Laura

by Larry Watson

In a captivating departure, Larry Watson, "a writer whose work is worthy of prizes" (Los Angeles Times Book Review), unveils a portrait of faith, obsession, and enduring love -- and a work of greater tenderness than anything he has yet written. Love captures Paul Finley, in, of all places, his own bedroom -- literally waking him from his dreams. The night he discovers Laura Pettit standing at his windowsill, Paul is eleven years old, a boy naturally inclined toward seriousness, precociously adept at the art of watching the world without being watched. Laura is twenty-two, a fiercely passionate and independent poet already experiencing the first flickers of fame, a beautiful woman on the brink of seducing Paul's father. No matter; Paul is smitten. When she leaves him to rejoin the grown-ups' party downstairs, Laura issues Paul a wholly impossible command, one that will haunt and consume both of them for the rest of their lives: "Forget me." Laying bare the inner life of one man during the course of nearly four decades, Larry Watson delivers a riveting treatise on the excruciating power of love -- and two of the most remarkable characters in recent American literature. Infused with breathtaking pathos and delicate grace, Laura is an extraordinary triumph of the novelist's art.

Genres: Fiction, Drama, Contemporary

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Larry Watson was born in 1947 in Rugby, North Dakota. He grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota, and was educated in its public schools. Larry married his high school sweetheart, Susan Gibbons, in 1967. He received his BA and MA from the University of North Dakota, his Ph.D. from the creative writing program at the University of Utah, and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Ripon College. Watson has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1987, 2004) and the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Reviews

[Corrine Cassels · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books of all time and I re-read it about once a year. But reading some other reviews is kind of bumming me out, so I have to put my two cents in.

This is a story of a man's life long obsession with a woman, yes, but it's not a misogynistic stalker story like some have painted it to be. Watson eloquently describes the way a person coming into your life can forever shift your perception of everything. He layers parental resentment with misplaced affection and weaves a complicated story of how never dealing with your emotions can negatively affect your life. It's sad and melancholy but triumphant at times and always nostalgic. I love it and will defend it wildly till the very end.

[Cyndy Aleo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many men have an over-riding love to whom they compare all others for the rest of their lives. They compare all reality against the precedent set, usually by their mothers. But what if that one over-riding love wasn't a man's mother, but instead, someone outside the family? Someone without the Oedipal baggage? Such is the story played out in Larry Watson's Laura.

::: The Plot :::

Paul Finley is an 11-year-old boy, the son of a book editor and a professor, when he first meets the fictional poet Laura Coe Pettit. Long used to a steady stream of writers and poets of note being at his home, Paul is instantly smitten with the intriguing Laura, who creeps into his room during a party for some privacy and alludes to a possible affair with Paul's father.

Her bike ride with Paul the following day is an attempt to cover her slip the night before, but it also serves to cement Paul's crush, which follows him throughout his life.

Paul narrates the story of his life in terms of his meetings with Laura. A quick dinner when she is in town, his parents' divorce, a weekend in Minneapolis, his father's death, his first relationship, and an anti-war protest in Chicago all become seminal moments in Paul's life that are defined by Laura. Even his marriage is affected not once, but twice, by his inability to envision a life without Laura in it.

::: The Book :::

Larry Watson's literary conceit could have crushed the book; an 11-year-old boy falling in love with his father's mistress reeks of cliché, especially when Paul accidentally walks in on his father and Laura having sex. Watson's light touch, however, shows Paul's evolution as a character and as a man, while searching for his own truth and the truth of his strange relationship with Laura.

What keeps Laura from being a brilliant book is what happens to Paul's character once he is an adult with a wife and children. Watson found the perfect voice for Paul as a child and adolescent, an awkward, shy boy who fell in love with a woman not only based on looks like so many of his peers, but based on a unique personality. As an adult, Paul loses this voice, and whether it is intentional to show the character's own confusion or not, it feels very disjointed, particularly when you feel as if you already know Paul.

The ending itself tries too hard for a quick closure for which there can be none, and otherwise diminishes a compelling story.

::: The Characters :::

While the book is narrated by Paul, as the title suggests, this is a book about Laura, and the author's characterization is so compelling that I actually found myself online verifying that she was, in fact, a fictional character and not some poet I had missed in my survey classes. Watson gives Laura a personality so vivid and so real that you are sure that she must have been.

Paul's other family members, however, seem almost incidental. Brief sections on his mother leave the reader wondering how her marriage began and got to the point it was at when we first meet Paul's family, and his father seems almost a caricature designed to do nothing more than explain Paul's path in life. Paul's sister, in particular, is nothing more than a Greek chorus, with little to do other than verify Paul's take on their shared childhood. Had Paul been an only child instead, the book would have been no different.

