Twain's End

What an incredible story.  I just finished reading, Twain's End, by Lynn Cullen.  This is a wonderful historical novel about Samuel Clemens, better known to the world as Mark Twain.  The plot of this book follows his relationship with his secretary of almost seven years, Isabel Lyon.

This is a story that you can get lost in.  The character development here is so wonderful that you really feel like you are Isabel's friend and you are hearing about her life with Twain from her.     Though the story alternates chapters between Isabel's voice, her mother's viewpoint and Clara Clemens voice, you really feel like you are right there at the family table.  Based on the real people in Samuel Clemens life, you are learning about the man behind the character, Mark Twain.  Twain is the author of such classic works as,  Huckleberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer.  He was a master storyteller, but his personal life was filled with anger, regret and insecurity.  He created the persona he wanted to present to the outside world in Mark Twain.  Only those closest to him knew his real personality.  His wife Livy, who was an invalid and died young, helped create the character he wanted to be.  His secretary Isabel helped him continue to present that image to the public for the rest of his life.
Even at her own expense, she was always true to the man Clemens wanted to be.

The book brings the reader into the intriguing though complicated world of the Clemens family.  He has a strained relationship with his wife, who cannot get out of bed.  He and Livy have lost a daughter, Suzy, to meningitis which has taken a toll on all the family interactions.  He and his daughter, Clara, will have a difficult relationship throughout their entire lives and his daughter, Jean, is an epileptic, which Clemens never knows how to be around, so she will be sent away to an institution for many years.  Then there is the jealous maid, Katy, who tries at every turn to make Isabel's life miserable.  Isabel will be Sam's personal secretary for six years, managing all the household accounts and taking care of all the bills and Jean's healthcare.

Though she waits for him to propose marriage, she loves him unconditionally, and stands by him even though he does not ask for her hand in marriage.  Isabel tells Sam in a heated moment, "You know that I am committed to you.  Though you won't take me to your bed anymore, though you throw young women in my face, though you reject me at every given chance, I'm committed to you and I always have been.  I have never given you a reason to think otherwise."
Such raw passion.  Yet, Twain, maybe because he does love her, pushes her away.  He says many times throughout the book and I think really believes, " I kill the people I love with words."

An amazing story about Mark Twain and some of the people he interacted with during his life time.
One of the interesting families also interwoven in this story is Helen Keller and her patrons, Ann Sullivan Macy and husband, John Macy.  This is also an eye opening realistic interlude when Helen and the Macys come to visit the Clemens home.  Also we travel with Twain and his family to Italy and then with Isabel and Twain to Bermuda and also along with Isabel and Clara to Nova Scotia.

Intriguing and surprising, Cullen has written a wonderful love story that keeps the reader entangled all the way to the end.  We become voyeurs looking through the window at the tragic but beautiful love story of Isabel Lyon and Samuel Clemens.