The Maze at Windermere

by Gregory Blake Smith

A richly layered novel of love, ambition, and duplicity, set against the storied seascape of Newport, Rhode Island
 
A reckless wager between a tennis pro with a fading career and a drunken party guest—the stakes are an antique motorcycle and an heiress’s diamond necklace—launches a narrative odyssey that braids together three centuries of aspiration and adversity. A witty and urbane bachelor of the Gilded Age embarks on a high-risk scheme to marry into a fortune; a young writer soon to make his mark turns himself to his craft with harrowing social consequences; an aristocratic British officer during the American Revolution carries on a courtship that leads to murder; and, in Newport’s earliest days, a tragically orphaned Quaker girl imagines a way forward for herself and the slave girl she has inherited.
 
In The Maze at Windermere Gregory Blake Smith weaves these intersecting worlds into a brilliant tapestry, charting a voyage across the ages into the maze of the human heart.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Historical, Audiobook, Adult

351 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 9, 2018

About the author

Gregory Blake Smith is the award-winning author of four novels, including The Maze at Windermere and The Divine Comedy of John Venner, a New York Times Notable Book. His short story collection, The Law of Miracles, won the Juniper Prize and the Minnesota Book Award. He has received a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bush Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Smith is currently the Lloyd P. Johnson-Norwest Professor of English and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College.

Reviews

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 ambitious and notable stars to The Maze at Windermere ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .75

This is the quite the unique read! There are five separate stories across four centuries, and they all center on Newport, Rhode Island. The stories have common themes, and they converge in a masterful way. Gregory Blake Smith is a skilled writer, and The Maze at Windermere is an ambitious undertaking; kind of a thrill ride without being a thriller. I liked the characters and found each section engaging.

While I definitely enjoyed the book, the number of storylines left me just a tiny bit disconnected somehow. It was almost too much of a good thing because I love multiple storylines.

Overall, this was a notable and worthy read. I look forward to what Gregory Blake Smith writes next.

Thank you to Gregory Blake Smith, Viking, and Edelweiss for the complimentary ARC to review.

The Maze at Windermere will be published on January 9, 2018

[Ron Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Maze at Windermere,” Gregory Blake Smith’s staggeringly brilliant new novel, luxuriates in the demarcations of time. It is an extraordinary demonstration of narrative dexterity. Moving up and down through the strata of history, Smith captures the ever-changing refractions of human desire.

Any summary of this book’s complex structure is bound to sound cumbersome, as though too much furniture has been crammed into too small a room. But Smith, who teaches at Carleton College, is doing something preternatural here. Although the entire novel takes place in the little seaside town of Newport, R.I., it contains five distinct stories spread over three centuries. You can expect a little vertigo at first: There are many characters at work in these superimposed plots, and the same few acres look disorientingly different in each period. But Smith cycles through these eras, again and again, from today all the way back to the late 17th century, when witches were. . . .

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually dislike dual time period books because one is always a lot more interesting than the other. However, in this book the author juggled 5 time periods in a very ambitious and writerly exercise that kept me engaged throughout. The story is told in alternating chapters from the points of view of 4 male and 1 female protagonists, each set in Newport, Rhode Island. Each protagonist has a very distinctive voice which is fortunate because towards the end of the book the pov begins to change more rapidly, from paragraph to paragraph, and that could have been a confusing disaster.

In 2011, Sandy Alison is a retired tennis player with a bad knee. He never managed to shake his reputation for lacking a killer instinct on the court. His complicated relationships with 3 women at the elegant old Windermere estate get the better of him. In 1896, Franklin Drexel is a handsome, snarky, witty and secretly gay lapdog to wealthy women, including the current owner of Windermere. At 33, Drexel is aging out of his current position and needs to find a rich wife. In 1863, 20 year old budding author Henry James Jr. is keeping a notebook of his observances to use in his future writing (which crops up in both the 2011 and 1896 stories). He meets a young woman who wants more from him than he can give and also confronts the devastation faced by the first negro regiment in the Civil War. In 1778, English soldiers are occupying Newport and plundering its library and synagogue. Major Ballard becomes obsessed with 16 year old Judith Da Silva, the daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant. Ballard really has no redeeming virtues. Finally, in 1692 15 year old Prudence is a recently-orphaned Quaker who has had to leave school in order to take care of her toddler sister and keep her father's business going with the help of her slave Ashes. Prudence knows exactly how to get what she wants.

Love, or something akin to love, plays a role in each of these stories, but this certainly isn't a romance novel. Although 4 of the main protagonists are male, the female characters are definitely not shrinking violets. There are lots of tricky little touches in the book, such as the use by 2 of the characters of "Daisy Miller" quotes to communicate to each other in 2011, or the similar naming of characters in different time periods (Aisha/Ashes). The book may have been a little gimmicky, but it was very enjoyable and it was certainly different.

I received a free copy of the ebook from the publisher, however I wound up listening to the excellent audio book version borrowed from the library.

[Wen · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best books I've read so far this year. I was totally in awe. The best a historical fiction can offer. Five stories in different flavors about love, lust, desire, etc. set in Newport, Rhode Island, a seaside town where many historical mansions are preserved. It Covered more than three centuries between late 1600s to 2011.
Way beyond my ability to review this broad yet tightly weaved together book. Instead I recommend the following review by Ron Charles posted in The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
Rarely do I say this, but for this book I recommend the print version over audiobook.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the whole I was so impressed by The Maze at Windermere that I can't help but to forgive the moments where it failed to captivate me. Gregory Blake Smith has created something that's an absolute masterclass of storytelling - he weaves together seemingly unrelated plotlines (all centered in Newport Rhode Island) from 2011, 1896, 1863, 1778 and 1692 in ways both subtle and forthright, and the precision with which he manages this is feat is undeniable.

