 | A WRITER'S WIT |  I. McEwan |
MY BOOK WORLD
McDermott, Alice. Absolution. New York: Farrar, 2023.
This is a woman’s book, which is in no way meant to denigrate it. In fact, I find myself reading mostly women novelists these days. This novel, set in early 1960s Vietnam, is told from the viewpoint of a “wife,” not a military wife, but close to it. Her fresh, new husband is a civilian worker for the US military. Still, the narrator, Patricia, must hobnob with all the other wives. Her story seems to be the dawning of women’s awareness of their “place” in society at the time: a wife is a support system for her husband. Full stop.
McDermott structures the novel in a fascinating and engrossing manner. It doesn’t take long to realize that Patricia is addressing someone, a “you” (a child, a daughter of a friend) even if it took me some pages to figure out. In Part III, the daughter takes over the narration as an adult. At the very end, Patricia adds sort of a coda to the entire story. The novel seems epistolary in nature even if it is not written in the form of letters because Patricia addresses the entire story to this other person, and vice versa in Part III. It might be puzzling if it weren’t for the fine clues that McDermott leaves for readers. You simply must pay attention. Her subtlety in creating difficult scenes is magnificent.
At the very end, Patricia who has experienced multiple miscarriages is “given” a small beautiful Vietnamese girl with but one scarring birthmark on her face. Patricia is overwhelmed but takes the girl to her Saigon home, to wait for her husband whom she has not told. By the same token, she has learned from a friend that they’re going back to America soon; her husband has failed to keep her in the loop about it, so she feels she has a leg up on him, something to balance the power between them. Then a really odd thing transpires. I won’t spoil the scene, but the author manages to take readers completely off guard by what happens next, though it may be the most logical—and the best answer for all concerned.
Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | George Orwell
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Aubrey Plaza
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Alice McDermott
FRI: My Book World | Julie Satow, The Plaza: The Secret Life of America's Most Famous Hotel
This is a woman’s book, which is in no way meant to denigrate it. In fact, I find myself reading mostly women novelists these days. This novel, set in early 1960s Vietnam, is told from the viewpoint of a “wife,” not a military wife, but close to it. Her fresh, new husband is a civilian worker for the US military. Still, the narrator, Patricia, must hobnob with all the other wives. Her story seems to be the dawning of women’s awareness of their “place” in society at the time: a wife is a support system for her husband. Full stop.
McDermott structures the novel in a fascinating and engrossing manner. It doesn’t take long to realize that Patricia is addressing someone, a “you” (a child, a daughter of a friend) even if it took me some pages to figure out. In Part III, the daughter takes over the narration as an adult. At the very end, Patricia adds sort of a coda to the entire story. The novel seems epistolary in nature even if it is not written in the form of letters because Patricia addresses the entire story to this other person, and vice versa in Part III. It might be puzzling if it weren’t for the fine clues that McDermott leaves for readers. You simply must pay attention. Her subtlety in creating difficult scenes is magnificent.
At the very end, Patricia who has experienced multiple miscarriages is “given” a small beautiful Vietnamese girl with but one scarring birthmark on her face. Patricia is overwhelmed but takes the girl to her Saigon home, to wait for her husband whom she has not told. By the same token, she has learned from a friend that they’re going back to America soon; her husband has failed to keep her in the loop about it, so she feels she has a leg up on him, something to balance the power between them. Then a really odd thing transpires. I won’t spoil the scene, but the author manages to take readers completely off guard by what happens next, though it may be the most logical—and the best answer for all concerned.
Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | George Orwell
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Aubrey Plaza
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Alice McDermott
FRI: My Book World | Julie Satow, The Plaza: The Secret Life of America's Most Famous Hotel
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