::: Overall :::

Watson's Laura was an excellent read, and a book I found I couldn't put down. However, it leaves the reader frustrated by a book that might have been.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

On my Larry Watson kick after re-reading Montana 1948 and meeting the author and his lovely wife, Susan.

After reading this, I'm done with my Larry Watson kick. What a disappointment! This is soft porn Harlequin romance for men. The resolution to the main character's lifelong obsession with his father's mistress is to - FINALLY - have sex with her, of course. Then she's disposed of in the last 2-3 pages in a really handy-dandy manner that's supposed to pull at the heartstrings, but is really just an easy toss-off for the author.

On to better Good Reads for me.

[Houlahan houlahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly brilliant, in all honesty. How often do we read a novel which discusses the messiness of desire, how many novels do you read where relationships are tidied up, where loose ends are tied down, neatly. This book is all about how when you fall for someone, you fall, and sometimes you end up with them, and sometimes not. It is also quite strongly about how hard it is for artists to 'fit in' with conventional society. I found it gripping, as I do most of Watson's work.

[Bamboozlepig · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I enjoyed some of Watson's other novels, but this one didn't work for me. The prose itself was fine, but 300+ pages of wangsty navel-gazing and unrequited lust for a woman the narrator met as a kid was just squicky.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

One night when Paul was eleven, he awoke to find a woman standing in his bedroom looking out of the window. She had wanted a break from the noise and commotion of his parents' party downstairs and had escaped to his room while he was asleep. They talked, he watched her, and he immediately fell in love, a love that lasted for many years after. The object of his love was Laura Petit, a twenty-two year old famous poetess. Throughout his life, he encounters her, always experiencing that familiar love. Will they ever end up together?

This coming of age story is also a sort of historical fiction, because it presents our characters interacting in the fifties, sixties, seventies. I enjoyed the realistic characters as well as the portrayal of the various decades in which we find them. This is quite a tale, one that I am glad to have accidentally come across one day in an old used book shop.

[Angie Kaelberer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The four stars are for Watson's writing, which is lyrical as always. The plot I would give 2.5 stars--I had a hard time understanding the main character's years-long obsession with Laura, even as complicated and fascinating a character as she was. One review mentioned that Paul was much more interesting as a child and a young adult, which I felt as well. The last third of the book lagged until the unexpected ending. Still worth reading, but not one of the author's best.

[John Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is very different from most of Larry Watson's novels, which I have enjoyed. The novel brings out the obsession, Paul, began as an 11 year old for Laura, a woman 12 years older than himself, and a woman who had an affair with Paul's father. The story of this obsession over 40 years is brought out well, but the two main characters, Paul and Laura, are not very likeable characters. While the story was told well, I had a hard time liking the book.

[Joe Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can read this book simply for the moving story of love and obsession. Or, you can read this simply to enjoy the writing. There are paragraphs where after you’ve read them you want to go back and reread them. Even share with someone. The author’s writing is, to borrow the narrator’s voice, “as clear as Minnesota springwater.”

Or, you’ll read this to be immersed in both story and the writing.

[John Swanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lifelong obsession with another person is not indicative of a healthy mind or emotional stability. It certainly isn't worth the 200 plus pages given to one man's weakness for a self-possessed drama queen. After reading most of it, I had to shake it off like a dog shedding water. Oof dah, as they say in Minnesota.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure WHAT to think here. Watson seems to get hung up in these stories about fathers, sons, and the women they mess with (see American Boy, which I read this summer...similar hangups). This one, however, stretched on into adulthood, and I knew where it was going. Sure enough...A bit of a surprise at the end. I loved his Montana 1948 so much; oh well. Not sure he gets another chance.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of my favorite Larry Watson books. I thought Paul’s obsession with Laura was a little ridiculous and unbelievable. I didn’t get her at all, maybe because I am not like her at all. Kind of a strange book. Good writing though, I really like this author.

[Sharnae Orley · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a pretty writer

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

This saga started out slow and didn't pick up. I've enjoyed other works by Larry Watson, but this was not like anything else I've read by him. Very introspective and really, quite pointless.

[A]

It is woeful: every young boy's fantasy.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I miss Hastings. Growing up, this became the movie rental spot of choice, so I frequently wound up there on Friday nights with my family. My brother bought CDs, my mom looked for musicals on tape and I would go through the novels in hardback--starting at the front, and working my way to the classics in the back, stopping to look at journals on the way. Hastings had everything from cooking to dream analysis--all the while providing suitable distractions for the less reading inclined. It was easy to stay for hours. This book was one of my finds. Though I'm surprised to see I must have read it during the summer, after my first year in college.

