Product Description

At eighteen, Paul Porterfield aspires to play the piano at the world's great concert halls. So far the closest he has come has been to turn pages of sheet music for his idol, the dashing, temperamental Richard Kennington, a former piano prodigy on the cusp of middle age. Months later, while on holiday with his mother in Italy, Paul encounters Richard a second time. Their earlier attraction develops into an intense affair. As the innocence of first love becomes entangled with the quest for a more enduring happiness, Paul comes to realise that he cannot be a page turner all his life and that he has to confront his ambitions. With artful storytelling, shrewd perception and arch humour, THE PAGE TURNER testifies to the bittersweet truths of strained relationships and the resiliency of the human heart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #352827 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 244 pages

Review
'A beautifully written, elegant story ... perfect' TIME OUT 'Gripping ... Leavitt has always been an erotic and erudite writer but in THE PAGE TURNER his elegance has acquired a greater emotional depth. Bravo' EVENING STANDARD 'Shrewdly insightful ... Leavitt's deceptively easy style covers a lot of ground with seemingly little effort' GAY TIMES 'Moving and thought-provoking' LITERARY REVIEW 'Beautiful' ATTITUDE

GAY TIMES
'Shrewdly insightful ... Leavitt's deceptively easy style covers a lot of ground with seemingly little effort'

LITERARY REVIEW
'Moving and thoughtprovoking'

Customer Reviews

An unusual coming-of-age tale.
Each time I read a book by Leavitt I'm astonished by his ability to weave a simple story so compellingly. I usually end up reading them in a couple of hours. This story is a gentle coming-of-age tale; the central character, Paul, is exploring his own needs and realising for the first time that there are things in life he will never achieve. Surrounded by a host of characters including a dachshund (deceased) this book leaves warm memories long after you have finished reading it.

A real page turner
A cliché, I know, but it's true! I read this book in one sitting. The story is simple but engaging, the characters real and honest. A love story on many levels, Leavitt draws all the characters together, unraveling the story at his own pace, and concluding by neatly tying all the ends and leaving you, the reader, feeling thoroughly satisfied.

This family isn't dancing
Stock characters mate and exchange dialog like:

"Hello?"

"Alden?"

"No, Paul."

"Paul, Joseph Mansourian here. How are you?"

"Fine, fine"....

Paul, the young title character, doesn't make it as a concert pianist but looses his virginity to one, an older gent with a yet older agent/lover. He renders sexual services to the agent as well (the very John Mansourian whose telephone call we just tapped). We are informed about Paul's pain at discovering his own artistic limitations, though not about their deeper roots. The only suspense of Paul's melodramatic coming-out scene is not resolved, as we never learn whether his suburban WASP mother is after all a Jewish mother in disguise, as might be inferred from the shape of the cardboard from which she is cut.

Incidentally, not only is Paul gay, but so is his mother's friends' son and the son of his father's new wife. Maybe it's something in the water. The only positive deconstruction one might force on this novel is that its literary shortcomings provide an unintended metaphor for the protagonist's artistic abilities.