I read "The Voyage" in two days. This is one of those books that causes you to creep off into a corner to read, hoping your family won't come looking for you. I thoroughly enjoyed every page. Four elements combine to make this book memorable: wonderfully complex characters, exotic settings, fascinating details about sailing, and an insider's view of Canadian politics from the 1970's through the early 1990's.

The novel moves between the "present," six months after Desert Storm (October 1991) and the past, focusing on the years between 1971 and 1981. David and Francesca meet in British Guyana in 1971, beginning an affair that spans 10 years. Ten years after their last meeting, David's career may be ruined because a sailboat has been found floating off the coast of Sweden from which Francesca is missing. In her luggage is an envelope addressed to David at the Canadian Consulate in Helsinki, where he hasn't worked in years. The resulting publicity may ruin David's career. The story is told by David and Francesca, and with the alternating narratives, the reader eventually hears some of the same stories from the perspectives of both storytellers. When they meet, Francesca is a beautiful, bored 20-year-old looking for a way out of Guyana. David is twelve years older, already an up-and-coming career diplomat, with a wife and two small daughters. Their relationship seems doomed from the beginning, but what a ride!

We first meet Francesca as a 40-year-old former model who is about to charter a sailboat in Finland and sail it single-handedly through the Aaland Islands. She is bold and daring, attempting a dangerous feat, sailing alone for the first time. She finds that she is exhilerated by her abilty to push herself mentally and physically throughout the voyage. When we retrace her life back through the previous twenty years, it is wonderful to see the way she has changed. In fact, the most amazing aspect of the book is the way MacNeil handles the maturation and evolution of Francesca. For the first ten years we know her, she is not a very admirable person. She is madly in love with David, but she knows he is married. She marries someone else, has two children that she basically abandons to their Italian father, and descends into a nomadic, pill-popping lifestyle. It is telling, however, that she finally settles in Helsinki, where she spent an idyllic two weeks with David ten years earlier. Francesca has been profoundly influenced by a Finnish weaver named Kaarina, who has recently died. She meets Kaarina through David and Kaarina changes her life. I enjoyed David as a character also, but Francesca is the one I remember most vividly. Francesca's story -- her voyage -- is important.

I described this book as beautifully evocative because Mr. MacNeil writes so wonderfully about varied landscapes -- from the tropics to Scandinavia. The book made me want to take off traveling tomorrow -- see the world. David and Francesca spend quite a bit of time in bed, but although steamy, the descriptions of the sex scenes are subtle and beautiful, not explicit. Best of all, I haven't sailed in many years, but Mr. MacNeil exactly captures the exhileration of sailing.

Last, but not least, I enjoyed the twenty-year overview of Canadian politics. I was fascinated to learn about the tension between "External Affairs," which must be like the State Department in the United States, and the prime ministers, Trudeau and Mulroney. David provides a unique peek into the world of diplomacy and Canadian politics. ( )