Winner of a gold medal in the 2015 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, Suanne Laqueur’s astonishing debut novel follows a young man’s emotional journey to salvage relationships destroyed in the wake of a school shooting.
As a college freshman, Erik Fiskare is drawn to the world of theater but prefers backstage to center stage. The moment he lays eyes on a beautiful, accomplished dancer named Daisy Bianco, his atoms rearrange themselves and he is drawn into a romance both youthfully passionate and maturely soulful. Their love story thrives within a tight-knit circle of friends, all bound by creativity and artistry. A newcomer arrives–a brilliant but erratic dancer with an unquenchable thirst for connection. And when this disturbed friend brings a gun into the theater, the story is forever changed. Daisy is shot and left seriously injured. And Erik finds himself alone in the aisle, looking down the muzzle of a pistol and trying to stop the madness. He succeeds, but with tremendous repercussions to his well-being and that of his loved ones.
Traumatized by the experience, the lovers spiral into depression and drug use until a shocking act of betrayal destroys their relationship. To survive, Erik must leave school and disconnect from all he loves. He buries his heartbreak and puts the past behind. Or so he believes.
As he moves into adulthood, Erik comes to grips with his role in the shooting, and slowly heals the most wounded parts of his soul. But the unresolved grief for Daisy continues to shape his dreams at night. Once those dreams were haunted by blood and gunfire. Now they are haunted by the refrain of a Gershwin song and a single question: is leaving always the end of loving?
Spanning 15 years, The Man I Love explores themes of love and sexuality, trauma—physical and mental—and its long-lasting effects, the burden of unfinished business and the power of reconciliation. Through Erik’s experience we reflect on what it means to be a man, a son and a leader. A soul mate, a partner and a lover. What it means to live the truth of who you are and what you feel. What it means to fight for what you love.
“Five stars. The Man I Love by Suanne Laqueur joins the handful of truly spectacular books I’ve read this year. The writing is gorgeous, each passage has a sort of rhythm that flows beautifully, drawing you deeper and deeper into Daisy and Erik’s story.”
–Readers’ Favorite Book Awards (gold medal, Realistic Fiction)
“Five stars. A fabulous first novel. A story written so elegantly, so beautifully, and so deliciously… Readers will be grasping this book, begging to know more, until the final page is devoured. What The Man I Love gets right is the grit of it all. This heartfelt love story is transformed into a tale about the power of communication, the toll trauma takes on survivors, the burden of words left unsaid, and connections between people that can last a lifetime… A beautiful, yet heart-rending love story, thanks to Laqueur’s emotional rawness and compelling writing.”
–Portland Book Review
“Five stars. Get ready to be wowed, because Suanne Laqueur’s novel The Man I Love is something extraordinary. Beautifully written, it touches on topics that are deeply ingrained in our cultural psyche by this point in time and explores them with humility and sensitivity. Erik and Daisy are so perfectly human, so sweet in their love and so flawed and hurt in their pain, that it’s hard not to be enthralled by them.”
–San Francisco Book Review
Suanne graduated from Alfred University with a double major in dance and theater. She taught at the Carol Bierman School of Ballet Arts in Croton-on-Hudson for ten years. She lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband and two chil-dren. An avid reader, cook and gardener, she started her blog EatsReadsThinks in 2010 and now blogs at www.suannelaqueur.com
Renee’s Review:
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review for Stephanie’s Book Reports.
I’ve got to say when I read the synopsis for this book I was excited to get the opportunity to read it. I knew it was probably going to be sad and break my heart. There is no way a story like this couldn’t affect you and I’m all for a good emotional read. I don’t shy away from them at all. I think a good book cry is cleansing for the soul. With that said though I didn’t find that ringing true for me and this book.
Erik Fiskare is a bright young man whose mother loves him to the end of the earth and back and whose father just packed up and left in the middle of the night one night when he was young. Erik is very smart and bright and soon find a love for the theatre. Not the bright lights of the stage but a love for building the scenes and running the lighting. In college he is very involved in the theatre and has very few friends until his eyes land on Daisy. Daisy Bianco is a ballet dancer who is gifted and when she dances with her partner Will it’s simply magic. She too is interested in Will and soon they are madly in love. They are soul mates. They can read each other like a book, revel in each other, and know without a doubt they have found the loves of their lives. When a newcomer comes to college and is paired with Daisy he is included in their tight knit group of friends but he is disturbed by many things that have happened in his life. After his grade point average falls below what’s expected he is kicked out of the spring concert replaced by Will. A failed suicide attempt sends him home and he’s all but forgotten until he walks into the theatre during final rehearsal with a gun and carnage insues. Will and Daisy are shot. Erik while getting to Daisy comes face to face with the killer and life if never the same. This begins the fight to survive everyday through Daisy and Wills injuries and all their relationships change but none as much as Erik and Daisy. An act of the ultimate betrayal sends Will running and begins the journey and him healing. The book spans fifteen years. Fifteen years of heartache, depression, nightmares, panic attacks, therapy, and healing.
There no doubt Suanne Laqueur has an amazing writing talent. Her words are beautiful and it’s a very well written book. At times it’s almost poetic. I however struggled and I do mean struggled hard at times to continue reading. It’s a very slow building book. It has to be to get the entire story and know the characters as well as you need to. I loved the build up of the relationships between Daisy and Erik and the friendship between Will and Erik. The whole group of friends that are also included in the story are diverse and each has a unique personality. Their fun to get to know and read about. The trouble for me was after Daisy betrays Erik and he runs. Packs up everything he owns and pushes everyone he cared about away. He just leaves them in the dust and never cares to look back. He actually suffers nightmares, hangs up anytime Daisy calls, won’t really talk to Will, has panic attacks, and just wants it all to go away. He never takes the time to grieve. Many many years he carries on like this and it’s depressing. Very very depressing. He stays this way till he finally tries therapy and finds a new love. But even that to me that was depressing. I just kept hoping he’d do what he needed to do and he finally does with about ten percent of the book left. Even this left me unsatisfied and sad and nearly throwing my kindle out the window. To say the way the book ended is frustrating might be an understatement. There another book that follows The Man I Loved and while it perhaps answers questions I’m left with and this extremely frustrated feeling I just don’t think I have the ability to put myself though all I know Daisy suffers through.
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