Elizabeth Inness-Brown

BURNING MARGUERITE (2002) is one of those exquisite little gems of a novel that so often falls through the cracks of my reading radar, but then gets discovered years later. The story of Marguerite Deo and her adopted son, James Jack, the novel is set, mostly, on a remote island in Lake Champlain (VT), but with revealing flashbacks to 94 year-old Marguerite's childhood and younger years, on the island and, later, in New Orleans.

This is one of those character-driven novels with a strong sense of place. In fact you can almost feel the bone-numbing cold of the Vermont winter, especially when it's denizens venture out onto the lake to fish. But the characters remain front and center as the story circles slowly and inexorably toward its inevitable, heartbreaking conclusion.

I loved this little book, and will shelve it and its author, Elizabeth Inness-Brown, alongside a few other favorite Elizabeths - Strout, Berg and Hay. But I should add that her writing also brought to mind another nearly unknown contemporary writer whose work I have loved, Jeannie Burt. (Don't know her? Look her up; her books are delightful.) in the meantime, MARGUERITE gets my highest recommendation. I

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (meer)

This stunning debut novel about love and death is set in New Orleans. One morning James Jack Wright finds his 94-year-old Tante Marguerite dead outside his cabin in the snow – what follows is the moving story of her life from the present in New England to the past, as a teenager in love in New Orleans around the Great Depression.

Much of the tale unravels from Marguerite’s absorbing perspective and the reader gains a strong sense of this mother’s love for the child in her care. The story hinges on the tender relationship between her and James Jack, whom she adopted when he was orphaned as an infant.

The writing is wonderful and Inness-Brown uses the metaphors of fire and ice so superbly they almost become additional characters in the book. This is an effortless engaging read.… (meer)