In Margarettown Gabrielle Zevin writes with a vaguely Nabokovian flavour that i can't quite place (i'm thinking maybe an earlier King, Queen, Knave Nabokov not an accomplished Lolita voice, but Nobovovian, nonetheless) but i know i absolutely love. Margaret M. Towne (Maggie for short) comes from a town in upstate New York called Margerttown (oddly enough, an ex-boyfriend of mine came from a town in upstate New York called Margaretteville...anyway...) where she lives in a house called Margaron with her family: Old Margaret, Marge, Mia, and May. Needless to say, nothing in this world is quite like any place else.
But before you go getting any ideas, Margarettown is a love story, and an exquisitely told love story at that. It's a true fairy tale. A fairy tale about the nature of love, about the many women inside every woman. And the women that we leave behind when we grow out of them. About how our lovers can never seem to love all of those women (usually they can only love just one of them). And how that is almost always the downfall of love. Or ourselves. And about how history tends to almost always repeat itself.
Do i really need to tell you that i loved this novel? That i loved all the plays on words? All the plays on names? Plus it's an extremely quick read.
Go forth. Read.
I'll just leave you with this closing thought: "...love is usually finite, but still worthwhile for as long as it lasts."the rest, as they say, is just stuff and nonsense.
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