But the stories themselves from each timeline vary in the level of engagement they offer. To my surprise, I fell head over heels in love with the 2011 plot, which follows the strange friendship between a nearly retired tennis pro, Sandy, and an heiress with cerebral palsy. This unconventional socialite, Alice, has to be one of the most vivid characters I have ever read; I couldn't get her out of my head when I was reading this book and I still can't now that I've finished. I loved everything about their odd dynamic and tumultuous, melodramatic, tragic relationship. This motivations of a secondary character in this storyline also provides the book with one of its greatest sources of intrigue which goes on to feed into a positively spectacular ambiguous ending that I can't talk about without spoiling. But, it was perfection.

Unfortunately, all of the past timelines paled in comparison. 1896 follows a gay man who's attempting to marry into high society; 1863 follows a fictionalization of Henry James, an overt nod to the thematic parallels to Daisy Miller that litter the different narratives; 1778 follows a British officer during the American Revolution (I found him the most tiresome); and 1692 follows a newly orphaned Quaker girl. Each of these narratives had moments of searing brilliance, but at the same time, none of them was able to offer the same emotional draw as the present-day storyline.

That said, the structure of this book is nothing short of a delight for readers who enjoy riddles and puzzles and similar literary exercises. I'm almost definitely going to want to re-read this at some point after I've read Daisy Miller, because I feel like I've only barely scratched the surface.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook….read by Richard Topol, Edoardo Ballerini, Raphael Corkhill, Michael Crouch, and Caitlin Davies
….12 hours and 58 minutes.

WOW!!!! I LOVED IT!
….Five different storylines….by five different narrators ….in 2011, 1896, 1863, 1788, and 1692. The setting is Newport Rhode Island….three centuries of American history.
Windermere is the name of the old estate in Newport, Rhode Island….

It’s luscious….sexy…..
interesting….engaging….and clever….
I loved the characters-their personal stories, their predicaments, (the drama), the historical reveals, the contextual aura…..
Love, life, humanity through these different people and voices ….
It was just a really cool book!!!

….Meet a tennis ex-professional….
….Meet a British officer who managed spies during the Revolutionary War….
….Meet Henry James (yep, the novelist)
….Meet a New York Gay man during the Gilded period….
….Meet the only female-an orphan Quaker teenager who lost both of her parents…..

There are moral struggles—society expectations, …..
there is intrigue….
And …
The writing is beautiful!!!!

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update 2021: I reread this both due to it being a favorite of 2018, and because I did a 'buddy read' with my BFF. Nothing much new to report, other than to reiterate that Smith in ingenious in how he fits his puzzle together, and as my buddy R. Charles states in his review, he is rather unique in how he captures the 'voices' of each of his five eras unerringly. I wish more people would discover this gem.


Original review: 2018: I very nearly bailed on this after the first chapter (what did I care about a sleazy tennis pro seducing rich women in Newport, R.I?) ... but am glad I persevered, as if this is not my favorite book of the year, it is destined to be in my top five. Bold and daring in conception, brilliant and dazzling in execution, Smith's novel is a modern masterpiece. I cannot fathom how he was able to so delicately and masterfully echo elements in his five storylines, without them becoming obvious or ham-fisted. Each of his characters is precisely rendered, even the minor ones, and in Alice du Pont he has created as beguiling and fascinating a creature as her progenitor, Daisy Miller (side note - this is the first fictional character with cerebral palsy that I can remember... maybe Dickens' Smike, but that isn't obviously stated). I will probably re-read this before the year is out - it IS that good!

I could go on and on about Smith's feat, but instead, will be lazy and just refer interested readers to Ron Charles' (as usual) sterling professional review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[CoachJim · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a very disappointing read. It had great promise at the start with five stories, separated by centuries, but in some interesting historical periods. There is a young orphaned Quaker girl in the early colonial period in 1692, an arrogant British officer during the revolutionary war in 1778, the young author, Henry James, during the Civil War in 1863, a social-climbing gadabout during the Gilded Age in 1896, and a retired tennis pro in 2011 for a contemporary reference.

The only link between these stories is that they all are based in the town of Newport, Rhode Island. The characters in each of these stories tread the same streets, paths, and land. There are some vague references and similarities to the Henry James novel Daisy Miller.

One positive note is that the author is able to maintain a consistent, unique voice for each of the periods. We have the quaint idiom of the Quaker girl, the strategic arrogance of the British officer, the novelist’s prose for the Civil War period, the shallow prejudices of the Gilded Age, and the open dialogue marking the current times. If you pick up the book in the middle of any of these stories and even not being told which story it is, you would have no problem determining which story you were reading.

The stories all involved a relationship between the main character and another person, usually of the opposite sex. There might be some interest in a psychological study of these relationships, however, only the main character in each of the stories is developed. The other characters in these stories are for the most part only shadows. However, these relationships had the Quakers trying to marry a fifteen-year-old girl to a forty-year-old widower, a British officer who was only interested in the conquest of a young maiden, and in the Gilded Age an active homosexual who was attempting to gain the money and the estate of the Windermere widow. The other 2 relationships were no more attractive. At least to this seventy-year-old traditionalist these relationships were neither respectful nor interesting. But my biggest complaint would be that none of these relationships were resolved by the end of the book.

I mentioned that in this book were some interesting historical periods. As a work of historical fiction this probably has some value to some readers. There certainly are some interesting cultural aspects to these times, but the stories themselves did not interest me.

