Devotion

by Howard Norman

Fans of Howard Norman, the internationally acclaimed author of The Hunting of L and The Bird Artist and a two-time National Book Award finalist, will find in his latest novel -- an intense and intriguingly unconventional love story -- all the hallmarks of this masterly writer: sparkling yet spare language, a totally compelling air of mystery spread over our workaday world, and ability to capture the metaphorical heartbeat at the center of our lives.

Like many of Howard Norman’s celebrated novels, Devotion begins with an announcement of a crime: on August 19, 1985, David Kozol and his father-in-law engaged in “assault by mutual affray.” Norman sets out to explore a great mystery: why seemingly quiet, contained people lose control. David and Maggie's story seemed straightforward enough; they met in a hotel lobby in London. For David, the simple fact was love at first sight. For Maggie, the attraction was similarly sudden and unprecedented in intensity. Their love affair, "A fugue state of amorous devotion," turned into a whirlwind romance and marriage. So what could possibly enrage David enough that he would strike at the father of his new bride? Why would William, a gentle man who looks after an estate -- and its flock of swans -- in Nova Scotia, be so angry at the man who has just married his beloved only child, Maggie? And what would lead Maggie to believe that David has been unfaithful to her? In his signature style -- haunting and evocative -- Norman lays bare the inventive stupidities people are capable of when wounded and confused.

At its core, Devotion is an elegantly constructed, never sentimental examination of love: romantic love (and its flip side, hate), filial love at its most tender, and, of course, love for the vast open spaces of Nova Scotia.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Love, Literary Fiction

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Howard A. Norman (born 1949), is an American award-winning writer and educator. Most of his short stories and novels are set in Canada's Maritime Provinces. He has written several translations of Algonquin, Cree, Eskimo, and Inuit folklore. His books have been translated into 12 languages.

Reviews

[Laurel Deloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book looks so simple but again with Norman, my newest favorite author, (I think Ive read most) this book less than 200 pages, is very complicated..Why are the characters so damn clumsy, afraid to get hurt, afraid to expose themselves, afraid to ask for what they need and want_-a question explored in many of his novels.
Reviewers : Fans of Howard Norman, the internationally acclaimed author of The Hunting of L and The Bird Artist and a two-time National Book Award finalist, will find in this novel—an intense and intriguingly unconventional love story—all the hallmarks of this masterly writer: sparkling yet spare language, a totally compelling air of mystery spread over our workaday world, and ability to capture the metaphorical heartbeat at the center of our lives.

Like many of Howard Norman’s celebrated novels, Devotion begins with an announcement of a crime: on August 19, 1985, David Kozol and his father-in-law engaged in “assault by mutual affray.” Norman sets out to explore a great mystery: why seemingly quiet, contained people lose control. David and Maggie's story seemed straightforward enough; they met in a hotel lobby in London. For David, the simple fact was love at first sight. For Maggie, the attraction was similarly sudden and unprecedented in intensity. Their love affair, "A fugue state of amorous devotion," turned into a whirlwind romance and marriage. So what could possibly enrage David enough that he would strike at the father of his new bride? Why would William, a gentle man who looks after an estate—and its flock of swans—in Nova Scotia, be so angry at the man who has just married his beloved only child, Maggie? And what would lead Maggie to believe that David has been unfaithful to her? In his signature style—haunting and evocative—Norman lays bare the inventive stupidities people are capable of when wounded and confused.

At its core, Devotion is an elegantly constructed, never sentimental examination of love: romantic love (and its flip side, hate), filial love at its most tender, and, of course, love for the vast open spaces of Nova Scotia.

[Megan Codera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am often drawn to Howard Norman’s stories because of the places his characters are contained, physically as well as mentally. This was no exception - we wandered between London and Islay and Nova Scotia, carrying the weight of devotion between a new couple and her father and the places they have been, the things they have done...and the things they should have done. Do we make things more complicated than necessary for each other? Or is it sometimes necessary to make things more complicated in order to find a place together again?

