Love and Other Illusions

By Mariah Robinson

Enter the world of Jillian Barrister and those who orbit around her-Clay, David, Norma and Dr. Allison-players in a riveting drama of love and loss, happiness and anguish, innocence and guilt. It is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1883911915
• ISBN13: 9781883911911
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Brandylane Publishers, Inc.
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Loss, Love, and Reality

Firmly anchored in the rich literary traditions of the finest fiction, Mariah Robinson's first novel, Love and Other Illusions, paints a thought-provoking and intense contemporary "portrait of a lady" as it probes the depths of the anger, despair, grief, and guilt that threaten to overwhelm and destroy the novel's central figure. Engaged in a painful struggle to determine the reasons that her first husband, David, had betrayed her repeatedly and, finally, after eighteen years of marriage, left her to marry another woman. Jillian Winthrop Barrister seeks answers in a variety of ways. Four days each week she meets with her therapist, Dr. Allison, with whom she has developed a complex and ambivalent relationship that attempts to "reveal and restore her psyche" (192). In addition, she begins to write her second novel titled Love and Other Illusions, a novel that portrays the story of her marriage to the handsome, charming, volatile David, who is himself a psychotherapist. Through these prisms, Jillian begins to view anew the events of her past: "plays within plays, dramas within dramas, twists within twists . . ." (175). Using both interior monologue and stream of consciousness narrative voices, the novel presents a multiplicity of perspectives that add depth and breadth to the complexity of Jillian's situation: Lane, her son from her first marriage; Hope her friend and housekeeper; Clay, her second husband; Joan, her sister; Norma, David's second wife, Dr. Allison, and David himself all contribute to the crisis she faces. However, it soon becomes apparent that in order to heal the wound of the irretrievable loss she feels, she has to face the reality of her long ago relationships with her mother, her father, and her baby brother, Lane, all now deceased. In these relationships revisited, she will come to acknowledge the childhood crime that lay at the heart of her relationship with her mother as well as the feelings that motivated her as a child. The journey into this heart of darkness is the trip she must make, and she must complete these final steps alone. In Part II of the novel, Jillian flees her home in Richmond and abandons the United States. Near collapse and seeking oblivion, she arrives in Bombay. It is here that she begins to resolve her dilemma. Two events finally assist and support her. She meets with an Indian mystic, whose spirituality evokes her own, and she completes her novel with assurance and clarity. Self-forgiveness ultimately seems as if it were a possibility. While love is elusive and unconditional love may be an illusion, she is ready to return home. Self-understanding can lead to hope In his essay, "The Art of Fiction," Henry James reflected his belief that in the best fiction the story and the novel, the idea and the form, are as inseparable as needle and thread. Ms. Robinson's first novel embodies this concept. The artistic

Love and Other Illusions

Mariah Robinson has written an extremely interesting thought provoking novel that draws the reader into the central character's world. This is the world of Jillian, a beautiful, highly intelligent, creative, imaginative and manipulative modern woman. While Jillian is at the center of her world there is also an ex-husband and his new wife, a current husband, a son and throughout the novel there is Hope. We don't know much about Hope except that she is clearly Jillian's majordomo. Perhaps in Robinson's next novel we will get to know Hope better. For me the most interesting part of the book is the interaction between Jillian and her analysis, Dr. Allison. The exchanges between Jillian and Dr. Allison are thought extraordinary. They are very well written, so much so that one wonders just who is analyzing who. During one of the later session Jillian has a breakthrough. This is brilliantly written and the reader is drawn into Jillian's deepest and most private thoughts. Love and Other Illusions holds the reader in its thrall from beginning to end. Wallace M. Saval Petersburg, Virginia Love and Other Illusions

Beautiful-Evocative-Uplifting-Heartbreaking-Moving-A True Gem!!

What a beautifully written novel. It's rich and dramatic landscape pulls you in a refuses to let go until you have finished, and then leaves you wishing for more. The rich tapestry of characters and beautifully detailed surroundings draw you into another world so beautifully depicted that you are not sure if it is fiction or a real life you watch unfold before you.Jillian's world pulls at your heartstrings and makes each turn of the page filled with anticipation. There is love, heartbreak, triumph and awakening, all written with detailed accuracy and depiction. Jillian's life forces her to deal with accepting both tragedies from the past and present and puts before her the task of unraveling traumatic events from both her youth and present life and coming to terms with love, acceptance, freedom and true awakening.A beautifully detailed masterpiece.