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The only weak spot in the novel is the way that Miller treats the dissipation of Anna and Leo's relationship and the way Leo is portrayed as someone to pity and 'just a tad' removed from the mainstream. Anna's torment and tragedy is almost unbearable.This book's force and beauty are almost beyond description. This is a wonderful book. This part is written as though this fringe quality of his is the rationale or vantage point from which the tragedy can be viewed and understood. It is a book to be savored and remembered for a very long time. Miller's language is rich and evocative - - as intense as the emotions she evokes. It is a cross between Mark Helprin and Alice Hoffman.Anna is the protagonist and her passions is portrayed as realistically and all-consumingly as anything I've ever read.
but the characters (other than the little girl), were not very real or endearing. Mostly, it felt like a book carrying a heavy-handed feminist slant and was barely masked in the plot. I didn't particularly like this one. And while the ending was in depth - it still wasn't satisfying. I wouldn't recommend this. I read it because it was mentioned on the cover of _Harvesting the Heart_, though I have two other books bu this author that made no impression on me (to be honest, I think it was by mistake that I even had more than other one). On the surface, I can see why this can be seen as similar to Jodi Picoult's work - the family drama, the court case.
This will haunt Molly for the rest of her life.Finally, Brian, Anna's ex-husband, is responsible, because as a lawyer he used the courts to take Molly away from Anna, not because he loved Molly, but because he wanted to hurt Anna. Her father's parents are silent country people who leave her alone.The stay is uneventful until the grandparents realize Anna can play the piano. She caused Anna to lose her, and thus to lose everything. The heat is stifling, there is nothing for her to do, but she relishes the break from her demanding, achievement-conscious relatives back home.
They refuse. Look at Hamlet. Look at Ibsen. No tragedian ever spread the primordial guilt over four characters. I sent Sue Miller a letter about The Good Mother in the late 80s, and she graciously sent me a card. In my letter I stressed that unhappiness seemed to play a crucial role both in driving the action of The Good Mother, but also as a recurring theme. "She was a little too much for us to have here."This is a microcosm of everything that happens to Anna in the novel. And when she grows up she will certainly find out about this.
Anna is responsible because she became so intimate with Leo that she lost her head and did not set firm rules about their nudity around the child.But Molly is responsible, because she touched Leo's penis. He knew she was finding sexual satisfaction from another man. But Sue Miller did it in The Good Mother, by what can only be called a stroke of genius.The novel, whatever its flaws, will endure because of this extraordinary feat of inspiration. Look at King Lear. When you reach for happiness, you are sure to be punished.I've read The Good Mother countless times. He was jealous, he got his revenge.Molly will certainly find out about this some day, and she will not forgive Brian.Look at Sophocles.
In her card she said, "I'm still at it," referring to her next novel.A good example of this is the summer the teen-aged Anna spends with her father's parents in Wyoming. And she threw away her own childhood with Anna. But there is one thing that distinguishes The Good Mother from all serious novels, all literary novels: the spreading of the guilt, the tragic responsibility, to four characters instead of only one or two.Leo, of course, is responsible for Anna losing Molly, because he allowed Molly to touch his penis. They sing hymns with her every night until she leaves.The next summer Anna asks to stay with them again. It has flaws, especially in the second half after the story suddenly downshifts from a love story to a courtroom drama.
After finishing The Good Mother, my first thought was--I wish I belonged to a book group that had read this. I found this story of a divorced mother's first relationship following her divorce--and the reprecussions of that relationship--to be quite thought provoking. Is Anna a 'good' mother." The topics explored and the ultimate conclusion are controversial and merit discussion. The character of Anna is very well developed, yet I finished the book still thinking "What is the author's intention. This book will stay with you long after you have finished it. It is multi-layered and offers more questions than answers.
A page turner until the end. She puts herself and her loser boyfriend ahead of her daughter, drinks too much, and has only part time jobs, while refusing help from her ex or family. She continuously complains, but doesn't change anything until she HAS to. I just finished this book, and boy am I exhausted. But I found myself skipping sentences and then paragraphs because of needless detail. I felt like I was a psychologist or "Shrink" listening to every detail of Anna's (the main charactor) thoughts. I would have loved to have given this book 5 stars, but Sue Miller's book was a little to overly explicit and graphic about everything. This divorced mother is trying to raise her young daughter, and discover her sexuality with her slezy boyfriend.
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