[Liviu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing; the excerpt and idea sounded great but the demolishing NYT review is mostly on cue; the main character is a moron - to be kind - and he is even a not-really-believable one and the letter he gets towards the end from his wife shows very clearly why; sadly the book ends there and that is its best part

[Christine Henneberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quiet, simple novel about a couple whose passionate marriage seems to be over almost as soon as it begun, and a family whose heritage is built around its devotion to a gather of wounded swans. The characters are believable, though strange; the plot is slow but not tiresome. A good book for reading on a quiet winter weekend.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fan of Howard Norman's writing, but this is not his best. The story of David Kozol, his wife Maggie Fields and her father William Fields, is set in 1985-1986 in London and Canada. David and Maggie meet in London, experience love-at-first-sight, and marry shortly thereafter. Immediately after their honeymoon, there is an altercation between David and his father-in-law, which ends with William falling off the sidewalk and being run over by a taxi. That's a dramatic way to start married life, and the way this works out for this family is that David will live in the guesthouse of the Canadian estate where William is caretaker, and take care of William, the estate, and the swans that live there. Maggie takes herself off to another part of Canada and makes sure never to interact with David again. William grudgingly accepts David's help (frequently reminding him that he's eager to punch David's lights out), David wallows in self-recrimination and melancholy, and the swans are alternatively enchantingly beautiful and vicious - the symbolism about mating-for-life and the joys and pains of romantic love is clear.

Any reader with an average degree of curiosity will want to know what exactly caused that violent quarrel between David and his father-in-law. Howard Norman has used the slow-unspooling-of-the-background-to-a-past-event technique beautifully in other novels, and I usually enjoy that sense of floating gently back into the past. However, in this particular case I felt it didn't work. That is : the cause for the quarrel event felt contrived and the emotionally fraught aftermath artificially inflated. It is just not credible that David, still floating on the clouds of his young marriage with Maggie, would have behaved like such an utter idiot. It is equally hard to believe that on one hand, William and David would agree to their strange living arrangements on the estate while on the other hand, Maggie would be determined to avoid him. And while the writing was convincing in describing the difficult limbo that Maggie and David find themselves in, with William ultimately being the character the reader sympathizes with most, the weakness in the psychology of the triggering event made the entire aftermath seem contrived.

That being said... I am always interested in the lives of Howard Norman's characters, in this case : a handyman with a special love for swans (William), a photography teacher painfully aware of his lack of originality (David) and the publicity agent for an orchestra (Maggie). Apart from the swan symbolism, there were also repeated references to Maggie's love of the novels of Anatole France, which I found an endearing trait.

[sanni · Rating 2 out of 5]

not a fan!! of the 3 central characters only one (william) really comes to feel human at all and even though his relationships with the other characters form the thematic backbone of the novel, it feels like he’s kind of sidelined.

david, the character who we spend the most time with, is totally pathetic and passive in a way that isn’t compelling at all! like there’s really nothing to his character other than that he lets life just pull him in whatever direction it wants and he doesn’t seem to have any particular feelings about that (or anything else) in general that we know of. to the point where when, towards the end of the novel, two characters sort of rip him to shreds it’s just like okayyyyyy… it feels like he isn’t worth that energy but okayyyy

also felt like every major event in the novel unfolded because of just some total coincidence that made absolutely no sense given the realistic tone of the book overall!! just very lazy!!

boring characters unforgivably weak plot and the “big reveal” was completely unnecessary and came out of nowhere after literally 0 intrigue was built up around it and literally 0 things happened to make me care about the people involved!

that being said i have another book of howard norman’s so i will be giving him another chance :(

[Sophy H · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a strange little story really which I won't regale the facts of.

Needless to say, Howard Norman makes the story perfectly human, flawed and honest. The characters are multi-layered with traits that are both likeable and objectionable.

The story chuffs along at a great pace, but I've taken one star off for the strange and ambiguous ending which left me a little flat.

[Kelly Greenwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Romance and wrath - David and Maggie are quickly attracted to each other and then married, separated by unexpected circumstance right after their honeymoon, and struggle with reconnecting. The dynamics of lives intersecting without connection is an odd dance.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book was quite lyrical, and sort of whimsical, the writing style just isn't my cup of tea. It was a good story, however somewhat quirky. Not my favorite but not bad either.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Nova Scotia, this tightly wound novel is about hurt and anger. I would say that there are Hemingwayisk themes with conflict the between the sexes and affinity to guns (sorry, not a big fan of Hemingway). A young man, David, makes very foolish mistakes barely through his honeymoon and damages his relationship with his new wife. Swans are central to the story, a potent metaphor, overused if not viewed as characters (and victims).

[willowbiblio · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This tableau ... constituted part of the same choreography of punishment and encouragement that defined each of Maggie's visits over the next few weeks, and raised in William's mind questions about what inventive stupidities people were capable of when wounded and confused, no matter their native intelligence."
----------------
There was nothing that particularly made me dislike this book, I just didn't feel much for it. I think David, the protagonist, was so emotionally flat that despite being declaratively head over heels for Maggie, he was seemingly content to drift along in limbo until she told him what to do. That's why her vocal/memo/letter to him was so apt, and yet it didn't spur him to action.

