On Green Dolphin Street defies categorization and analysis. I had forgotten, or rather lost faith in Faulks as an author. Still quite at a loss of whether and whither the story would take off after the first 100+ pages, it isn't until the final 70 pages that it turns into a page turner and becomes a very compelling and moving love story. ( )

This book is set in 1959 Washington/New York
Main characters are Mary Van der Linden who is married to Charlie a UK diplomat, they have 2 children they send away to Boarding school. Charlie is a bit of a Drinker and Drug taker.
Mary is bored with her life she then meets Frank a newspaper reporter who she slowly but surely falls in love with.
This is set right in the middle of the Cold war between USA and USSR. Its also at the time when JFK got elected as President of the USA.

Charlie doesn't suspect anything,Mary's Mum dies so she has to return to London, Charlie goes to Moscow has a bit of a breakdown and isnt really fit for work anymore.
So the Van der Lindens have to give up their house in Washington. Mary returns to sort out loose ends and also says goodbye to Frank. (Frank is to slow to get to the airport to stop her after they say goodbye)

Nice but slow love story novel. ( )

Heart-breaking finale, with each and every step simultaneously luminous in its orchestration. I hate how this slowly undos you right up from Charlie's almost-suicidal breakdown, right up to the moments of Mary and Frank's last meeting, but if something can arouse such strong emotion in you, then that's a testament to the power of Faulks's writing.... ( )

Faulks' writing is very lyrical, it absorbs you even when you don't know where the plot is going or what Faulks is trying to say. But luckily, these moments are few. On Green Dolphin Street is a very intense novel about choices. Do you live for yourself or other people? Do you choose to put your own happiness first or that of other people? Is it good enough to enjoy while it lasts when you cannot have it for eternity? These are the choices that Mary, and to a certain extent, Frank, had to make. Mary thought she can juggle her family and her relationship with Frank, and she vacillated between staying with Charlie and leaving him. Frank didn't want to decide for Mary. When he finally decided what he wanted and rushed to the airport, it was too late as he kept getting obstructed by the traffic. On the other hand, Mary had such a smooth ride to the airport and ended up being very early as the flight was delayed by an hour. Frank could have made it if he hadn't given up. But this is life. And this is why I love the ending. ( )

The novel is very evocative of the late 1950s era in the USA and Moscow but has a very one dimensional image of London. New York in particular is very well drawn, the noises, smells and people of the city very vivid.
The characters were less clearly defined for me and I found them difficult to engage with and I was constantly thinking - do people really behave like this? By the end the only character I felt much sympathy for was Charlie, the diplomat and husband. It is possible that Sebastian Faulks intended to write a melodrama. The final chapters hurtle full tilt in to this melodrama and had the sense of a film of that time - although made much earlier, Brief Encounter was constantly in my mind.
Well researched and constructed novel that was OK for a diverting read. ( )