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Book Summary and Reviews of The Marriage of True Minds by Stephen Evans

The Marriage of True Minds by Stephen Evans

The Marriage of True Minds

by Stephen Evans

  • Critics' Consensus (0):
  • Readers' Rating (16):
  • Published:
  • May 2008, 192 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Together as husband and wife, Nick Ward and Lena Grant ran a successful boutique law firm in Minneapolis, vanquishing all their legal foes side by side. Then Nick's charmingly erratic behavior finally became too much for Lena. And so the marriage and the partnership ended.

But—like C. K. Dexter Haven and Tracy Lord—it seems that Lena and Nick just can't quite separate. Lena works out fiercely, keeps her dates with the boring and conventional Preston Winter, and daily battles on against corporate greed. But Nick's not doing so well.

Still brilliant and devilishly clever, he is now also almost crazy. He is prone to fantasy and the big gesture, and he engages frantically in guerrilla warfare for the sake of animals wild and domestic. Nick doesn't make plans; he has visions. And eventually his antics put him back into Lena's hands. While she tries to navigate the legal waters he's thrown them into, Nick veers out of her wake and into the midst of a simpatico set of companions, including Oscar, his psychiatric attendant and Marvel Comics collector; Ralph and Alice Wilson, the rebellious managers of the city animal shelter; and an aging Irish hound named Wolfram.

Often laugh-out-loud funny, with bright wit and machine-gun dialogue, The Marriage of True Minds sweetly explores modern love, undying idealism, some dedicated animal rescue, and one cracked partnership that can’t be sundered—from without or from within.

This book is published as a paperback original.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Evans demonstrates his playwright's mastery of dialogue and tension in his accomplished and whimsical first novel about love and the bizarre behavior it ignites." - Publishers Weekly.

"Poignant and outrageous, moving and profound, Evans' delectable debut novel thrums with zesty dialogue and a memorably zany cast of irresistable characters." - Booklist.

"Stephen Evans' first novel, The Marriage of True Minds, is a funny, poignant, oddly beautiful book about three divergent life forms - animals, people, and lawyers. You will love it if you read it with a true mind." - Kinky Friedman.

"I just finished spending some wonderful hours skipping along to the tale of two lawyers in The Marriage of True Minds . . . . The dialogue is fast-paced, funny, and with Nick, you often have to stop and say, 'hmmm, I get it.' The characters do things out-of-the ordinary, and it is so refreshing. It is a book that will entertain you and make you hope that Nick and Lena make another appearance in the near future." - Eileen Dengler, Executive Director, NAIBA (New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association).

This information about The Marriage of True Minds was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Donna

I laughed. I cried. I'll read it again.
Evans has created a perfectly limned representation of a flailing two-headed, multi-armed creature struggling to reign in the mercurial insanity of Nick Ward and Lena Grant’s relationship. They’re divorced, they’re ex-law partners, they’re still in love and their love has made them both more than a little crazy. None of that takes anything away from this witty, clever and charming little story. Indeed, it’s all the better because of the insanity.

Arden

Repartee at its finest
Stephen Evans is, among other things, a playwright, and that talent is evident here. Reading this book brings to mind, at least to someone of my generation, Nick and Nora Charles engaged in witty exchanges, and their ever-present schnauser, Asta (The Thin Man). In this tale, though, Nick and Nora become Nick and Lena, both attorneys, (one sane, the other's sanity is for the reader to decide), and Asta becomes a puppet named Sancho. Other real animals play an important role in the story, particularly a large dog named Wolfram. The fairly short book (180 pages) is an engaging, entertaining read and would make a great Disney movie, though the too sophisticated dialog may need to be downplayed a tad for that audience. For this audience, though, the dialog makes the read.

Rachelle

Charming read
The Marriage of True Minds was a fantastic treat - filled with humor, quick-wit, and a hand puppet named Sancho there was plenty in this book to love. At just under 200 pages it was a quick read that showed that sometimes the definition of insanity is love.

Julie

A Quick Read, Quirky & Heartwarming
This was a book unlike any I've ever read before. I was hooked within the first two pages. Less than two hundred pages all total, it's a short book but packed full of quirky humor that had me laughing out loud.

Centered around a divorced pair of attorneys, Lena is slightly neurotic and Nick is more than a little psychotic, but they have a connection that cannot be broken, despite their mutual "annoyance" of each other.

Another main character in the book is Sancho, a well-loved puppet (yes, a puppet) that Nick is so attached to, it's as if Sancho is a human, whom Nick calls an "unreal American". Sancho goes everywhere with Nick and seems to be an extension of Nick's psyche.

The story reads very fast with a lot of dialogue. There are parts that are hilarious and parts that are heartbreaking....but overall this book is an absolute winner. I love the author's offbeat wit and look forward to more in the future!

Ann

Is Nick Really Crazy?
This funny and touching novel will have you laughing one minute and questioning your definition of "crazy" the next. With witty dialogue and unforgettable characters including a puppet and a soon-to-be-euthanized wolfhound, Evans has crafted a book about a partnership that survives in spite of all odds. Animal lovers will especially be charmed by Nick's strategy in saving the animals in the shelter.

Angelina

True Minds?
Parts of this book were absolutely sweet and a few of the characters were incredibly lovable. One of the main characters didn't resonate so much for me but it didn't detract from my appreciation of the novel. I recommend it if you like to see different ideas of love and relationships.

...10 more reader reviews

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More Information

A playwright, performer, and director, Stephen Evans is an established figure in the Baltimore-Washington theater world. The Marriage of True Minds is his first novel.

More about this book at the publisher's website.

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