[Trudie · Rating 3 out of 5]

* 3.5 *

This book appealed to me initially because it had excellent cover game. It also (wrongfully as it turned out ) suggested a Cloud Atlas type structure with multiple and intersecting stories separated through time.
This is not David Mitchell by any stretch but it is an interesting book in its own way, echoing history back at the reader in surprising ways. I don't know if it all "worked" but the attempt was honourable.

The key character in this book is Newport, Rhode Island. We explore it in five distinct time-periods; during it's humble beginnings as a Quaker outpost and revisit it as a major seaport during the American revolution and then a summer resort and playground for members of the gilded age "400" before bouncing back to Newport in 2011. Much changes over this time but a surprising amount stays the same. I found this aspect of the novel fascinating, especially as the author cleverly weaves in little "totems" for you to find. Were those the fireplace cherubs described in de Silva's home of 1778 ? now part of a restaurant in the 2011 ? how did one lose a nose ? The romantic outing to the Breakwater echoes a very similar excursion over 100 years earlier. You certainly get a sense of deja vu while reading but also it explores the idea that, if not in the particulars, but in the generalities our lives have been lived, our mistakes made several times over. I found that an interesting concept to mull upon.

The Maze at Windermere seems to draw influence from many sources there is a nod to Daphne du Maurier, and Edith Wharton but most specifically Henry James. One entire section is narrated by him ( which does rather remind me of Colm Toibin's The Master). The novella Daisy Miller also plays a particularly important role. All of these historical and literary aspects predisposed me to this book. I am always so enamoured of the shenanigans that occur when ruthless social climbers meet morally corrupting levels of wealth and privilege. However, as with many multi storied novels, I inevitably feel disappointed when I am abruptly kicked out of my favourite story (this could have easily been Franklin's book) and lost when I try to reconnect several chapters later.

As much as I admired this and enjoyed the historical elements, I am not sure, in the end, if "The Maze at Windermere" didn't rather collapse like some elaborate 19th century confection under the weight of what it set out to do.

[Meike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The composition of this book is flawless and this is no small feat considering Gregory Blake Smith is interweaving 5 storylines set in 2011, 1896, 1863, 1778 and 1692. There are a multitude of connections between the narrative strands, some obvious, some subtle, and the degree of control this author exercises over his material without over-constructing this maelstrom of characters and motives needs to be applauded, even if the story itself wasn't necessarily for me.

The whole book is set in Newport, R.I., and all storylines revolve around questions of love and convention, in many respects playing with Henry James' classic "Daisy Miller". We meet an aging second-rate tennis pro who falls for a heiress with cerebral palsy, a (secretly gay) young man who aims to marry into high society, the actual Henry James (who did live in Newport as a young man), a British officer during the American revolution, and an orphaned Quaker girl, all of them at turning points of their (love) lives.

The author has planted tons of cross-references in all of these stories, thus playing with themes and ideas in different contexts - the whole thing is an elaborate palimpsest, or to quote from the text: " Ah, to be able to read both the surface and that which is below the surface!" And while the maze at the estate of Windermere is an actual thing, it is of course also a metaphor: "Can our Spirits be so bewilder'd that our Minds and Hearts are as a Maze?" Spoiler alert: Yes! :-)

For people like me who love to read books that are riddles, this literary approach is of course a delight. Unfortunately, I have to admit that the stories themselves did not really manage to captivate me: Yes, they were interesting to read, but I was not really emotionally engaged, even though the topics discussed are so emotionally charged. This might be a question of personal taste though, and I am sure that others might react differently to the way Gregory Blake Smith has set up his stories.

All in all, a great literary adventure that should get some love from prize judges focusing on experimental fiction.

[Katie Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now, this was brilliant. Five different story arcs over the course of five centuries in Newport, Rhode Island. The stories blend historical fact and fiction, all the while referencing and echoing each other, intersecting, then veering away from each other, just like, well...a maze. 4.5 instead of the full five because there were a few characters I would have loved to see more of, and a couple of plot threads that were never quite woven into the whole (but maybe those were meant to be dead-ends in the maze?). Those are just quibbles though because it was so nearly perfect. Certainly broke me out of my recent rut of meh 3 star reads.

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five Stories Of Newport

Gregory Blake Smith's 2018 novel, "The Maze at Windermere" offers a strong sense of an American place as it consists of five separate stories set in Newport, Rhode Island from colonial times in 1692 to the 21st century. Each of the five stories has its own separate characters and each is told in a remarkable voice idiomatic for the period. The stories also share broad common themes, the stuff of literature, including the nature of love in many forms, sexuality, acceptance and rejection, deceit, and marriage and money.

The individual stories begin with the 2011 tale of a fading tennis professional who becomes involved with a wealthy but physically handicapped young heiress. The next story set in 1896, (the only part of the book recounted in the third person) tells of the allure of money to a middle-aged gay man who tries to deceive and marry a wealthy widow. The third story, set in 1863 in the middle of the Civil War, focuses on historical characters, particularly the budding novelist Henry James, whose writings and life overshadow the entire book. The fourth story is set in 1778 during the Revolutionary War and involves a British officer who tries to seduce the buxom daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant. The final and earliest story is set in a Quaker community in 1698. The protagonist is a 15-year old girl whose father and mother have died and who is charged with taking care of herself, her younger sister, the family home, and the family slaves.

