David Rothenberg's Reviews

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Part of the marvel of Beth Gutcheon’s wonderful new novel, MORE THAN YOU KNOW (published by Morrow), is my inability to categorize it.

Is it a Gothic tale? Well two of the central characters have slight contact with an elusive presence from the past.

Is it a romantic story? Most definitely. Hannah Gray, a grandmother in a small coastal town in Maine, reflects on an early time in her life during the Roosevelt years. She was a teenage summer resident in Dundee, Maine, and the love of her life was Conary Crocker.

It has a Romeo and Juliet ingredient. Their love was unreasonable and immediate. The families disapproved. She was from an upwardly mobile family, he a town cut-up with working class credentials. But their passion leaps off the pages.

And there is a mystery to MORE THAN YOU KNOW. For Hannah Gray is obsessed with a town legend from the ninetheen century, the unresolved murder of a man who lived on an Island off the coast. His daughter was tried and absolved of the murder. All of this is woven together neatly, with fire and energy.

MORE THAN YOU KNOW is my introduction to Beth Gutcheon, the author of five previous novels. She is a grand storyteller – a skillful writer.

I am a sucker for stories of denied love. "Romeo and Juliet," "Splendor in the Grass." They break my heart because they are evidence of the inane efforts extended to squash the love of other people. Love is threatening and misunderstood to them.

Dylan Thomas wrote about it. So does Beth Gutcheon, so beautifully in MORE THAN YOU KNOW.

Click the links below to buy the books on Amazon.com:

More Than You Know

The Chisellers

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