Vesper
A love-resistant career woman flirts with a change of heart in the satirical novel Vesper.
New York’s contemporary dating scene features into Evan Marks’s humorous novel Vesper, in which a young woman’s cavalier expectations of romance are challenged.
Vesper is an attractive professional who doesn’t want the burden of settling down. With a “roster” of candidates to date on rotation, a reputation for being an “ice queen,” and no shortage of self-confidence, she meets men who don’t quite measure up. She also backs away whenever anyone veers into the “full kit and caboodle” of longing for exclusivity. Still, she sometimes imagines what a meaningful relationship could resemble.
Its prose lighthearted and satirical, the story progresses through Vesper’s and her friends’ ideas about finding partners. The women are particular about their prospective partners’ age ranges, looks, and professions, and men’s minor faults are raked over. Nonetheless, the women continue to long for men’s attention. Vesper is a cheerful guide through their dating lives, even though she seems determined to misinterpret men’s actions: Expressed desires for commitment, for example, are translated as clinginess.
References to the aspirational trappings of Vesper’s youthful lifestyle are plentiful, fleshing out her world in terms of alcoholic drinks, hip meeting spots, and celebrity names. A luxurious jaunt to Saint-Tropez and cosmopolitan settings are included; restaurant stops are frequent in scenes featuring Vesper’s varying reactions to self-centered boors. This glossiness makes Vesper’s life seem somewhat superficial, as do her flighty thoughts about gender differences: She surmises, for example, that it seems easier for men to ghost people than it is for women to do so.
When the book shifts its focus from Vesper’s dating life to her work at a consulting firm, her true dimensionality is revealed. She has a quick, capable mind and responds to challenges well. Those in her periphery, including her coworkers and mentors, are less fleshed out, though; they are defined in relation to their shared goals. Further, the novel’s shifts to her dates’ perspectives, though brief, are interruptive, used most to reinforce a sense of Vesper’s general appeal.
When Vesper meets an enigmatic man at a work-related party, he is somewhat predictably suave, wealthy, and handsome. Their conversations reveal their mutual interests, including around philosophy, resulting in unexpected depth. Nonetheless, Vesper’s purported change of heart strains credulity. A sudden discovery concerning the man disillusions Vesper, though, concluding their arc, and the book’s subsequent reframing of Vesper’s former self-reliance as a now wiser form of empowerment is, in fact, a somewhat cynical means of concluding her otherwise witty tale.
In the wry, musing novel Vesper, a woman’s tough experiences reaffirm her convictions about singlehood and love.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