Each of these five stories has the stuff for a full novel and would require concentration on the part of the reader. Smith's novel, however, runs the five stories together. Up until the last section of the book, the work is arranged in a fixed progression of scenes in reverse chronological order from one story to the next (i,e, 2011, 1896, 1863, 1778, 1698), Each story is taken to a climactic point only to have the scene shift to the following story. When the five scenes are exhausted, the cycle begins again to be repeated until the final, more wandering section of the book.

With its shifting scenes and many characters, the book is hard to follow at first. But I found the work gradually drawing me in. The format invites the reader to seek out similarities and differences in the stories over time, in the characters, their ambitions, and their fates, all against the background of Newport which remains the setting amid changes over 300 years.

The stories do not work equally well and not all scenes are on the same level of inspiration. Some readers see the tone of the book set by the contemporary section involving the fading tennis player. I was fascinated most, however, by the story of the James family, both for itself and because it pervades the book in it discussion of change and constancy in life over time and of the relationship between life and art. The James family, Henry Sr. William, Alice, and Wilkie, all are characters, but the focus is on the novelist Henry as a young man of twenty with the ambition to become a writer. As the novel would have it, young Henry becomes momentarily involved with a young woman, also named Alice. Henry comes to see that he is largely devoid of strong sexual passions. Rather than pursuing love, he devotes himself to close observation and understanding of people and to writing and bringing to life what he sees. Many of the scenes in Smith's book offer allusions to Henry James' writings, particularly the early work "Daisy Miller" and the late lengthy novel, "The Wings of the Dove". James's writings and observations seem to work as a gloss on the stories that Smith brings to his readers, and they help bring understanding to people and places in a thoughtful way that suspends the ever -present tendency toward dogmatic moral judgment.

Here are two examples from the youthful Henry James character that illuminate the novel. In the first example, young Henry reflects upon the spiritual emphasis in the writings of his father, Henry, Sr. The young novelist agrees with his father about the dangers of ego and self: yet he finds the way to understanding in the varied physical things of the world itself rather than in the idealism and spirituality of his father. Thus, in the novel, young Henry says:

"Is not the world in all its rich progress a paradise of interest? Who would willingly live in a world where the peaches hang year-round in perfect ripeness upon their perfect boughs? It is in the gradations of behavior, in the shades of our motivations, in their inversions and variations, in the slow ripening and the quicker rotting, where lie education and insight, and a kind of artistic delight."

In a subsequent passage, Henry discusses his failed relationship with Alice and how this failure helped him to understand his task as a writer and observer of life. Henry sees that every person has his or her own story and yet all share a common humanity. Henry writes:

"It is something I have difficulty reconciling, this sense I have that the hundreds of millions of us who breathe upon the earth are each a unique flame, that we are each uniquely composed within the caskets of our bodies and our minds, that each has an experience of the world as different as that of a fishwife's from a foundryman's, and yet we all live the same life (millionaire, artist, soldier, slave), we each of us strive to understand who we are, why we are here, to love and be loved, and that for all that striving, we are each of us lost in the mystery of our own heart."

These and similar passages in the book show a sense of the mystery of life and art in both their commonality and their diversity. Smith brings the mystery home to his readers through the particulars of Newport, Henry James, and an array of characters through time. There is a sense of the breadth of life and of unity in difference, elegantly told. I found "The Maze at Windermere" thoughtful and moving.

Robin Friedman

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent historical novel with 5 storylines across 3 centuries. The loose intertwining of the stories gives the book an added depth.

There's nothing not to like about this novel--writing, plot(s), characters are all perfectly developed and depicted. It was a true pleasure to read.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Maze at Windermere is a beautifully written, enthralling novel. Gregory Blake Smith juggles various characters and time periods with aplomb. He's chameleonic in his narrative voices. This book is a many layered look at relationships across time periods.

In the The Maze at Windermere, we follow five storylines all set in Newport, Rhode Island. In 2011 Sandy Allison is a former tennis pro, turned tennis instructor, giving tennis lessons to the rich summer people. He gets involved in a love pentagon (seriously, it's way more complicated than a love triangle) that brings him into the world of Windermere, a beautiful estate. In 1896, a consummate dandy of the Gilded Age is trying to marry into money by wooing the widow who owns Windermere. Henry James narrates his observations at the Newport hotels in 1863 as he searches for fodder for his novels. A British soldier stationed in Newport during the Revolutionary War strikes up a dangerous obsession with a forbidden colonial woman. And in 1692, a young Quaker girl has to survive with her baby sister and slave girl after she is orphaned.

Everything in this novel is beautifully described, especially the magnificent Windermere. There's a strong sense of the grandeur of Newport and the gilded lives of the super rich. This other realm of extreme wealth and high society is intoxicating to the reader and to many of the characters in the book. I was struck by the fact that the contemporary characters are stuck in their circumstances as well as the characters of the past. The contrast and commentary that modern day people can be trapped by society much like people were in the olden days is fascinating. The book raises the issue that perhaps there's less upward mobility than we like to think there is in this day and age.

Each section has a distinctive voice and uses authentic-sounding period vernacular. The historical detail is excellent throughout, be it about Newport in general, Quakers, the Gilded Age, or the Revolutionary War. The book is rich in allusion. It really made me want to read Henry James. The 2011 parts were my favorite. I was glad Smith spends the most time on Sandy's tale, as it feels like the heart of the story.

I was slightly disappointed with the ending. 4 out of 5 stories could have been wrapped up better. I really felt that only one storyline was given a completely satisfactory ending. It's a testament to Smith's prose and the engaging characters and plots that I'm still giving this 5 stars. It reminded me of the ending of City on Fire, another epic novel that needed more closure at the end. Some things are left unexplained in The Maze at Windermere. I think the novel needed to be a little longer to give the characters and the reader their due. I also thought things would be more interconnected than they were. There are details I loved which are present across timelines. But the stories are tied together more by location, themes, and motif than anything else.

