Childish Loves

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A stunning historical novel following Byron's scandalous life and loves, and the literary detective attempting to piece it all together.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Narrator Benjamin Markovits helps to publish the fictional memoirs of Lord Byron, written by a disgraced and now dead teacher, Peter Sullivan. Struck by the memoirs' recurring themes of sexual predation and innocence lost, he seeks to determine what of Sullivan's own life was contained in this ostensibly well-researched retelling of Lord Byron's romantic and marital misadventures. The narrator (whose name invites questions about fiction and biography) is drawn into an investigation of a student-teacher sex scandal when he interviews Sullivan's family, colleagues, and possible victim. The author Markovits (Imposture) keeps an emotional distance and never makes clear the narrator's motivation for his search. The prose is most engaging in the fictionalized memoirs, which effectively reproduce the tone of 19th-century literature yet offer a more modern, uncensored glimpse at the scandals and sexual relations in Byron's life, including those "punishable by death." -VERDICT A complex book that would appeal especially to fans of historical fiction and the Romantic period.-John R. Cecil, Texas State Lib. & Archives Commission, Austin (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

The conclusion of Markovits's Byron trilogy focuses on Lord Byron's youth and then finally his death. Markovits skillfully blends the stories of Byron's discovery of his own homosexuality with that of his lover and finally, with the story of Ben Markovits, the writer who is piecing together this novel from the manuscripts of a dead colleague, Peter Sullivan. The character of Markovits attempts to understand Sullivan's life through his work, tracing his family and past. This task proves difficult given that Sullivan had been accused of sexually harassing a former student and was teaching under an assumed identity. Markovits, himself facing difficulties in his marriage, explores his feelings about desire. Markovits, the author, demonstrates a facility with language and construction of narrative by building parallels between the three writers featured in the story (Markovits, Sullivan, and Byron). These parallels show the different fates that writers can meet-immortality, modest commercial success, and utter obscurity-while determining the importance of dedication to family, art, and sexual passion. While readers who are unfamiliar with the previous two books in the series may be a bit thrown by the story-in-story route (which does not occur in the other two), they will likely be inspired to pick up Markovits' past work. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Continuing his deconstruction of the life of Lord Byron, Markovits meshes the historical with the contemporary in this intriguing follow-up to Imposture (2007) and A Quiet Adjustment (2008). When high-school English teacher Peter Sullivan dies, a colleague called Ben Markovits is entrusted with a box containing manuscripts of Sullivan's unpublished fiction about Byron. After shepherding two complete novels (Imposture and A Quiet Adjustment) to publication, Ben sets out to delve into the connections between Peter's life and work. Chapters recounting Ben's own reality, including a reading he gives at a meeting of the Society for the Publication of the Dead, alternate with three chapters from Peter's unfinished Childish Loves, a chronicle narrated by Byron about the poet's childhood, life at Cambridge, and final journey to Greece. Along the way, Markovits unpeels another layer, for the book we are reading is, in part, the book Ben is writing about Peter. This story-within-a-story-within-a-story poses questions about the very nature of fiction. Lovers of literary detective stories and of literary fiction in general will find much to savor.--Quinn, Mary Elle. Copyright 2010 Booklist