Kitty & Virgil

Rating:
Summary: The Past Casts a Mighty Shadow
Review: Have you ever met someone and felt that you've known each other for a long time? That's how I felt about Kitty (this book's heroine). And like Kitty, I fell in love with Virgil and her quirky father. Just like Kitty, there is something mysterious about Virgil that I can't put my finger on. He's got a looming past in Romania, and Kitty has her dysfuntional family to deal with.

Anyway, at times this book will jerk a tear, or erupt a laugh. I enjoyed my time with Virgil and wish it could have gone on another 200 pages!

Rating:
Summary: Unlikely Lovers
Review: Readers not familiar with the works of English author PaulBailey should treat themselves to a few hours with this perspicaciousand highly original writer. His first novel, At The Jerusalem,captured three British awards; he has been cited by the American Academy of Arts and Letters; and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1980 and 1986. Mr. Bailey's initial United States publication, Gabriel's Lament (1987), traces the life of a young man who is systematically abused by his father and winds up eventually exposing his father's misdeeds in a book. Kitty And Virgil, the author's first novel in seven years, deals with misdeeds of another sort - those perpetrated under the Romanian regime of Nicolae Ceausescu. Kitty Crozier is an identical twin whose sister, Daisy, was a bit of a hellion as a child but has now morphed into complaining adulthood. An employee of London publishers, Kitty first sees Virgil Florescu through sedative drowsed eyes from her hospital bed. She notices there is "a glint of something like silver in his smile." They meet again in Green Park where Virgil is employed as a grounds keeper "picking up litter from the grass with a long spike." Eventually, she invites him to her home, and thus begins one of the most unique love affairs in literature. A tragicomic figure, a refugee and poet from Romania, Virgil escaped the tyranny of his home country by swimming the Danube, first to the border, then to Italy, where "he had slept in fields, washed in streams. Virgil is surely one of the author's finest creations, imbued with self-knowledge, a splendid, effervescent joy, and brio. However, Virgil is plagued by thoughts of his father who committed heinous crimes during wartime - the barbarous slaying of Romanian Jews during World War II. Somehow Virgil feels he must make reparation for these acts. On the other hand, Kitty's father is an aging, ridiculous dandy who once worked as a male model, married well several times, and now shares lodgings with an acerbic butler. Dialogue in the hands of Paul Bailey takes effervescent life, especially in the scenes during which Kitty takes Virgil to meet her father. The comparison between Kitty's father and Virgil's is eloquence itself. Presenting pathos, parody and humor in one slim volume could not have been accomplished save by an author with Mr. Bailey's gifts. Kitty And Virgil heightens awareness, disturbs, and entertains. It is one more star in Paul Bailey's crown. END

Rating:
Summary: A love story, and much more.
Review: This is a love story, and much more. Kitty leads a quiet life, yet is still something of a free spirit. Virgil has escaped from Communist Romania, and despite his fame in Romania as a poet, does manual work in England. For the first several chapters, I found the protagonists very likeable, but the novel amusing at best. As the story unfolds, the love story deepens and becomes more emotionally compelling. Bailey frequently switches between scenes from Virgil's childhood, Kitty's childhood, their time together, visits with Kitty's family, and Virgil's Romanian past as a persecuted poet. Bailey demonstrates technical brilliance in his handling of these changes of scene. The secondary characters are all well drawn and interesting in their own right, as is the depiction of Romanian political life under the deranged dictator Ceausescu. The novel is suffused with warm and quirky humor as well as deep sadness. I did have some problem with the ending (stop here if you have not read the book). The extended epilogue wherein Kitty tries to learn more of Virgil and meets his friends and family, balancing this against his long farewell letter, was moving and engrossing. What bothers me is that Virgil ascribes his setback in the battle against guilt and depression to the time he had the flu. It makes more sense to me to ascribe it to the release of the dictator's overthrow, which may be logically paradoxical, but makes psychological sense to me, squares better with the timeline of events, and better balances cause and effect.