In Gregory Blake Smith's impressive novel, Newport is a place where the past and present meld because it contains so much history. The Maze at Windermere succeeds as both contemporary and historical fiction. It's funny and sad and full of interesting, varied characters. Smith captures the moneyed opulence so well but also the humanity of people. This is a very entertaining exploration of race and class and love. With a fitting conclusion, it would have been perfect. But I really did enjoy reading this novel all the way through. I just wanted a little more after it ended.

[Bruce Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wondrous, inventive, sparkling and gracious: There is simply no way to describe the pleasures of this book. As others have noted, the book is made up of five stories, all set in Newport, Rhode Island, but taking place at different times separated by hundreds of years.

Reading "The Maze at Windermere" is like taking a journey -- on a slow train, say -- and noticing along the way, with growing wonder and delight, that beyond the train's windows certain scenes and themes, relationships and symbols, and even names and places appear again and again -- not as repetition, but rather (as Mark Twain may or may not have said of history) as rhyme. Think of it not as mirror reflections but as fractals: a particular image or plot point is recognizably connected to one that preceded it, but it is different too. Altered in shape and affect.

And then there is the eponymous maze -- or more accurately, mazes: the one that occupies physical space on the estate of one story's character (and in which certain events transpire); the figurative mazes of love, intrigue, and self-discovery where, as one character puts it, one might try "to step behind the arras, to be done with duplicity, to enter the maze of who one was never to leave!"; and the maze that forms the contours of the book itself. (I'm tempted to say "literally": Each of the stories goes on for a stretch then seems to turn -- on a plot line, sometimes one way, sometimes another, but the inflection point is recognizable -- so the next leg is shorter, until the events in the final pages are the shortest of all, as if we've reached the center of the maze.)

And then there are the images that not only shape the actions of characters but also seem to hint at how we should be reading "Windermere." I'm thinking in particular here of the recurrent image of the chess board. In Smith's hands, the 64 squares are not only surfaces on which games (not all of them kind) are played, but also planes from which new perspectives are sought and borders of perception broken. I'm being opaque, I know, but I truly have no choice, not with a book so intricate as this. Wandering through Smith's maze of a book with its early straight stretches, tightening turns and dead ends, is just plain fun -- a puzzle you don't recognize as a puzzle into you're far enough into it to view it as if from above! [There's a gorgeously evocative passage late in the book that captures the essence of what Smith is doing in "The Maze at Windermere," but quoting it here would be like posting a spoiler. I leave it to the reader to have the pleasure of discovering it for him/herself.]

Smith's book is not at all dry or intellectually precious. On the contrary, it's playful and engaging. We are drawn into the stories because they are well told, and we care deeply about the characters and what happens to them. And the "what happens to them" is full of twists and turns, love and loathing, despicable plots and sudden discoveries of unexpected love, and a helluva lot more.

I'd love to participate in a reading group discussion of this book. That being impossible, I will content myself with making it the newest entry on my Favorites list.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You're a tourist, but if you're reading right you're a tourist simultaneously on the outside and the inside. You're simultaneously yourself and someone else."

Duplicity, role-playing, masquerade and costume, mistaking one's aspirational self for one's true self...these conduct us to the heart of Gregory Blake Smith's impressive labyrinth of a novel.

What I found most compelling were the multiple parallels and echoes which the author has so skillfully incorporated throughout: a romantic couple at the end of the breakwater, the four cherubs carved into Da Silva's mantlepiece, warblers migrating through Newport, games of chess conducted on and off the checkerboard, and (of course) the maze. That hedgerow maze is such a brilliant symbol for this layered literary journey with its intimations of secrecy, searching, finding (or not), self-doubt, misdirection, and the need to change course when one's carefully-wrought plan is thwarted. The clear connection to the myth of Theseus and Ariadne is especially wonderful. So many "heroes" trying to destroy whatever horrifying man-beast bars their path but also needing the help of a devoted woman to get them back out; a woman, it should be noted, who is later to be abandoned.

"One must take care that one's life does not begin to resemble the plot of a novel."

As has been mentioned elsewhere, Daisy Miller is heavily referenced and borrowed from throughout. But there are also many allusions to various other Henry James novels. The Wings of the Dove is frequently introduced, both textually and metaphorically. The bizarre love network of Tom-Margo-Sandy-Alice-Aisha seems indebted to The Golden Bowl. Woven throughout is The Turn of the Screw's central theme that "the ceremony of innocence is drowned". Surely there are several other examples but I'm not familiar enough with James' work to recognize them. Yet. This book makes me want to narrow that gap in my reading, which is also very much to the author's credit.

"For fidelity to the truth one found within oneself was, to me, the highest good."

It was only after finishing that I was struck by how the search for truth - about one's authentic self, one's society, and the nature of existence - is what drives the action and counteraction in all five stories. Prudence seeks her truth about God and a woman's place in the Quaker community; Da Silva seeks the truth about Major Ballard's intentions towards Judith; Henry seeks the truth of his own feelings about vocation and also the nature of his romantic yearnings; Ryckman seeks the truth of Franklin's actual persona; and Sandy is desperate for an honest understanding of the real Alice. Without these the reader would be left with a collection of pretty but mundane tales.

