Conquering Venus by Collin Kelley
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(Paperback)
- Pub. Date: July 2009
- 260pp
- Sales Rank: 516,995
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: July 2009
- Publisher: Vanilla Heart Publishing
- Format: Paperback, 260pp
- Sales Rank: 516,995
- ISBN-13: 9781935407294
- ISBN: 1935407295
Synopsis
In the summer of 1995, young American writer Martin Paige agrees to chaperone a group of high school seniors on their graduation trip to Paris as a favor to his best friend, teacher Diane Jacobs. Diane hopes Europe will act as a catalyst to lift Martin from his grief following the suicide of his lover, Peter. But the trip proves to be more than either of them bargained for. Martin finds himself falling in love with one of her students, David McLaren, who is unprepared to cope with his burgeoning sexuality. He also meets a mysterious Parisian woman, Irène Laureaux, who is debilitated by agoraphobia and spends her days spying on the hotel guests across from her apartment. Martin and Irène discover they have a logic-defying connection: a small tribal tattoo on their left hands that means "equal but opposite." This is same tattoo that Martin's lover and Irène's husband had inked into their skin.
All the characters lives are irrevocably changed in a horrifying terrorist attack on a Paris metro station. Liberated by the blast, forced from her own self-imprisonment, Irène learns her husband's death was not an accident, and dares Martin to acknowledge the role he played in Peter's suicide. Diane, harboring her own secrets and a hidden agenda, takes a drastic step to force David out of the closet and admit his feelings for Martin.
From America to England to France, the globe-hopping story places fictional characters amidst historical events such as the Nazi occupation of Paris, the student/worker riots of 1968 and the terrorist bombings of Paris in 1995. Grounded in reality, Conquering Venus is a mystery, a love story and a journey ofself-realization.
Customer Reviews
Conquering Venusby brJT
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November 14, 2009: I enjoyed this book overall !! The characters were believable and interesting. The plot was full of intrigue, romance, and thrills. The backdrop of Paris added a world of history and beauty indescribable.
A BOOK OPRAH WILL LOVE!by LisaNanetteAllender
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August 25, 2009: A BOOK OPRAH WILL LOVE! WHY? Because this novel contains broken, damaged people who find intimacy--if not quite redemption--in the surreal world of their dreams--and in the strrets,hotels, and sights of Paris, circa 1995.
COLLIN KELLEY: AUTHOR AS ALCHEMIST.Many "contemporary novels" are labeled "magical realism" when they are infused with the surreal. Isabel Allende is a master at this. And in "Conquering Venus", Collin Kelley provides us with a novel Ms. Allende herself would enjoy.As if tapping into some primeval drive, Collin Kelley unearths desire of various types--repressed, taboo, and unrecognized, in nearly every word.In "Conquering Venus", Kelley's debut novel, protaganist Martin Paige is a man haunted by a death, and a secret.During a trip from Memphis to London to Paris in which he embarks(ostensibly) to assist his best friend, Diane, Martin disovers that his ability to fall-in-love may be damaged, but not gone. With the deft care of an older, mysterious Frenchwoman, and the intuition his dreams (and hers) provide, Martin is coaxed, pushed, and finally, metaphorically-speaking, held hostage by his own conscience.Many women readers will connect with Martin's losses and his seeming inability to get past old hurts. Many men will connect with Martin as well.And both genders will pine for the ever-elusive Frenchwoman, the voyeur (she watches other people, in their hotel rooms) who passes time, from a prison of her own making.The eventual object of Martin's affection is quite compelling, too: he is one taboo component of this "triangular" love story. And when I say "triangular", it's not what you think. There are three separate "triangles" in this dark, edge-y and oddly spiritual love story; that's because each of them intersect each other's lives in wondrous ways.The characters here are so well-drawn, you may well forget you're reading a novel, and begin to refer to what you read, as a film you saw.The novel will ask you many questions, but Kelley does not not hand us easy answers. He lets the characters speak for themselves, and by the end of the novel, he's performed an alchemy of sorts--and we are left with something familiar, something comforting, a sweet scent, like a French perfume. Ethereal, and lovely.I Also Recommend: The House of the Spirits.
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