| Beginner's Greek: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: James Collins
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $23.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  128 reviews
Sales Rank: 51313
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.6
ISBN: 0316021555
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780316021555
ASIN: 0316021555
Publication Date: January 9, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: This book looks in good condition. Usual markings, no names, and clean pages. Orders are usually processed and shipped within 24 hrs. (Seller Reference: B#5N)
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
James Collins's Beginner's Greek is a tender tale of how love conquers all, even if it takes longer than some might be willing to wait. Chick Lit fans especially will appreciate the uniquely male perspective that Collins, who spent most of his career as a journalist and an investment banker, brings to this modern fairy tale. When 27-year-old Peter Russell boards a cross-country flight to Los Angeles, he fully expects to sit next to the love of his life. As luck would have it, he sits next to Holly Edwards, with whom he falls in love instantly. A lost phone number leads to years of wondering "what if," until Peter's best friend Jonathan introduces him to his new girlfriend, who is of course the same Holly of Peter's dreams. After Jonathan and Holly marry, Peter settles down with Charlotte, a Francophile who Peter tries to tolerate, but mostly just evokes feelings of pity and hatred. Of course, as with any fairy tale, the possibility for a happy ending is never truly out of reach, and Beginner's Greek is chock full of twists and turns to keep the action going. While some of the dialogue may make readers feel like they just stepped out of a Victorian novel ("Oh no! I had no idea it was so late! Poor Peter! I'm sure you were coming to fetch me!"), Collins's characters convey enough depth to keep readers engaged through some of the more fanciful stretches of this captivating novel. --Gisele Toueg
Product Description
When Peter Russell finally meets the woman of his dreams he falls as madly in love as you can on a flight from New York to LA. Her name is Holly. She's achingly pretty with strawberry-blonde hair, and reads Thomas Mann for pleasure. She gives Peter her phone number on a page of The Magic Mountain, but in his room that night Peter finds the page is inexplicably, impossibly, enragingly...gone.
So begins the immensely entertaining story of Peter and his unrequited love for his best friend's girl; of Charlotte and her less-than-perfect marriage to a man in love with someone else; of Jonathan and his wicked and fateful debauchery; and of Holly, the impetus for it all. Along the way, there's the evil boss, the desirable temptress, miscommunications, misrepresentations, fiendish behavior, letters gone astray, and ultimately, an ending in which every character gets his due.
Both incisive and wonderfully funny, this is a brilliantly understated comedy of manners in which love lost is found again.
"James Collins has written a romantic, funny and insightful page turner about love in modern times, missed opportunities and the wheel of fate (with a blow-out!) that is so engaging and real, you will find it impossible to put down. Peter Russell is an everyman filled with longing, lust and good sense. I promise you will root for him as fate throws him curves aplenty on his path to true love. BEGINNER'S GREEK and Peter Russell are keepers."
-- Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of Lucia, Lucia and Big Stone Gap (2008)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 123 more reviews...
From S. Krishna's Books September 5, 2008
Peter Russell works in finance in glorious New York City. On a flight to California for business, he meets a beautiful, intelligent, and entirely winning woman named Holly. Peter is convinced that their meeting is fate - he has always dreamed of meeting a woman and falling in love on a plane flight - and indeed, by the end of the plane trip, Peter is in love with Holly. She writes her phone number on a page torn from the book she is reading (The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann) and the two go their separate ways. Later, Peter is devastated to discover that he has lost the slip of paper with Holly's phone number - c'est la vie.
Beginner's Greek is the story of Holly and Peter and how they lose one another, only to find each other again years later and in completely different situations. Their silent love for one another stretches for years as they live their lives and endure twists and turns, hoping that they may one day find the chance to be together.
The first striking thing about Beginner's Greek is the way it is written; it's like a classic movie, with Katharine Hepburn as Holly and Cary Grant as Peter. The dialogue in the book is very old-fashioned and doesn't ring true today, but the reader can almost hear those words rolling off the tongue of actors and actress of previous generations. While this is one of the endearing qualities of the book, it also serves as an annoyance for those who are deterred by contrived dialogue. There is no way anyone would naturally speak in the manner that Collins has chosen to make his characters express themselves.