Generally, I didn't really believe any of it. There was no depth to the emotion that was being written and so it didn't make me as a reader care much for the characters or the outcome. It was also deeply confusing because David didn't actually cheat on Maggie, yet seemed content to let her believe it was true, or at least ambivalent. That's basically how I felt about this book: ambivalent.

Norman did a good job with the constantly shifting timeline, so it made it easy to follow the plot. William's own actual infidelity made his tolerance of David in his space and as a caretaker believable. Overall I think this just felt fairly mediocre to me.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was captivated by the small world that Norman creates in this novel. David Kozol, a Canadian living in London, meets Maggie, a Canadian from Nova Scotia, in a hotel lobby in 1985. After a whirwind courtship the two marry in Maggie's N.S. home shortly after. What happens the day after their honeymoon on Isla, Scottish Inner Hebrides, ends is the "crime" with which Norman begins his novel. The "devotion" of the title describes the lives of almost all the characters the author creates within these pages--complex, multifaceted, and, above all, deep.
I did this last year after I read Olive Kitteridge--I read one book by an author and then read every other one I could get my hands on. Funny thing, though, I read Norman's The Bird Artist fifteen years ago and totally forgot until I felt that deja vu reading What Is Left the Daughter for the book group last week. I love certain settings and Maine/Nova Scotia are very appealing to me. Is it the result of reading during sweltering heat waves? Maybe. But in Devotion, the present time is an unusually hot summer and extremely unusual hot October/November in Nova Scotia!

[Suzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a whirlwind romance that leads to a quick marriage and a sudden unraveling, due to the unwitting antics of the husband (and to some extent, the father-in-law and the bride). This book goes hither and yon in time, making it kind of fun to piece together what you already kind of know. The book is tersely written, which befits the Nova Scotians and Canadians that populate it. It also made the book a breeze to read. It's short too, so I read it in just two days. The characters are quirky and so witty at times it makes you laugh out loud. Most of the book takes place at an estate in Nova Scotia that is home to injured swans. The father and son in law live there, the father in the main house, recovering from injuries set in motion by the son in law, who lives in the guest house and serves as caretaker to his father in law and to the estate his father-in-law can no longer care for. The wife has become estranged, and her father is constantly threatening revenge on the son in law, even as he is nursing him back to health. It'd make a good movie. I like Howard Norman' writing and story telling, so i'll definitely look for something by him again.

[Jeri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my second Howard Norman book and I was a tad disappointed. Devotion begins with an announcement of a crime: on August 19, 1985, David Kozol and his father-in-law engaged in “assault by mutual affray.” The story of a young couple who meet, fall in love, get married and then...at the end of their honeymoom the young man is found in a compromising (though innocent) situation by the girl's father. They fight, the father is gravely injured and the young man is charged with his care -- back in Nova Scotia, where the father is the caretaker of an estate - and a flock of swans. The father is furious with the young man and the girl, in the beginning, refuses to forgive him - even after she finds that she's pregnant. I love Norman's writing and there were some good moments of examination of the different loves we know -- but there was just something missing. Will try him one more time, however, as I really liked his first book.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was trying to find a book to borrow from the local library, with my 8 month old in tow. She started fussing, and before I could find any from my recommended list, I grabbed the closest book, which turned out to be this one.

I'm not sure if it was tiredness from said 8 month old, or some ambiguity in the narrative, but I often got mixed up between David and William. This made it quite difficult for me to truly get into this book.

I didn't warm to any of the characters. I found the character of David to be annoying and gutless. He lets everyone assume that he slept with Katrine and seems incapable of trying to repair the damage to his marriage.

I persevered with the book because I kept thinking that something would happen soon. But nothing ever did. Then it just ended.

I think this will be the last time I choose a random book from the library.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of Howard Norman's stories of Nova Scotia and beyond. This book was less than 200 pages and I read it cover to cover as the story unfolds of a young couple who fall in love and marry quickly. Mr. Norman winds the story forward and back again. The day after their honeymoon, the new husband, David, and the new father-in-law, William, are involved in a brawl that changes the direction of their lives and the new marriage.

Very interesting story and character! Also interesting because of the references to Prague and photography as my daughter, Joy, has some wonderful photos from a trip that she took the Prague!

