Shipwreck

by Louis Begley

Book Overview

A mesmerizing novel of deception and betrayal from the acclaimed author of Wartime Lies and About Schmidt.
John North, a prize-winning American writer, is suddenly beset by dark suspicions about the real value of his work. Over endless hours and bottles of whiskey consumed in a mysterious caf called L'Entre Deux Mondes, he recounts, in counterpoint to his doubts, the one story he has never told before, perhaps the only...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345464095
• ISBN13: 9780345464095
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 255 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

A top writer at the top of his game

This is the third book that I have read by Louis Begley, and though they have all been outstanding, this one is by far the best. This is the book that solidifies him in my mind as one of the best authors alive today.In case the title of the book is not a strong enough hint that there will be no happy ending to the story, Begley quickly sets a tone of personal destruction and moral failure. His main character, John North, opens the book by approaching a stranger in a bar, and offering to buy him a drink if he will sit and listen to a story that North has never told anyone before. The story is a long one, told over several days and several bottles of whiskey. And the silent listener, whose name we never learn, whose voice we never hear, and whose judgment we never receive, is described as being nearly identical to North in every detail - a physical manifestation, perhaps, of North's troubled conscience.And yes, his conscience has ample reason to be troubled. The tale he tells is one of deception, weakness, and tragedy. North, a prize-winning novelist, recounts to his companion the details of his affair with Lea, a young French journalist who interviews him for an article about his latest book. North succumbs to his desire for Lea, despite his love for his wife Lydia and his fear of the pain she would suffer if she were to discover his infidelity.Begley proves in this novel that he is both a gifted storyteller and a master of painting with words the entire spectrum of human emotions. His first-person narration is infused with an overwhelming feeling of honesty, ruthless self-reflection, and guilt. Begley writes about love as well as he does about fear, about lust as well as he does about anger. As a character, North is one of the most genuine I have found in literature. He hides nothing from us, makes no excuses for his weakness, and delivers his self-condemning story with unflinching honesty.

Haunting

Begley brings you into his world once again but, this time he is lewd....never crude always witty... this tale will hold your attention and leave you wondering how many characters such as the main one in this book truely exist...I know that I know at least 2!!

A tour de force that is both steamy and suspenseful

Louis Begley's latest novel, SHIPWRECK, is a tour de force that captures the madness of a high-profile author caught in a torrid affair with another woman.John North, Begley's protagonist in SHIPWRECK, seems to have it all. He has just been awarded one of literature's top prizes and he has an adoring wife. For the most part, North is living the American dream --- that is until one day in Paris when he begins to question the value of his work while waiting for a writer from Vogue magazine.Lea, the young journalist, is immediately starstruck with North's presence and decides he must become another addition to her long list of conquests. Meanwhile North, who is old enough to be Lea's father, is completely smitten with the leggy French vixen and sparks begin to fly.While it appears that North narrates SHIPWRECK while downing shot after shot of whiskey inside a mysterious Parisian café with another person, it doesn't take too long for the reader to realize that North is actually alone. Ultimately Begley, author of the highly acclaimed novel ABOUT SCHMIDT, allows the reader to decide whether or not North is talking to himself --- and that's the brilliance of this mesmerizing story.Begley does a wonderful job portraying North's wife Lydia as the ultimate victim of his extramarital activities. North cheats on his wife throughout the novel with Lea, but he doesn't deny for a second that his adulterous behavior is wrong. Even while North enjoys the numerous trysts with Lea, he never stops thinking about his wife and realizes from the onset of the affair that he's headed for troubled waters.Not only is North grappling with the realization that he's in over his head with the affair, he is also constantly questioning the value of his literary career. In some respects, SHIPWRECK is about more than just an acclaimed author dealing with an obsessed sexpot.Begley delves into the issue of adultery --- how the French view it as compared to American social values. North also is dealing with a bout of alcoholism throughout the book, although his overindulgence with the bottle is again presented as an afterthought in an effort not to stray the reader from the true essence of the novel. But here again, Begley's brilliance as a writer is apparent as he illustrates to the reader that North uses alcohol frequently as medication.In addition to the social ramifications, SHIPWRECK is also steamy and suspenseful. You can picture SHIPWRECK as a film, equipped with a star-studded cast similar to About Schmidt. --- Reviewed by David Exum

"I was the author of my own expulsion from the Garden."

Just as he did in his 1996 novel, About Schmidt, Begley here provides another character study of a middle-aged man who doubts his success and questions his good fortune. John North, like Schmidt, faces a crisis of conscience, questioning every aspect of his life while trying to avoid the messy consequences of his betrayal of his wife and his marriage. In this elegantly written novel, Begley presents North as a New York writer whose novels have won prizes, but who has endangered all he values in life by succumbing to the sexually voracious appetites of Lea Morini, a French journalist who has interviewed him for the Paris Vogue magazine. Totally committed to preserving his marriage, North also believes that he can continue his relationship with Lea because adultery is wrong "only if it is discovered."In a bar called, L'Entre Deux Mondes, a "place between two worlds," or no-man's-land, North tells the story of his dalliance with Lea to his alter-ego, a "man so like me in appearance and demeanor." Hypersensitive to nuances and observant of the smallest details, however dense he may be about his personal life, North gives insights into the creative process which ring with truth, however much he may rationalize and temporize about his emotional weaknesses. His satirical comments about literary awards, the juries which determine the prizes, and the play-acting which accompanies the prize announcements provide a sense of realism. Although North leads his companion (along with the reader) to think that he succeeds in solving the problem of Lea in the end, the reader cannot be sure that this is really the case, or that the concluding plot twist is truthful. North, the writer, believes that it is "a colossal mistake" to tell his story, as he has been doing, when he could be writing it. "That is how I could give it a proper conclusion," he tells us. The writer succeeds by "inventing: erasing what's inconvenient and bringing in whatever is useful and getting rid of what is improbable," he explains. The irony, of course, is that in the end, the story of North, Lydia, and Lea IS written and the reader has just read it. One can only wonder how much of the "inconvenient" has been "erased" here, either by Begley or by North, so that the dilemma of Lea can be resolved--if it is resolved. Mary Whipple