It also fascinates me how easily we adopt the narrators' points of view, regardless of that character's honesty. Prudence and Sandy, being decent, are increasingly ennobled in the reader's eyes. Da Silva and Ryckman come off as malicious, controlling interlopers until one stops to consider what is actually at stake for them. And the teenage Henry is trapped somewhere in the middle; neither saint nor sinner. His own ambivalence and confusion transfer to the reader and it is never entirely clear just how complicit he has been in his own undoing.

Like I said: fascinating. Most of my friends were quite drawn to the 2011 timeline, and often one or two of the others, but did not enjoy all five. I did, and the 2011 narrative was not my favorite. This collective is marvelously assembled and became stronger for me as it unfolded. And I may raise a few eyebrows from those who know my ratings tend to come in a bit lower than average, but I'm giving this one 4.5 stars because that is where my own truth lies.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smith does something rather astonishing here. The setting is Newport, R.I., where New York society has summered for over a century in lavish mansions on the Atlantic. Told in alternating storylines from the years 2011, 1896, 1863, 1778, & 1692 he leads us to an appreciation of the vagaries of the human heart both by those who have great wealth and those that aspire to possess it. In the beginning of the novel, the storylines are distinct but as you near the end they collapse into one another in a compendium of hope and regret. I've never read anything quite like it.

It takes a while to get into the rhythm of the alternating time periods and characters but I enjoyed the journey because Smith took me back to Newport which I had visited for the first time this past autumn. While I was trying to keep the characters and storylines straight, I got to revisit Thames street (not the Brit pronunciation), the White Horse Tavern, the Cliff Walk, the Touro Synagogue, the Redwood Library and of course, the mansions. I didn't realize until maybe halfway through that one of the stories is about the writer Henry James whose family had a summer home in Newport. Smith has the ability to transport you to each era and make you feel a part of the history. All in all a satisfying and unusual read.

[Anita Pomerantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literary readers should love this one, but it definitely requires some "work" on the part of the reader. It took me an unusually long time to finish, and I think that was mostly because of the format. I would describe the structure as five novellas set in different time periods, but in the same location, Newport, and told in rotating chapters (2011, 1896, 1863, 1778, and 1692). Until the final section where suddenly all of the time periods are compressed into short paragraphs as each story reaches its denouement. To me, the author was trying to echo the feel of a maze. At first, it takes you a while to get oriented, and you slowly wend your way. But as you reach the center, you are moving more quickly and decisively and with shorter movements. The novellas are not really inter-related, but there are elements (physical, philosophical, thematic and literary) that echo through them. It's really quite a clever novel and one that would hold up well to multiple readings.

All that being said, the quality of the stories varied widely for me, and that's why it really didn't rise to the 5 star level. Each story is one of love and obsession. The 2011 story was, for me, by far the most interesting. It tells the tale of a handsome tennis pro and a love triangle of sorts where the two women involved are both very interesting in their circumstance and character. I loved this story and found myself wanting to return to it over and over (but had to wait patiently through the other four chapters each time). The story set in 1896 was a close second and focused on a gay man in society who is attempting to marry a rich widow against the wishes of her father. The third novella is historical fiction about the life of Henry James whose work crops up repeatedly in other parts of the book. The fourth and fifth stories struck me as much more forced than the first two . . .as if the author had a structure in mind, and the final two tales were necessary elements, but they didn't arise organically.

But nonetheless, I really enjoyed intellectual challenges put forth in the book as they added to the stories and weren't contrived and truly added to the reading experience as opposed to leaving the reader exhausted, or worse, bored.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divided and undecided, so I’m rating it up. Which is to say giving it a rating it initially merited, before the narrative spiraled out of control, quite literally. This book is indeed a maze of mirrors, placed cleverly so that the reflections spins smaller and differently into the past, while echoing the same themes. Original and quite ingenious concept of five threads crafted into a cohesive total, a Fibonacci sequence of a novel. And yet…such a structure requires a certain kind of patience and appreciation and maybe five is just too many. The kids rule…five kids is too many, two or three is a perfectly reasonable number, same with alternating timelines. Mind you the author did a great job of it all, the narratives are distinct in style, but the juggling act got tiresome after a while and it was difficult to impossible to care equally(ish) about each one. So I chose to read it as the first and main one was the soul of the story and the rest were just accoutrements, variations on the same theme. Theme being the impossible romances, complicated across the board by divisive financial circumstances, but also sexualities, social standings, etc. In the main plotline a washed up former tennis pro, whose good looks and amicable nature make him popular in social circles of the old money Newport class, finds himself courting a complicated bipolar DuPont (awesome to read just days after experiencing the genuine grandiose DuPont splendor of Longwood Gardens) Dollar Princess among the fabulous Wildmere estate. Next plotline (to compare) features a gay man of significant charm and insignificant financial means trying to secure for himself a lucrative sham marriage. So see…parallels. At one instance it’s actually quite cleverly tied in, sort of dream within a dream or, really, fiction within a fiction sort of thing, but in general it’s a lot, too much. Too many juggling balls. No small feat, admirable, but easier to appreciate than love. The writing itself was a thing of beauty, lovely command of language and complexity of emotions, so it made for a very nice introduction to the author. Thanks Netgalley.

[Nadine in California · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five protagonists spanning three centuries, linked only by the ground they walk on (Newport Rhode Island), confront the same universal questions of morality in ways specific to their particular time, culture, and personal history. There's a fading tennis pro in 2011, a hanger-on to the rich and famous in Gilded Age 1898, a very young Henry James (!) in 1863, an aristocratic cad in 1798, and a 15 year old Puritan girl in 1692. Each story is engrossing in its own way and you can enjoy them simply at the plot and character level, but if you want to dig deep you could write a dissertation about themes and allusions, overt and covert, to other novels and characters. The only thing that kept this novel from being virtually perfect for me was the character of Alice DuPont, who seemed like a collection of characteristics, rather than a character. In any other novel, this would be a serious flaw for me, but here it's dwarfed by how terrific everything else is.

