Title: Good Things I Wish You
Author: A. Manette Ansay
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: June 22, 2010
Paperback: 272 pages
ISBN: 978-0061239953
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:
The acclaimed author of Vinegar Hill returns with a story of two unlikely romances—one historical, the other modern-day—separated by thousands of miles and well over a century.

Battling feelings of loss and apathy in the wake of a painful divorce, novelist Jeanette struggles to complete a book about the long-term relationship between Clara Schumann, a celebrated pianist and the wife of the composer Robert Schumann, and her husband’s protégé, the handsome young composer Johannes Brahms. Although this legendary love triangle has been studied exhaustively, Jeanette—herself a gifted pianist—wonders about the enduring nature of Clara and Johannes’s lifelong attachment. Were they just “best friends,” as both steadfastly claimed? Or was the relationship complicated by desires that may or may not have been consummated?

Through a chance encounter, Jeanette meets Hart, a mysterious, worldly entrepreneur who is a native of Clara’s birthplace, Leipzig, Germany. Hart’s casual help with translations quickly blossoms into something more. There are things about men and women, he insists, that do not change. The two embark on a whirlwind emotional journey that leads Jeanette across Germany and Switzerland to a crossroads similar to that faced by Clara Schumann—also a mother, also an artist—more than a century earlier.

Accompanied by photographs, sketches, and notes from past and present, A. Manette Ansay’s original blend of fiction and history captures the timeless nature of love and friendship between women and men.

My Review:

Is it possible for men and women to be just friends and in the same vein how does one define art? Two seemingly arbitrary questions are proven to be inter-related in Good Things I Wish You by A. Manette Ansay through her use of relationships both historical and contemporary. These questions and many more are covered in this novel, rich in lyrical prose, charming characters with similar lives centuries apart. Jeanette is recently divorced and misses her husband Carl. When not at the University, spending her time with her daughter or playing piano, Jeanette is working on her book about the 40-year relationship between Clara Schumann and her husband’s protégé Johannes Brahms. As Jeanette begins her story, she is waiting for her date to appear. Reinhardt Hempel, a scientist from Leipzig, the birthplace of Clara, intrigues her and is the first man she has dated in nineteen years. Ansay writes in a beautiful and lyrical manner, alternating from her childhood as a piano student, to present, and back to the 1850s with Clara and Robert Schumann and his protégé, Johannes Brahms. As the stories unfold one becomes involved in two affairs, the present with Jeanette and Reinhardt and the past between Clara, Robert and ultimately Johannes. There are similarities in the two parallel relationships and even though this is a work of fiction one gets a glimpse at the complex relationship between the Schumanns and Brahms through letters and photos Ansey weaves into the story. Good Things I Wish You is a beautiful, tender, and wonderful read and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a delightful book to read in an afternoon.

About the Author:

A. Manette Ansay is the author of eight books, including Vinegar Hill, Midnight Champagne (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Blue Water. She has received the Pushcart Prize, two Great Lakes Book Awards, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches in the MFA writing program at the University of Miami.

To learn more please visit A. Manette Ansay’s website.
Follow A. Manette Ansay on Facebook and Twitter.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received a complimentary copy of Good Things I Wish You by A. Manette Ansay from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.