Beginner's Greek

by James Collins

Book Overview

When Peter Russell finally meets the woman of his dreams he falls as madly in love as you can on a flight fromNew York to LA. Her name is Holly. She's achingly pretty with strawberry-blonde hair, and reads Thomas Mann for pleasure. She gives Peter her phone number on a page of The Magic Mountain , but in his room that night Peter finds the page is inexplicably, impossibly, enragingly...gone. So begins the immensely entertaining story of Peter and his unrequited love for his best friend's girl; of Charlotte and her less-than-perfect marriage to a man in love with someone else; of Jonathan and his wicked and fateful debauchery; and of Holly, the impetus for it all. Along the way, there's the evil boss, the desirable temptress, miscommunications, misrepresentations, fiendish behavior, letters gone astray, and ultimately, an ending in which every character gets his due. Both incisive and wonderfully funny, this is a brilliantly understated comedy of manners in which love lost is found again. "James Collins has written a romantic, funny and insightful page turner about love in modern times, missed opportunities and the wheel of fate (with a blow-out!) that is so engaging and real, you will find it impossible to put down. Peter Russell is an everyman filled with longing, lust and good sense. I promise you will root for him as fate throws him curves aplenty on his path to true love. BEGINNER'S GREEK and Peter Russell are keepers." -- Adriana Trigiani , bestselling author of Lucia, Lucia and Big Stone Gap

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316021555
• ISBN13: 9780316021555
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 441 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The love that floats on a summer night....

The most honest thing The Stern Librarian can say about this book are words I have never stooped to in a review before: "I loved it." But this is the kind of book that makes you feel unabashedly proud of the ability to love in an old fashioned, Rogers & Hammerstein kind of way, even if people expect you to be more of a cynical Rodgers & Hart type. The hero of this book, Peter, thinks he is dull, and yet every time he opens his mouth something incredibly interesting comes out, like his verbal rhapsody on Los Angeles in the opening chapter. Even comic characters like Charlotte, the francophone organizer, whom we have fun laughing at, are in the end allowed to show grit and decency. The plot will shake you up and down and have you arguing with the pages. Beginner's Greek is a smart novel that takes a remarkably naïve view of love and commitment. In the real world, as I read this book, a governor was toppled by his infidelity as pundits asked if it were impossible for men to be faithful. What a perfect salve Beginner's Greek is to such notions. The Stern Librarian (I am not only a dream).

From Cover to Cover a Great Story

Peter Russell believes he's going to meet the love of his life on a plane, so as he sits on a flight from New York to Los Angeles he's watching the passengers board, wondering who's going to sit next to him. And low and behold it's her, the one. Her name is Holly and they hit it off straightaway and when they land she gives him her number, only he loses it. Years later he finds her again, only she's married to his best friend, novelist Jonathan Speedwell, who is a louse and I mean a real louse. He tells Peter of his conquests, but Peter can't tell Holly, who is still the love of his life. They become fast friends and wouldn't you know it, she loves him too. Now to further complicate the situation, Peter is engaged to Charlotte. They get on well, but it's not real love, not the love Peter feels for Holly. I can't tell you how frustrating it was for me reading this book. Peter and Holly so in love and they can't tell each other for oh so many pages. Nothing like unfilled love to keep you interested. Kept me interested anyway, even though I think this is more of a chick lit than a guy book. That said, I got on well with Mr. Collins' story, stayed with all 462 pages without putting it down, was pretty groggy when I finally got to sleep around 3:00 in the AM. From cover to cover this is a super story.

Lives up to the hype

James Collins' debut novel reads with a stylish, old-school charm reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age, though without the dark, alcohol-soaked undercurrents. As well it should. At age 50, Collins himself is the product of a gilt-edged Northeastern upbringing, growing up on Fifth Avenue and attending Harvard and Columbia Business School before embarking on a productive career, first in finance, then as an editor at Spy and Time magazines. The book itself sets up with the protagonist Peter Russell, a Wall Street wunderkind with a soulful side, meeting the beautiful, intelligent woman of his dreams on a cross-country flight from New York to Los Angeles. As they part, she gives him her name and number, which he manages to lose. Their attempts to romantically reconnect fuel the rest of the book. Along the way, Collins infuses his prose with enough interesting characters, comedy and knowing winks and nods to prevent it from falling victim to a sickly sweetness.

A star-crossed romantic comedy - really enjoyed it!

Vanity Fair recommended this book so I couldn't not read it. I have to admit that the style of the prologue struck me as a bit awkward, but I persevered and am very glad that I did. I haven't enjoyed a book of contemporary fiction this much since Julian Fellow's Snobs: A Novel. Yes, Beginner's Greek is about the rich and beautiful people -- but who doesn't love reading about this dazzling set? And as a die-hard romantic, the underlying theme of true love made this witty, intelligent, star-crossed love quadrangle of a comedy even better.

A Fine Romance

The New York of James Collins' new novel, Beginner's Greek, is a dreamland where 9/11 never happened, where Masters of the Universe have souls, where single women care more about French pronunciation than Manolo Blahniks, where the suburbs are as far away as a true love that conquers in Yonkers. True love for Peter Russell, Collins' hero, can only be found in this wondrous toy, even though he first meets his intended on a plane to Los Angeles. Holly, the love of Peters' life, has just enough quirk and whimsy to make her perfect, and although it's clear from the time they pass the fly-over zone that they were meant for each other, it's left to Collins' vivid imagination to invent a whole host of "made in New York" jousts and obstacles for his knight-errant. The young lovers are not only buffeted by fate,as in the allusion to the Greek in the title, they are also manipulated by various powerful and occasionally ill-intended gods: Peter's friend Jonathan who steals his damsel knowing that she is the one meant for Peter, the lonely magus, Arthur Beeche, who rules Peter's investment bank and desires Holly for himself, and even Peter's wife Charlotte, a wonderful mis-step who is my favorite character in the book. Peter must be tried, tested and must prevail in a way that is particularly New York, as it plays out both at the firm and at a dinner party - a golden dinner party that Collins compares to "a warm bath," aglow with high-mindedness and global bonhomie - but I won't tell you anymore about how it all works out in the end except to say that when was the last time you read a totally satisfying romance whose plot turned on Thomas Mann. This novel is brain candy for thinking romantics... for people who stay up late watching all five episodes of Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in Pride and Prejudice but who prefer the later scene when Mr. Darcy meets Elizabeth at Pemberley to the taking-off-his-shirt-and-diving one (there is a sly tribute hidden to that scene hidden in Beginner's Greek.) Send your children to a sleep-over, download some Tin Pan Alley, make your bed with Frette sheets, and relish this wonderful book. Only Restaurant Week is more delicious.