The Marriage of the Sea A Novel [Paperback]

In a damp Venetian palace, Oswaldo contemplates the ravages of time to his body and his beloved city. In New York, Lach savors his freedom, having just dropped Vera to join his new love, Francesca, in Venice. In rainy London, Max packs for New Orleans, in pursuit of Lucinde, a woman he barely knows. From New Orleans, Lucinde flies to the aid and comfort of Vera, who has accepted a grant to paint in Venice. While elsewhere in the Crescent City, Anton, leaving for Venice, sketches a good-bye upon the slumbering body of his wife, Josephine. With wit, sympathy, and surpassing deftness, Jane Alison choreographs an intricate dance among these characters, whom love and loneliness, aspiration and desperation, have drawn to two famously romantic, venal, and elusive cities of water.

Reading Group Guide Questions
1. How does opening scene with Oswaldo set up the novel's main themes concerning time and place?
How important is location and atmosphere to the story? Why? Which descriptive passages about
location did you find the most affecting and evocative?
2. If you want nothing, Oswaldo observes on page 134. You do not want to live. Discuss the
thematic connection between life and wanting as represented by the characters of Max, Lach,
Anton, Lucinde and Josephine.
3. Would you describeMarriage of the Seaas a realistic novel? How does Alison use magical and
fantastical elements throughout the story?
4. Which character in the novel did you have the most sympathy for? Which the least? Explain.
5. Do you see any connection between some of the characters professions and their personalities?
Explain.
6. Did the course of the relationships in the novel turn out as you anticipated? Were you surprised by
any of characters' decisions? Explain.
7. What past events haunt Lucinde, Anton and Max? How do those events respectively affect their
present? Discuss Alison's allusive writing style in evoking these charal£z