Maze at Windermere (Smith) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Staggeringly brilliant…. An extraordinary demonstration of narrative dexterity. Moving up and down through the strata of history, Smith captures the ever-changing refractions of human desire…. The cumulative effect of this carousel of differing voices is absolutely transporting…. Looking up from this remarkable novel, one has an eerie sense of history as a process of continuous erasure and revision. You’ll start The Maze of Windermere with bewilderment, but you’ll close it in awe.
Ron Charles - Washington Post


(Starred review.) [E]motionally expansive…. [A]s the author makes ever-increasing connections among the stories and shuffles them all into one unbroken narrative, the novel becomes a moving meditation on love, race, class, and self-fulfillment…across the centuries.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Smith moves nimbly among his tales' various settings and diverse characters…. Historical fiction buffs as well as those with romantic leanings should enjoy this intricate tale. —Jennifer B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll. Northeast
Library Journal


(Starred review.) Intricately designed and suspenseful…. Though references to… The Portrait of a Lady, abound, readers don’t have to be familiar with [James'] novels to relish the well-differentiated voices and worlds or to enjoy the way the novel’s five story lines subtly shift and begin to merge.
Booklist


Five parallel stories, from Colonial times to the present, set in Newport, Rhode Island.… What seems overly complicated at first becomes quite compelling by the end, when the stories alternate in ever shorter flashes toward resolution.
Kirkus Reviews