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    Confessions of Edward Day
    Confessions of Edward Day
    Confessions of Edward Day
    Audiobook8 hours

    Confessions of Edward Day

    Written by Valerie Martin

    Narrated by Andrew Garman

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The winner of many prestigious literary prizes- including the Orange-Valerie Martin also penned the modern classic Mary Reilly. Here she re-creates the vibrant world of 1970s theater in New York City to craft the tale of Edward Day, an ambitious young actor whose life changes at a bawdy party on the Jersey shore.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 16, 2009
    ISBN9781440759949
    Author

    Valerie Martin

    Valerie Martin is the author of eleven novels, including I Give It To You, Italian Fever and Property, which won the Women's Prize for Fiction. She has also written three collections of short fiction and a biography of Saint Francis of Assisi, Salvation. She has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as the Kafka Prize for Mary Reilly.

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    Reviews for Confessions of Edward Day

    4/5

    6 ratings5 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I found myself somewhat perplexed, though highly entertained, by this book. It's the story of an actor in the 1970s, his career on the stage and his friendships within the theater community, as well as a deeply antagonistic relationship with a disturbed doppelganger who saves him from drowning early on. While the tension of the relationship between Edward and Guy, a kind of manifestation of his baser self, is what drives the plot of the novel, much has been made among reviewers of the way in which Martin creates effectively the world of 1970s NYC theater. Yes, she does that, but I was hoping for a little more discussion of technique, rehearsal, the actual feeling of being onstage, than is here. Martin is more interested in the ways in which being an actor both causes and results from a deep, unrelenting narcissism, and how that manifests itself in perpetually self-obsessed behavior in one's personal life. There's nothing wrong with this as a project, but I suppose I was somewhat disappointed not to get more time with Edward on the stage than in a bar.

      Regardless, the plot of this subtle, taught novel is compelling until the final page, and it's a highly enjoyable, thought-provoking read.
    • 4/5
      An interesting character study and a glimpse into the not-so-glamorous world of the working theater actor. I appreciate the intelligence of Martin's prose and would also recommend her earlier novel, Trespass.
    • 3/5
      I found the initial conflict trite. The stranger who saves your life and then demands a right to continue to be involved is the stuff on TV drama. I did enjoy the insights into the lives of actors who scrap by from role to role. I don't have any great admiration for the craft and so, didn't have this story especially compelling.
    • 5/5
      Valerie Martin has an unequaled ability to capture the essence of a character and build a page-turning story around it. I was sucked into Edward Day's life as if by an industrial vacuum cleaner, fascinated by his persona and the events that shaped it. As the story progresses, a peculiar tension builds around Edward Day. It is a struggle not between good and evil or anything nearly as mundane as good guys versus bad guys, but rather a growing realization that he may be the villain of his own memoir. I don't believe I have experienced a character such as that since reading Crime and Punishment.This book epitomizes the writer's dictum to "don't tell--show", which serves the theme perfectly. Edward tells his own story, commenting on the actions, appearances, and attitudes of every other character in the piece in ways that ultimately reveal more about him than about them. It's a powerful technique that Martin has clearly mastered.The business of acting in live theater makes a wonderful background for the story. Edward Day is a consummate actor, which also happens to make him the perfect protagonist for this excellent dark novel.
    • 5/5
      What a wonderful treat this book is! I tend to forget Valerie Martin. On the one hand, this means that I end up missing her novels. On the other hand, I get to rediscover her often which sort of fulfills my fantasies of re-reading various books & authors for the first time all over again.I spent most of my twenties & thirties in theaters. First as an actor & later as a director with my own production company. Acting was fun because it provided me with an opportunity to explore sides of myself that I tended to avoid & to do things I'd probably never ever do in my real life. Directing, however, was my ultimate love in the theater. Where else do you get to interrogate text prior to making it get up and walk around?The Confessions of Edward Day is the memoir of Edward Day, an actor reminiscing about his salad days in the New York theater world of the 1970s where everyone was a student of Stella Adler or Sanford Meisner & living hand-to-mouth from audition to audition waiting for that big break. Edward Day is the definitive actor, a narcissist whose self-awareness is so thin that he can't see himself. Edward stands so far outside himself in observation of his emotions as material for his acting that he is essentially a non-person. Scarily, he is in many ways the most complete person in this tale of doubling & its consequences.Ms. Martin is asking some big questions here: What is owed to someone who saves your life? What does it mean to be both an actor & a person? If you have a doppleganger, which one of you is real?Ms. Martin's writing is, as always, superb. She manages to create characters who suck you into their worlds. She writes with a delicate menace that is reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith, but less bound to the thriller genre. This is a wonderfully written, compelling story that ended far too soon.
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