The characters of the book are well written and clear-cut. The reader sympathizes with the "good guys" and hates the characters the author wants them to dislike. While this seems like it might create flat characters without dimension, this is not the case. Characters such as Julia - flawed but entirely sympathetic and believable - illustrate the author's talent for creating personalities within his characters.
The main flaw of Beginner's Greek lies in its length. The author goes on tangents with descriptions and details, leaving the end product a hefty 448 pages. This could be lessened by about 100 pages or so without any real impact on the plot or the characters. The narrative also needs a bit more polish; one last round with an editor would have done some real good.
There is definitely a sweetness to Beginner's Greek that overrules all of its flaws. Peter and Holly's love story is cute and endearing, motivating you to continue reading just to see if these characters manage to make it work. However, the heavy skimming required in order to reach the end does detract from the enjoyment quite a bit.
In the end, Beginner's Greek is a book worth reading. Its charm and wit are ever-present, and while Collins' writing does need some fine tuning, he has crafted an old-fashioned love story as sweet as it is endearing. Any fan of chick lit or lighter novels will probably enjoy this book.
Originally published at Curled Up With a Good Book
 Highly recommended! August 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a captivating novel this was. James Collins' "Beginner's Greek" began with the meeting of Peter and Holly on a plane ride from New York to Los Angeles. Peter believed that it was fate that brought them together as he fell in love with Holly. Peter was invited to Holly's house for dinner, but unfortunately, he lost her contact number. A few years later, Peter met Holly, and this time, Holly was no longer single, but the girlfriend of his best friend, Jonathan. Peter never did forget Holly, but he felt there was just no hope for him. What Peter failed to realize was that, Holly was also in love with him.
This was such an engaging read for me. The author was able to draw his characters, and by the end of the novel, I felt like I knew Peter and Holly personally. He was able to describe in details the feelings of both his main characters flawlessly. The writing was clear and conversational, and the plot was intriguing. This romantic novel is a definite winner for me. Highly recommended.
Delicious from start to finish August 18, 2008
I loved this book. Collins has an extraordinarily sharp eye and keen ear for the predilections of a particular sector of New York City. Dead on and laugh out loud funny. I would call this a fable more than a romance - once you allow yourself to suspend disbefief, as the New York Times reviewer said, "whether it is confection or literary comfort food, "Beginner's Greek" is, from start to finish, delicious."
Romantic perspective from a male author. July 28, 2008
Firstly, i would never have picked up this book from the title or its rather plain cover. However, as the August issue of Oprah Magazine had recommended it as a good summer read, i borrowed it from the library to see how a male would write a romance novel.
Most romantic novels have thin plots, ie, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl, interwoven in between are dramas and tragedies they go through to end up together, and this book is no exception. Anyone expecting more from a romantic novel is bound to be disappointed.
I like the beginning of the book, and it does have its comic moment, especially at how he described a woman of seventy on the plane - 'In place of eyebrows she had two arched pencil lines, and she had applied a large clown's oval of read lipstick to her mouth...Her false eyelashes reminded him of tarantula legs.'
James Collins has a knack at describing his characters in detail. Peter reminded me of the lead in the Korean drama serial I am watching now, and the description of Peter's wife Charlotte somehow reminded me of the Late John Kennedy Jr's wife Carolyn Bessette.
This book should be an easy read, if not for the author's preference for bombastic words. At the end of the book, I might as well be reading basic Greek, for I now have a long lists of new words with which I need help from the dictionary.
 Easy summer read... July 19, 2008
Right off the bat I realized this was going to be a no-brainer. Definitely a summertime, lay-back-and-don't-exercise-your-brain type of book! If reading about adults who cheat is right up your alley then grab this and go. I had a tough time with it and thought the author wasted his time with this one! In fact... I didn't even finish it!
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