I should say five fictions, because THE LIAR’S WIFE,
published in 2014, is a collection of four novellas, and THERE YOUR HEART LIES,
a novel, and together are latest of the sophisticated writings of Mary
Gordon. She’s been at it since 1978 with a stunning debut novel entitled FINAL
PAYMENTS and since then has devoted her sharp observations to the nature of
human nature. One theme prevails: the defining influence of the people and places that form our personal narratives.
In THE LIAR’S WIFE, Gordon presents four scenarios of people
in transition. An elderly woman confronted after many years with her
errant first husband. An émigré of World War I held hostage to her crippled
brother and misguided memories of her mentor, Simone Weil. A young man
chosen to introduce Thomas Mann at a school lecture only to discover late in
life he was chosen not for his talent but because he represented the
underclass. And, the idealistic broken-hearted novice art historian discovering
herself in, yes, Italy. In all, Gordon beautifully captures all that ails us, and heals
us, and the space between.
“Where had they learned it, all of them, this way of
talking, this exaggeration, this leaping from branch to branch like frantic
monkeys, not knowing if any branch would hold or, if it broke, what the damage
might be?”
Novellas are the bridge between short stories and the long form. Rumor has it, the novella was Henry James’ favorite form, although he recognized their limitations. They are as character-driven as a shorter story, and usually constrained to time and
place, but allow the writer the richness of descriptive prose and literary
technique that makes reading a novel such a pleasure. For the reader, it's an especially fine form if you would rather not commit to reading a longer book, and, in this
case, the pleasure of four fully evolved stories to fulfill the fiction
imperative.
I must share with you the words of Thomas Mann, which Gordon
weaves so well into the spirit of the novella, and which resonate today. “For the position of the spirit
has changed upon the Earth in a peculiar way. Civilization is in retreat. A
period of lawlessness and anarchy reigns over the outward life of the people.
Yes, we know once more what is good and what is evil. Evil has been revealed to
us in such crassness and meanness that our eyes have been opened to the dignity
and the simple beauty of the good.”
Gordon also often folds into her fiction the blending of religion
and destiny, and has written extensively on Catholicism. She is both critic and
adherent. In THERE THE HEART LIES, she weaves the history of the church’s role
in the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent hold of fascism. The protagonist, a
schoolgirl when the novel opens and alternately a 92 year-old tending to her
ethereal granddaughter, was one of the “Lincoln Brigade” – Americans who fought
for freedom in Spain in the 1930s. The novel starts a bit slow, and in familiar
territory, with young Marion resisting her fervently religious family, and
follows her through remarkable travels and the revelation of a period in which
she too, like her brother before her, is tortured by the very people she
expects to show loving kindness. In the process, her granddaughter, a girl
whose primary goal in life is to make things prettier, learns something of the
harsher realities of her family history.
“What is it about Amelia that makes Marian believe she can
only be understood indirectly, using phrases that start with “like or “as”?
Similes. Similitudes. The direct view is not the true one, only a series of
connections to other things helps her to understand her granddaughter better,
she likes to think, than anyone else. This understanding, she believes, must be
the truest form of love.”
I am second to none in my admiration for Gordon [my
favorites are LOVE OF MY YOUTH and SPENDING] but I confess she once too often
got a bit pedantic in the novel, and peppered the history with one too many
clichés of Spanish culture. Nonetheless, the novel is a good read and contains the
lovely language and sharp commentary on humanity that makes Gordon so good. The novellas even better.
