Rating: 
Summary: WHIMSICAL AND HEARTWARMING - BEAUTIFULLY DONE!
Review: The golden promise of Carrie Brown's debut novel, Rose's Garden (1998) is more than fulfilled with Lamb In Love, an affecting tale of two very ordinary people transformed by the power of love.
Choosing Hursley, a small English village as her setting, Ms. Brown again writes with eloquent grace in spare, prismatic prose - an intriguing glint here, a revealing glimmer there as she artfully sketches the emotional terrain of her characters.
Fifty-five year old Norris Lamb is the village postmaster, a position he undertakes with the utmost respect and solemnity, viewing the mails as "a marvelous system of common trust," keeping "his postal scales highly polished," and employing "a new rubber stamp frequently so as to avoid smudges."
He is also a philatelist, the volunteer organist for St. Alphage,, and a self-described "...stick whom his neighbors consider a confirmed bachelor. Terrified of women, perhaps? [....](So careful with his appearance, etc.)"
But then, on the night of the 1969 American moon landing when Norris walked outside to get a closer look at the galaxy, he saw an even more remarkable sight - 41-year-old Vida Stephen dancing nearly naked in a garden. Norris had known her all his life, "But he'd never seen her like that before. He'd never seen anything like that before." And, quite suddenly, "He is Norris Lamb in love. Lamb in love."
Vida lives at Southend House, a derelict mansion, where for twenty years she has served as nanny for Manford Perry, a retarded young man who is also mute. His mother dead and his architect father often gone, Manford is totally dependent upon Vida who is devoted to him. Never having had a holiday or ventured far beyond Hursley, the routine of Vida's life is relieved only by letters from her one living relative, Uncle Laurence, who lives on Corfu, a seemingly unbelievably beautiful locale of which she can only dream.
Old enough now to be considered a spinster, Vida is viewed by fellow villagers with pity.
"But Norris knows - he believes he alone knows - what is there to be rescued and revived. He imagines that he sees what others, lacking the wondrous prism of his passion, cannot."
The question that torments him is how he will win her.
Unable to declare himself in person, Norris enjoins fellow postmasters to help him - he pens love letters which are posted to Vida from foreign lands. He leaves bouquets of flowers on a bench that she frequents. Finally, he ventures beyond Hursley, to Winchester where he buys Vida a gift - a nightdress an intricately patterned robe of Oriental silk.
Norris finds himself emboldened by love. Not allowing "reason to interfere with the anticipation of adventure, even danger, that accompanies the matter of delivering his gift," he sneaks into Southend House and artfully arranges the robed gown on her bed.
At first puzzled then frightened by these unfamiliar attentions, Vida confides to Norris that she feels stalked. He is desolate, "utterly undone." Later thinking, "Oh, you're a bungler, Norris Lamb. Nothing but a bungler. Go on, step aside. Give it up. She won't look twice at you!"
But look twice she does, and in an unexpected way.
With a warmly wise and uplifting denouement, Carrie Brown reminds us of love's transcendency and the unquenchable strength of hope. A writer with luminous gifts, not the least of which is a painterly attention to detail, Ms. Brown has imbued the heartwarming Lamb In Love with whimsy, passion, and noble spirit
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasure to Read/An Even Greater Pleasure to Hear
Review: This is my first encounter with author Carrie Brown, but I doubt it will be my last. I do most of my "reading" on audio cassettes because I have a long commute each day. Not only did I love this poignant love story, and the author's superb way with words, but the reader, David Rintoul, gave one of the best readings I have ever heard. He captured the ache, the passion, the delight, the stuffiness, the ordinariness of Norris. And each of the other characters, with their wonderfully distinctive accents, came very much alive for me. I felt as though I knew each one of them by mid-book. I have "re-visited" the village and its folk twice now, and probably will again. I will be very much disappointed if there is not another Norris/Vida/ Manford novel. And if there is one, I do hope Rintoul will be the reader. There can be no better one!
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasure to Read/An Even Greater Pleasure to Hear
Review: This is my first encounter with author Carrie Brown, but I doubt it will be my last. I do most of my "reading" on audio cassettes because I have a long commute each day. Not only did I love this poignant love story, and the author's superb way with words, but the reader, David Rintoul, gave one of the best readings I have ever heard. He captured the ache, the passion, the delight, the stuffiness, the ordinariness of Norris. And each of the other characters, with their wonderfully distinctive accents, came very much alive for me. I felt as though I knew each one of them by mid-book. I have "re-visited" the village and its folk twice now, and probably will again. I will be very much disappointed if there is not another Norris/Vida/ Manford novel. And if there is one, I do hope Rintoul will be the reader. There can be no better one!
Rating:
Summary: Having mail to sort and stamps to admire, this must be brief
Review: We Norris Lamb's of the earth appreciate the ordinary heroism told in this simple, but profound story. Even those of us who are handsomer than Norris have many of his foibles, although we acknowledge that his human traits are delightfully unique in their arresting hues and combination. We Norris Lamb's of the world are the very men who weep while reading this sweet tale with the loveliest of prose. We number many more than the Vida's of the world could imagine. And we appreciate and love the Vida's of the world. That is why this book must be read. In this story, from the simple and ordinary blossoms a powerful romance that, with rare exception, heretofore only has been portrayed as occurring between men and women with the build of Jeremy Martin (read the novel to understand). "Lamb in Love" reveals the miracle of selfless love transcending selfish, unromantic infatuation and obsession. I truly loved this book. It will be made into a fine movie, I am sure, perhaps starring Colin Firth as Mr. Lamb (that's just my recommendation). Now, I have said and revealed too much, so I must retreat to my post to sort the mail and admire my stamps. And I will await the movie with all the anticipation of a man waiting behind the horse chestnut tree for Vida to appear.
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