flat, but I came to realize it was actually heavy with meaning – a perfect start!The core story is set in Paris, but it’s not the Paris we’re familiar with it – it’s on the ‘wrong side of the tracks', the Paris of immigrant workers. All the characters are outsiders, conflicted, partly seduced by Paris but with their heartland somewhere else.

4.00 out of 5

RobinDawson
I enjoyed the beginning of this novel, but found it just got slower and slower. This possibly matched how Sabiha and John's relationship starts to slow down/falter. Possibly I didn't enjoy it because I didn't like Sabiha much - I thought she was mean and selfish.

2.50 out of 5

karynwhite