[Deon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devotion by Howard Norman is an unconventional romance. David Kozol has an ordered life in London when he sees Maggie across a room and is smitten. He pursues her, turning his life upside down to be with her. After they return from their honeymoon, David gets into a horrible fight with Maggie’s father resulting in grievous injury. What could cause newly married, mild mannered David to get into an altercation with his father-in-law? Why is Maggie so willing to believe the worst of David. We each carry forward into life the filter of our past, our opinions shaped by events from long ago. Sometimes the cost of being right can be too dear.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

“David…followed a line of nineteen swans with clipped wings up from the spring-fed pond. He wondered if there was such a word as ‘swanherd’” (2).
“They allowed, as Anatole France had written of an acquaintance, ‘splendid companionship: my self-inflicted torment, his stark spirit’” (3).
“She’ll wreck her room like the Rolling Stones, except all on her own and a bit more demurely” (65).
“He reeked of whiskey and swan shit. Quite the unusual combination, Naomi thought” (87).
"The rest landed and floated, covers facing up or down, like illustrated lily pads" (112).

[Shylashree Chikkamuniyappa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull boring read. Story happens in Novo Scotia, Halifax, London and Prague. Characters are dull. Maggie and David, a photographer meet accidentally and marry impulsively. David breaks off from a 4 year friendship with Novak from Prague. Story moves to an quarrel between David and his FIL, who has an accident and David comes to Novo Scotia to help him recover and make amends while Maggie is travelling with her work ensemble and is pregnant. Story ends on a positive note with Maggie 'trying to forgive' and making a new begining. I just couldn't relate to the characters.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Howard Norman gives us a trio of unconventional, self-contained characters capable of momentary flights of passion: an amateur photographer, the publicist for a traveling chamber orchestra and her father, the swan keeper on an estate in Nova Scotia. The story is set, primarily, on the estate near Truro, where David is taking care of his convalescing father-in-law William, estranged from his recently-wed wife, Maggie. The characters are as mysterious as the swans they care for and David, the chief protagonist of this slim tale, as emotionally opaque as his avian friends.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a really interesting premise--a man and his father-in-law get into a fistfight just after the honeymoon, and the book tells the story of the aftermath of said fight and how and why it occurred. I liked it a lot, but there were occasions of very clumsy exposition, i.e., "Who will be your maid of honor?" "Francie So-and-so." "Ah, your best friend since you were 11." Um . . . ok. Anyway, B+.

[Kathleen (itpdx) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it, but I am having a difficult time formulating why. It is a quiet story in spite of the two main characters ending up hospitalized after fights. I like the theme of devotion--expressed in so many different relationships. Norman doesn't seem to know how to write realistic dialogue and fortunately steers clear of it most of the time. I am flummoxed by some of the characters' motivations but then again so is David whose story it is.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had me almost all the way through. I was caught by the specificity of the detail, and the sense of place and of the characters, as much as by the story. The only reason I don't give it five stars is probably specious--I was enormously frustrated by the book's finish! It was intentional; it was perfect. I was gritting my teeth with frustration.

Read this book. It's almost as great as the Bird Artist.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read The Bird Artist during my "read everything related to Newfoundland" series (Shipping News, etc) and I loved the book. So when I heard about this slender new novel -- I bought it first thing and I loved it.
What is the nature of loyalty? What will people do when tested? Will there be a happy ending?

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and easy to read, but based on lack of communication and assumptions in a marriage that I found hard to believe. The book did make me think about the importance of constant talk between partners and how quickly a marriage can sour when views and concerns aren't expressed in a timely fashion.

[Renie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't care for this book about a pair of newlyweds. The new husband's father-in-law discovers an unfamiliar woman clad only in a robe in his hotel room and informs the new bride of probable indiscretions. The newlyweds become estranged and have to find their way back together again. Interestingly, nothing untoward even happened so the entire book was based on incorrect suppositions. Blah.

[Lynne-marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Begining with what the author calls "an affray" brtwee the protagonist and his father-in-law, the story then laps back into the past and works forward toward th altercation. Set at the metaphorical heart of the story and perhap the universe are the mute swans that the two men tend. I finished this in one day. I quite simply could not put it down.

[Madeline Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still not as impressive as Next Life Might Be Kinder, but this book was a good one. I'm realizing that Howard Norman just writes a lot like how my brain processes things. An interesting story about human interactions that allows the reader to fill in the blanks at several intervals. Concise and evocative.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Howard Norman is one of the best unknown authors no one has ever heard of. He was a finalist for the National Book Award a few years back. Mostly, he writes about Canada, but it's really the characters in his novels that stand out.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually quite good. It's got Canadians, swans, a couple fist fights, infidelity, a couple hospitalizations, and even an attempted robbery. And, suprisingly, does not read outlandish in the least.