{"id":470,"date":"2011-05-16T18:54:33","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T22:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/?p=470"},"modified":"2011-05-16T20:09:09","modified_gmt":"2011-05-17T00:09:09","slug":"green-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/16\/green-review\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Green’ Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mark McKenna on Goodreads, posted 5\/16\/11:<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>‘Green is a delightful book. Written by\u00a0Ted Krever<\/a>, it’s a smart, witty and wise look at love later in life by a writer who\u2019s . . . well, later in life.\u00a0Green<\/a> couldn\u2019t have been written by a younger man; there\u2019s too much hard-won wisdom in its pages.<\/p>\n

Fifty-something Paul Roget has been invited to Ireland by his college friend, Emily Ormond. Paul is a former\u00a0on-air<\/em> celebrity–a business news reporter who\u2019s been out of work for a year. Paul is currently repping the “Getaway Bed,” an eleven-thousand dollar sleeping environment being marketed as an antidote to stress in a post 9\/11 world. Paul\u00a0does<\/em> manage to sell the Getaway Bed franchise–and meets one of the book’s most fascinating characters in the process–but the bed is only an amusing sub-plot.<\/p>\n

Green<\/a> is not about beds or bed salesmanship; it\u2019s about love. In fact, there\u2019s so much love in the air that–just like the beautiful light in Ireland–every character seems bathed in it.<\/p>\n

First, Emily and Paul have an attraction, a push-pull that has existed since their college days. Emily herself is wondering if she might be gay and has a giddy, stammering crush on an art dealer named \u201cMaeve\u201d who\u2019s sexual preference is, as the novel begins, unknown. Then there\u2019s Malcolm Lowell. Malcolm is Emily\u2019s \u201chorse landlord,\u201d a world-famous rider, a dashing Colonel in the Irish Defense Forces and, initially, Paul\u2019s rival. Malcolm is also steadfastly in love with Emily and is waiting patiently for her to realize it and fall into his arms. And then Paul meets Jillian: a poet, a barmaid, an anti-war activist, and a bold, challenging woman who beguiles him as much as the beauty of Ireland is starting to do. And, they’re off!<\/p>\n

Well . . . not really.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

dingle<\/p><\/div>\n

If I\u2019ve made\u00a0Green<\/a> sound like a bodice-ripping romance novel, I apologize. It\u2019s not.\u00a0Green<\/a> rests solidly in the literary novel genre.<\/p>\n

Ted Krever<\/a>\u2019s characters have all been wounded, but they carry their wounds with them in their search for love and happiness. Emily has survived the death of her husband, Devon. A beautiful woman, she\u2019s also a cancer survivor. Here she talks about life after chemo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t want the sex, which is the only thing anyone thinks of. But I wanted to be wanted. Doesn\u2019t everyone? I\u2019ve put so much of myself into\u2026this,\u201d she ran her hands across her shoulders and breasts, her belly and hips and thighs.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDesire. It\u2019s the most powerful constant, more than money or power or love. Anticipation\u2019s better than reality, over and over. And I\u2019m going to have to give it up\u2014soon. Women\u2019s bodies wear out faster than men\u2019s. I might be a better person when it\u2019s gone\u2014but I don\u2019t really believe that. And I surely won\u2019t be the same. It\u2019s my power. No one gives up power in this world voluntarily. Not countries. Not people. No one.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s romance with Jillian is central to the tale. In this passage, he is leaving her apartment at dawn.<\/p>\n

“I spotted the signs before reaching Jill\u2019s front door. Alongside the radical\u2019s library\u2014Marcuse! <\/em>Das Kapital with pages thumbed and notes scribbled in margins!\u2014two pair of jeans way too big for her perched atop the laundry bin; a pile of music magazines sprawled across the cheap coffee table. I wasn\u2019t checking\u2014they were just there. There was another man who made himself comfortable in this apartment. It was the reason she\u2019d dragged me through the living room when we first came in.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

kinvara<\/p><\/div>\n

I held back the protest inside\u2014what was the point? It was just one more place in life where I had no say. She was funny, lovely, uninhibited and skilled at charming and juggling the attentions of all things male. I\u2019d had my romantic dream; now here was reality. I pulled the door closed and marched up the hill toward Em\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Violet light seeped through morning fog.<\/em><\/p>\n

Green<\/a> is funny, too. Krever has done a wonderful job with the descriptions of Ireland. Here\u2019s a small village market:<\/p>\n

The packages on these shelves were simple and functional, designed by some underpaid artist in a back-room instead of an army of marketers and seven terabytes of extrapolated focus groups. The milk in the stand-up refrigerator said \u2018Lisheen Creamery\u2019 above a simple line drawing of the bridge at the center of town. Chrome and glass cabinets displayed fresh-cut meat and cheese. Next to these bits, American produce looked cartoonishly unnatural, inflated helium and candlewax, hype and hubris. I wondered how expensive it would be to go vegan when I got home.<\/em><\/p>\n

Green<\/a> is a charming book.\u00a0Ted Krever<\/a> writes with a sure hand and a light touch. The lightness, love and witty dialog made me think of\u00a0A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream<\/a>, so I can heartily recommend\u00a0Green<\/a> to anyone who enjoys a rich love story \u2014 and feels like taking an armchair trip to Ireland.’<\/p>\n

So, someone’s compared me to Shakespeare – I can die happy. If you want to die happy too (and only a couple of dollars lighter in the wallet), get your own copy here:<\/p>\n

Green at Amazon<\/a>: for Kindle<\/p>\n

<\/a>Green at Smashwords<\/a>: for all other ebooks<\/p>\n

Trade Paperback will be available on Amazon by the end of the week, I swear…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mark McKenna on Goodreads, posted 5\/16\/11: ‘Green is a delightful book. Written by\u00a0Ted Krever, it’s a smart, witty and wise look at love later in life by a writer who\u2019s . . . well, later in life.\u00a0Green couldn\u2019t have …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,4],"tags":[30,254,46,47,43,8],"class_list":["post-470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-books","category-reviews","category-writing","tag-characters","tag-e-books","tag-green","tag-ireland","tag-paperbacks","tag-writing-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470\/revisions\/476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}