[Chrissie Whitley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Maze at Windermere came to me years ago from the PageHabit box (a now-defunct book subscription service that had these wonderful little sticky notes throughout the book penned by the author), but there's almost no faster way to ask me to set a book aside than to surprise me with one. So, subscription services turned out not to be for me — at least not for something I would read right away.

Regardless, I finally got around to it.

"He had the good sense not to say anything. Perhaps because he couldn’t tell whether he had just been granted access to some inner life of hers or warned away from it."

An ambitious undertaking in terms of content and formatting — The Maze at Windermere carries with it five different eras, all set in the area around Newport, Rhode Island. Beginning with present day of 2011 and weaving its way backwards through time, Smith covers stories set within the years of 1896, 1863, 1778, and 1692. Once you finish off a snippet from each, you wind your way back to the 2011 story and proceed back through time again. The maze of the title is actually present in a few of the timelines, though it is by no means the focus of any. Rather, it is largely a metaphor for the labyrinthine path to marriage or love or relationships. The maze itself is the courtship. Sometimes you make it through the maze, and sometimes you don't. Sometimes your intentions are honorable, and sometimes they aren't.

In 2011, Smith writes about a has-been tennis player, Sandy Allison, now a tennis instructor, who has almost unwittingly ensconced himself in a love triangle/square of sorts. There are three women, two with whom he is already sexually involved at the beginning, whose lives directly revolve around the house of the title — Windermere. The heiress, Alice Du Pont, who has cerebral palsy, seems to ride the fence between eccentricity and full-on affectation. She wears clothes that are all but complete costumes, and yet she's written with a level of self-awareness that seems to want to bubble up before she withdraws and resorts to the mad heiress bit.

The 1896 timeline proves to be one of the more fascinating stories — because, really, these all feel like disconnected, chopped up short stories that you revisit after making the rounds — with Franklin Dexter, a gay man in search of a stable relationship with a woman to use as a cover for his sexual orientation. He sets his cap for a wealthy widow with children.

Squeezing in some reality for the next group, Smith inserts a young Henry James as the narrator — someone who never marries, as we know from his history. But instead, James seems to have caught the attention of a young woman whom he, prior to actually meeting her, hopes to fashion his observations into a character for a story he'd like to write one day.

Possibly delivering the most boring and most offensive (the latter of which is purposeful) set of Newport residents, Smith crafts a predatory British officer in 1778, whose only aim is to lure a local Jewish young lady into his trap with the full intent of casting her aside afterwards so she will be ruined for her future in marriage.

Lastly, the most interesting storyline in the bunch — an orphaned Quaker girl of fifteen in 1692 who is simply trying to make it through life following the death of her mother from illness and her father being lost at sea. She is left with a young sister in her care, a house, and a young enslaved woman from Africa. Prudence Selwyn's moral dilemma regarding slavery develops over the course of her story. Her growth represents the rejection of slavery by Quakers that was advancing all over around that time.

Between the five timelines, I kept waiting for some cohesion and connection to break through and allow these tiny worlds to open up — at least to each other. But, just over three-quarters of the way through, I saw that was not the case, and I broke away from the formatting and finished each story individually. This decision proved even more difficult than I could've imagined, because for Part III (the last 60-70 pages), Smith chops up and breaks away from his own set pattern — and these timelines no longer follow their path of history in reverse. They no longer get their own chapters either — and the delineation between the eras is barely denoted.

While I did like a great majority of Smith's writing, and a decent amount of his storytelling, the pacing was uneven and the weight (or lack thereof) for each story seemed to be without reason. His main characters were fully imagined, but the side characters (who really seemed to be far more interesting and with greater potential) were phantoms of people.

By the end, I found four tales left without a full resolution, and a fifth that couldn't make up for the rest of the book. I kept wanting to this to be more — to do more with what it was trying to say about race, class, society, sexuality, and gender . . . but then I fell out of the maze without being able to reconcile why I was asked into it in the first place.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was brilliant. Often reading like a delicious psychological thriller, it was intricate and increasingly fast-paced. But first I had to decide if I had the patience for a book with narrators from five historical periods. Normally, no way. I was sucked in by that cover, though, and decided I’d read it until I no longer wanted to. Well, I still want to be reading this book. I think I’ll always want to be reading this book.

All five stories are set in Newport, Rhode Island and center on people trapped by circumstances and societal expectations. Achingly human, the various characters must struggle with the tension between their ideals and their cravings for wealth and power. Each section is compellingly written in the style and perspective of the times, with thematic echoes and fascinating parallels throughout.

In 2011 a retired tennis pro is being played by the women he’s sleeping with. In 1896 a closeted gay man knows that his days of charming the rich of the Gilded Age are numbered. In 1863 a budding novelist takes notes on the guests in Newport’s hotels. In 1778 a sociopathic British officer becomes obsessed with a teenage girl during the Revolutionary War. In 1692 a newly orphaned Quaker girl must figure out how to survive.

