| Mary di Michele |
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"A wonderfully absorbing novel, imaginatively told - lush, sensuous,
and lyrical."
Sandra Gulland,
author of The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
"Mary di Michele has a passionate voice. It is powerful, palpable,
and warm. Tenor of Love proves that memory is made of mercury,
grief is canine, and unrequited love is still the greatest aria of all.
This is one of those few stories that I was waiting for without having
realized it."
Peter Oliva,
author of The City of Yes and Drowning in Darkness
"After finishing this book I found myself humming, then singing aloud,
the one scrap of opera I know. In language as earthy and ethereal
as that music, Tenor of Love divines the living face behind
the mask of fame. But its ultimate gift to the reader, the listener,
is joy."
Roo Borson,
author of Short Journey Upriver toward Oishida,
Water Memory, and Nightwalk
"Mary di Michele's Tenor of Love gives us an Enrico Caruso as bright
and clear as prose can render him. ... This is a poet's novel, rich with
cadenced language and luminous images. As in opera, love and death are
ubiquitous; Caruso's early demise is graphically protrayed. Tragic
though it is, the pain we feel is less for Caruso than for
the women who loved him."
Quill & Quire
"Tenor of Love is that rare kind of poet's novel
that seamlessly combines a powerful, yet delicately modulated
narrative with deliciously sensual description. It carries you away,
yet allows you to linger and reflect along the way. As with opera,
it's all in the voice, the lyrics, the inflection, the phrasing, the
lack of false notes - and the passion. Most important, di Michele
gives us a biographer's sense of intimacy with her central character,
as viewed from the wings."
Montreal Gazette
"The book often throbs with the high passion and florid diction of opera
...
As sheer storytelling Tenor of Love is enjoyable and insightful ... its
passions are colourful and dramatic."
Globe and Mail
"Tenor of Love brims over with vibrant imagery ... gives us a striking
portrait of a man at once jovial and utterly ruthless - a paradox not
easy to capture, with plenty of scenery-chewing passion as thunderous
background music."
Edmonton Journal
"... a Jane Austen romance ..."
Toronto Star
"Di Michele's lyrical work is operatic itself, not with respect to
length, but in its depth of language and aching romanticism. The
linguistic cadences ebb and flow like a line of song from La Boheme.
At times it is reminiscent of Anne Michael's Fugitive Pieces in the
attention to detail and the way its language opens up an entire
universe."
Tandem (Corriere Canadese)
"... beautifully rendered - as passionate as any opera."
Montreal Review of Books
"... intriguing, poetic novel
... A fascinating story of love, art, passion and betrayal"
Toronto Sun