When Eris Clemens meets Daniel Graf, stars align. Tectonic plates shift.
Eris, a glamorous writer, lives in Belmont. Young Daniel is an MIT scientist, proud of his physique; playing shy.
Romance blossoms, sparks fly.
One problem though: they’re both taken.
Second problem: it’s 2020 and lockdown strikes. They have to go home. What ensues is a push and pull of jealousy and desire.
He’s weighing the new buds of love against his comfort wife, a stay-at-home Disney adult; she’s loving the halo of new beginnings, but stands by her husband, Stan. He’s the knight in shining armour, saviour of women. She likes to deflate his narcissism and mirror the unravelling society in the backdrop.
It turns into a game of psychological chess. It’s stalemate. Who will make the move? Will they crash into each others’ arms in a Hollywood ending? Is it love, or is it shared fantasy? Will they… survive the pandemic?
Eris gets tired of asking these questions in the medium of chat, and defies all odds to fight for love. She jumps in her Tesla and drives across the mountains to him. Except it’s a mark of the times that unexpected disasters keep piling on, until the fabric of reality collapses altogether.
Rotundo exposes the flawed nature of her characters as they strive for rescue from mundanity, balancing moments of humor and fantasy with deeply emotional, dramatic scenes. When the pandemic confines Rotundo’s couples to their homes, readers watch Daniel wrestle with intense longing for Eris amid a sense of duty towards Julianah, as he wonders “until when does he need to tend to this perpetual child?” Likewise, Eris fantasizes about Daniel, while Stan whispers in her ear, feeling “this immense love and devotion more like a burden.” Those longings become a catalyst, forcing Eris and Daniel to confront their deepest fears and desires while driving the realization that their attraction transcends mere romance.
As the pair defy the lockdown to be together, Rotundo trims their initial euphoria, transporting them to the harsh reality where, unlike their “fire that’s slowly burning everything around it,” their relationships with Stan and Julianah are as comfortably secure as they are routine, forcing a choice between fighting for their love or returning home to mend what’s broken. Rotundo’s descriptive passages and psychological complexities bring a rich life to this debut, offering a thought-provoking reflection on whether the rescuing is sweetest when it’s done by a hero—or by yourself.
Takeaway: Compelling reflection on desire, rich with psychological complexity.
Comparable Titles: Mona Awad’s Bunny, Camille Bordas’s The Material.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-
Take this novel seriously - it's a story about all of life using the "armature" of a story of an extraordinary Woman's quest for life.
Major piece of work; gripping high end novel.
In many ways a pioneering work.
Eris is a Dionysian Romantic heroine, life force and prescient analyst of the crisis. She has a particular perceptual set, and the need to be a good Person, live an authentic life, love, and be happy.
There's a lot more to say, so read it, rave about it, and pass it on!
Ambitious in scope Mara Rotundo’s book offers an absorbing and nuanced look into the lives of four people whose passions interlock in a complicated way. Imaginatively conceived, the book has different dimensions and can keep you wondering well after the climatic end. There are also interesting snippets about politics, philosophy and life more generally and it makes you wonder about some of the side characters. It interests from the start, you can sense the protagonist has a not quite conventional relationship with the husband and yet they bond at a deep level. And then a supposedly erudite and ambitious academic enters their life and the drama begins so to say. The ideas flow as do the characters (I will deliberately stop from saying more so as not to give away the plot!) and in between if you look beyond the drama, there are serious issues such as liberty vs authoritarianism when coping with a pandemic that provide food for thought beyond the compelling storyline. The net result is a book that provokes thought while still remaining highly readable.
An Extraordinary Debut!
Mara Rotundo’s debut novel, White Knight, is debut only in the sense that it is the first of her extraordinary writing she has allowed us to see. Her bio tells of many short stories and essays locked in a dusty drawer, like Bach’s music waiting to be found in that attic. If we could but read those writings we would most likely find a step-by-step handbook for the development of a genuine writer, for in this book she springs full-grown from the loins of the muse, armed and dangerous. White Knight is a book of contradictions—a pulp novel love story on the surface, but wait… Rotondo takes the knife of angst and observation and cuts the silliness and commonality of such a story out of it, leaving the sharp bones and bloody pieces of real lives somehow adrift in their foolishness and sin exposed to our wondering gaze. No writing rules need apply here—no dialogue tags to mar the flow, no adhering to lessons learned at boring writer’s conferences. No. this is a book that goes for the throat and doesn’t stop until the story is thoroughly pushed to its conclusion. It is a book where the writing itself outshines even the story and the characters, complex as it and they are. Is it a great book? Possibly. Is it great writing? Absolutely.
Five stars.