It’s a book about desire and self-awareness, as well as the line between life versus art, truth versus artfulness. I saw it as having a mirror-like structure, with the third story in the center of the maze, fully removed from life in order to observe it untouched and uncompromised in the commitment to veracity in art. The second and fourth stories, lost in the maze’s twists and turns, feature the most clearly duplicitous characters, engaged in life but masked in false pretenses, though for opposite reasons: one for survival, the other out of murderous spite. The first and fifth stories, mostly lived in the light but with one foot still ensnared in the maze of self-deception, have characters who are ostensibly sincere and “nice,” but whose blind spots and ego still steer them toward self-preservation and advancement through the exploitation of those weaker than them. There’s also an interesting role reversal in these two stories indicated by characters with similar names (Ashes/Aisha), inviting questions of hypocrisy and requital.

“He was trying to explain to her how he’d gotten to be where he was”—the book’s opening line. What an answer the rest of the book gives us!

Title in Spanish: No Spanish translation

[Lee]

I thought it was superbly crafted and that the author did a stellar job, but my interest gradually waned and I became easily distracted by other books. I think I read it at the wrong time and would probably love it if I read it at another point.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has next to nothing to do with the maze at Windermere. In 3 of the 5 time slices, the maze does not even exist. It is organized in bits of story in bits of time - so a mosaic would be a better metaphor than a maze. Even the cover art tells you it ain't about no maze. (Those little colored squares? Together, they make up - wait for it - a MOSAIC.) A more accurate title would be Race, Class, Gender, and Sexual Orientation in Newport: Mosaics in Time. But of course, that would not be as catchy. It would sound "social-science-y" and not "historical-fiction-y"

I believe that Smith is trying to convey some notions about the maze of human heart that we all must navigate. That's fine. That makes this book more "historical-romance-y" and less "historical-fiction-y." But again, that might cut down on its appeal. And it would not have made it into my Historical-Fiction PageHabit box. And I would not have felt obligated to read it.

I actually completely hated the first chapter. But I pressed on. The other time-slices were way more interesting, so I wanted to give this book a 3.5. But it completely collapsed in on itself in the last 25 pages or so. Smith mixed up the time-slices willy-nilly instead of keeping them in their own chapters. Even worse (for me), not a goddamn thing was resolved. Most egregiously, we never find out what happened with Judith and the Major. Not even close. At least the other stories left you standing on the breakwater contemplating what comes next. So: 2 stars.

[Catherine (The Gilmore Guide to Books) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m able and willing to read novels with multiple points-of-view and timelines but there has to be a cohesion to them. In The Maze at Windermere there is not. The novel reads as four very different stories with only the location to bind them. Granted, the location is Newport, Rhode Island, home to the uber-wealthy, which is probably why I chose the book. But, even though the stories are interesting, the jerking back forth between the 1600s and 2011 with two other eras in between is too much. I had to give this one up at 50%.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great idea this author noodled and he successfully executed it!
Centered in Newport, RI we are presented with five dynamic stories of very different groups of people over the centuries. Each story is stunning.
Only complaint: small font for old eyes, but I understand since it is 339 pages and would be longer if the print was large enough for me.
I feel so grateful to my library - I got on train and rushed through the cold and wind to pick up this book ... and I am going to be selfish enough to keep it a bit longer so I can read it again.

[MsArdychan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please Note: I received an advance copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence the content of my review in any way.

It took me a long time to get into reading this book. At first I just didn't understand what was happening. The format of this book is a challenge, with changing timelines and five different stories happening at once. Like a maze, I was often lost at first. But as I ventured further in, I became immersed in these stories and loved it!

What I Liked:

Format:

As I said, the format is very challenging. Often, the reader is plopped right into the middle of a scene with no reference as to what is happening. But I later found this to be exciting, and fun. As the book progresses, the boundaries of the different stories blur, and jump around paragraph by paragraph. This heightens the tension as each story comes to it's dramatic conclusion.

Characters:

There are so many characters to love in this book. I particularly enjoyed the modern character of Alice, the crippled heiress who can never know if anyone will love her for herself, or for her money. Her raw emotions are filled with passion, longing, and desperation as she pursues Sandy, a handsome tennis pro.

Sandy is repulsed by her, at first. I liked how complicated is character was. He is both an opportunist, and sincerely interested in Alice. He sees that he is used by the rich people of Newport, but still seeks the access to the good life they can provide. How much is he willing to compromise to get what he wants?

Not all the characters are people I could root for. In the revolutionary war story, a British soldier schemes to bed the beautiful Jewish daughter of the richest merchant in town. What starts out as a simple grudge against the merchant turns into an obsession with the girl. He becomes the epitome of the entitled male. It was infuriating, but I also followed this story with great interest. I did not want him to succeed.

Setting:

I have never been to Newport, Rhode Island but now I would love to visit. All the stories take place there. Through the ages it transforms from small, prosperous village into a playground for the ultra rich. I loved how each of the stories added a new layer to the town itself. One character even walks the streets and points out all many of the events that take place over hundreds of years. It was eerie and beautiful.

What I was mixed about:

Ending:

I have mixed feelings about the ending of the various stories. On the one hand, it was frustrating as a reader to not get firm resolutions to each story. However, I think the point of it all is that the stories never truly end. I could have followed several of the characters much further on in their stories, as they were really fascinating. But I have to respect the author for ending it as he did.

[Gary Branson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible, just terrible. 5 storylines covering over 300 years and none of them come together. And, worst of all, none of them had an ending. I'm not sure why I finished this, three of the stories were so incredibly boring. Pick up anything else to read. I do not understand how someone could like this mess. My opinion only, doesn't mean others won't like it.

[Betsyford · Rating 1 out of 5]

Huh?

The premise was good but the story was lost in the pretence of language. A rambling through history with a tenuous hold on fact and a blurry vision of the characters who were expected to carry the story.