I remember clearly it enthralled me. Essentially, this is the timeless story of a young boy and his love for a much older woman (a friend of his father's). With academic parents, the family spends summers at a rented home, late night parties with drinks and discussion, long-staying guests and a strange cast of characters nicely compliment the scene.

It's a romaine a clef, and we watch the narrator as he grows up, his life changes, etc., but though it all, he's enthralled with Laura. He grows around that obsession, like roots around a stone--it's a wonderful book largely because it's not a terrible novel idea--The Reader, Lolita and everything in between provide this sort of butterfly in the stomach-creepy delight, but Laura provides something special. Watson does a tremendous job creating setting and character development, that of Laura being truly amazing. Not since Wally Lamb have I seen a man so carefully and accurately created a multi-dimentional female character.

Laura a half cat, half Angelina Jolie, pre maternal softening. She is irritable and unpredictable, alluring, smart and enthralling--it's hypnotic, realizing the narrator doesn't know if he loves her, or wants to BE her--but isn'that what love feels like, as a child? So good.

[Mitchell Waldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

LAURA
by Larry Watson















It is not often these days that I find a book that I literally can't put down, but this

was one of those rare novels. Larry Watson's novel about a boy obsessed with

an older woman is a most compelling read and takes us on a very interesting ride

through the psyche of the narrator. The author is very skilled at his craft and the

narrator's obsession with "Laura" is reflected in the way the story is written,

focusing on Paul (nicknamed) Judge's lifelong love and obsession with the

enigmatic poetess that he meets when he is only eleven years old when she

slips in his bedroom to escape a party at her parents' summer home. This is

an excellent novel, the best I've read in a very long time. I was happy to

discover Mr. Watson's writing and his great storytelling abilities. This was, as

I said, a book I literally couldn't put down. I highly recommend it to all.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started to read this book I almost put it aside because I thought I knew what the story would be: 11-yr-old boy becomes enamored of his father's 22-yr-old mistress, gets to his teen years and sleeps with her. Wrong! I'm glad that I kept reading because it took 4 decades for Paul to be "cured" of his obsession with Laura. Watson weaves the lives of these 2 characters with so much riveting detail that the book becomes a thoughtful study of many themes: right/wrong, yes/no, love/lust. He takes us through the Vietnam era and the protests on University of Wisconsin campus. And, best of all, Watson builds to a climax in the book that is both surprising and satisfying. I can't stop thinking about this book.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura is a novel about the call to the Artist to attain it all, to live savagely in love with all that is at the fingertips of experience, to drink in all levels of depth and take no prisoners in so doing. In this case, the title character represents this Artist, and the novel's protagonist: the observer, the admirer, the student, the worshiper, and fantasist, the objective Human who can only imagine a life such as the Artist professes to live, who hungers and thirsts for a life as such only to find his appetites continually and ultimately unsatisfied.

Laura is a novel about Icarus and Daedalus. But you must read to book in order to understand my connection!

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watson writes about characters who never really connect, or connect in ways that are too profound to be anything but shallow. (If that makes any sense at all, which I think it may not.) In this story, it's a little hard to believe the main character suffers under a lifelong obsession with an older woman, but if you accept the fact, it's an interesting study of what obsession can do, and the wedges it can drive between people.

And, as always, there's a haunting non-resolving quality to the writing that makes me ache for a novel that wraps up neatly in a nice little bow.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. I really don't like male characters who objectify their ideal women beyond on rationality. I know that was sort of the point of the book, but the book wanted you to at least appreciate, if not be obsessed (to some degree) with the title character and I just didn't like her at all. Sort of killed it for me.

[Michele]

I forced myself to finish this book because it was difficult reading about such a self-absorbed individual as the title character. I also found it difficult to believe the decades long infatuation of this "boy" for Laura.

[Jodell · Rating 2 out of 5]

And when you think of Laura, well, laugh don't cry
I know she'd want it that way
Well, I know she'd want it that way
Hey Laura, hey Laura
I know, she'd want it that way
Hey Laura, hey Laura
I know you'd want it that way
"Christopher Cross"

[Beth Shields-Szostak]

1st edition, signed & inscribed by author

[Pris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so good and I enjoyed reading it so much that I was afraid the ending would be disappointing. It wasn't.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great character novel by my favorite author, Larry Watson.

[Bogey Lagger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating obsession, never quite satisfied.

[Renee]

Best part of this book was when it ended. Terrible, just terrible

[April Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been years since I've read this, but was one of the first books that sparked the adult fiction interest. I should read it again. :)

[Becky Bockwoldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't realize this was an author from North Dakota until I had finished the book. Nonetheless, it was well written and an enjoyable book.