Painting the Roses Red

by Michael Malone

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394495985
• ISBN13: 9780394495989
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 149 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

1st offering from a veteran master storyteller.

Here is the first book ever written by Michael Malone, who would of course go on to write so many other dazzling works - DINGLEY FALLS, HANDLING SIN, FOOLSCAP, the Justin and Cuddy mystery series and THE LAST NOEL among them. So PAINTING THE ROSES RED is remarkable in that fashion. Malone's heroine and narrator Constance Mennagan is a graduate student at Berkeley in the late 60s-early 70s. At the heart of the novel, Constance is torn between two men: The ex-lover she can never quite seem to work out of her system, Ty, and her husband, a by-the-books sort named Gregory. PAINTING THE ROSES RED is very much a story of its time and setting. Constance and her friends hold elaborate philosophical and intellectual discourse conversations; Constance mourns the loss of Janis Joplin and oftentimes ponders the role of the woman of the decade, sexual mores and all. In many ways, PTRR is very much a snapshot of the era. It is also a snapshot of the innerworkings of a woman's mind, as imagined by the very male Malone, who would go on to create many strong female characters, like the central figure in his short story "Red Clay" or Irish rock star Mavis Mahar in the Justin-Cuddy mystery FIRST LADY. PAINTING THE ROSES RED is essentially Mennagan's thought journal, and told in a mixture of stream of consciousness and diary entry format, as she wrestles with staying faithful to Gregory or following her heart and body with Ty. Intricate and complex, this approach sometimes makes the novel tougher to retain, but oh-so-satisfying when it clicks. If for nothing else, PAINTING THE ROSES RED is worthy of a look -if you can find one; it's high value is no doubt related to its rarity, and Malone even addresses his own reported discomfort with the sexuality of the book in his interview with J. Kingston Pierce of January magazine at http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/mmalone.html: You've been quoted as saying that you're glad there are "very few copies of [Painting the Roses Red] available anymore." Why would you prefer to keep it out of readers' hands? My comment was a little facetious, but it is true that Painting the Roses Red is a very youthful and exuberant book, set in the wilds of the 1960s in Berkeley, California, and rather more festively sexual than I would have made it here in my staid middle age. It's fascinating to have read Malone's later works, to have the whole of his ouevre in mind when reading the book he began writing with, to see what themes and methods he will use throughout his literary career, and what will ultimately be abandoned by the wayside. Finding and reading PAINTING THE ROSES RED is ultimately an undertaking and an experience, and anyone who makes the journey will find their hearts and intellects the better for it by voyage's end.