On Green Dolphin Street

On Green Dolphin Street by British author Sebastian Faulks is a romance, narrating the story of a 40-year-old Englishwoman’s love for her husband (and her family), and her passion for an American journalist. At the centre of On Green Dolphin Street is Mary van der Linden, the wife of an English diplomat posted in Washington DC at the end of Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency.

The story describes a great deal of America from that period: war and politics (Kennedy-Nixon rivalry, the Cold War, McCarthyism, America’s involvement in Indochina); economics and affluence (the consumer boom, TV sets, cars with long tailfins, tall buildings); and indulgences (parties with free-flowing whisky, dry martinis anytime of the day and night, excesses of food, weekend holidays in yachts).

And, not to forget, jazz. In fact, the title of the novel, On Green Dolphin Street, is named after a jazz tune: a lingering theme from World War II, whose shadow is still cast over Eisenhower’s America and the three main characters of the novel. There’s Mary, cocooned in her own illusion of a permanently happy life; and two men struggling with their pasts, their careers, and their love for Mary.

On one hand, there’s Charlie, Mary’s diplomat husband, drunk and despondent, trying to get over his past ‘mistakes’, heading on a path of self-destruction. On the other, there’s Frank Renzo, American journalist, rising above his impoverished childhood and his career missteps, trying to rebuild his career and his life.

Content with her happy life, Mary doesn’t seem like a woman who would fall into an extra-marital affair. But she does, desperately, with Frank Renzo, in whom she finds the fulfillment of a love that has been missing in her life. It is this desperation for love that makes the characters and their emotions so vulnerable and so real.

On Green Dolphin Street weaves through Washington DC, New York and England, taking Mary through a path of self-discovery. But, as it is with such journeys, the happiness is as liberating as the pain is devastating. Sebastian Faulks excels in his narratives, his descriptions, and his handling of intricate human emotions, making On Green Dolphin Street an enjoyable romance.

[A personal feeling: women are likely to enjoy this book more than men.]