A Bigamist's Daughter

by Alice McDermott

Elizabeth Connelly sits in a New York office that looks like a real editor’s, but isn’t quite. Employed at a vanity press, Elizabeth watches the real world—of real struggles, passion, pain, and love—spin around her. Until one day, a young writer comes to her with a novel about a man who loves more than one woman at once. And suddenly Elizabeth will be awakened from her young urban professional slumber—by a man’s real touch, by a real story in search of an ending, by the unraveling of the greatest masquerade of all—in Alice McDermott’s luminous novel of memory, revelation, and desire.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Relationships, American, Romance

281 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1982

About the author

Alice McDermott (born June 27, 1953) is Johns Hopkins University's Writer-in-Residence. Born in Brooklyn, New York, McDermott attended St. Boniface School in Elmont, Long Island, NY [1967], Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead NY [1971], the State University of New York at Oswego, receiving her BA in 1975, and later received her MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1978.

She has taught at the UCSD and American University, has been a writer-in-residence at Lynchburg and Hollins Colleges in Virginia, and was lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire. Her short stories have appeared in Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle, and Seventeen.

The 1987 recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, and three-time Pulitzer Prize for Fiction nominee, lives outside Washington, with her husband, a neuroscientist, and three children.

Reviews

[Connie G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elizabeth Connelly is the editor-in-chief of Vista Books, a vanity press that will publish any author for a price. She's an expert at lavish praise and giving false hope to unpublished writers in 1980s New York City. Her latest client is Tupper Daniels, a Southern man who has written a novel about a bigamist. However, the novel is unfinished, and Tupper needs her help in writing the ending. Tupper soon becomes more than a client.

Elizabeth grew up in a home where her father was absent for long periods. Supposedly he traveled for his job, possibly for the government, but his daughter never received a good explanation. Elizabeth's mother was emotionally absent for her daughter with her thoughts on her husband who spent most of his time away from their home.

"While my father was alive, we lived in a constant, subtle state of expectation. We'd wake up every morning thinking this might be the day he'd come home, and go to bed at night thinking we might awake at anytime to find him leaning over us, smiling. We were happy to have each day begin and happy to have it behind us, to have been brought one day closer to the day he would return."

As Elizabeth reveals her childhood and her history with men to Tupper, it seems like the idea of a great everlasting love may be more important to her than an actual presence. Was the experience with her father the reason she could not commit to someone?

"A Bigamist's Daughter" was Alice McDermott's debut novel. The scenes at the vanity press were wonderful, but the parts of the book about her parents were confusing to both Elizabeth and the reader. While I've enjoyed some of her later novels more, this debut was an indication of her early talent.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read a few later Alice McDermott books, ones that centre more around Irish-American families, and while I can't say I adored them, they certainly struck me more than this book, one of her first, if not her very first, novels. A Bigamist's Daughter, well, I just can't quite figure out what this book is supposed to be about, or even how it is about it. It's fairly mediocre.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[🩶 April • A.M. Flynn • 🩶 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh

[Meg · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read many books were I didn't really like it, but was still able to appreciate it and finish it. This was different because I just didn't like it at all. (I did finish it though)

I feel like the whole book should be read with melancholy music in the background...imagine it and that's how the whole book is like...except a thousand times more pretentious. The main character of Elizabeth lives her whole life with herself as the tortured female lead in her own mental drama. She manipulates the people at work and in her personal life. She is an editor-in-chief at a vanity press and comes to enjoy the manipulation she doles out to people who believe her when she says their book is the stuff of great literary fiction.

The love story between her and aspiring author Tupper Daniels is crap. They hit all the points but there is no sincerity on either end...I think that's the way it's supposed to be for her...but I don't know if it was purposeful for him. Flat out, I didn't believe it from the beginning. I kept expecting something to be reveled that would explain everything, and it never came. I think what was supposed to pass as an explanation was just plain confusing...like I am supposed to read between the lines, but they criss cross.

In the end I thought this novel was pretentious, poorly executed, and way too reliant on melodrama.

[Laurel-Rain · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a novel that dissects, deconstructs and recreates the fabric of life, love and literature, the author spotlights the world of publishing; the mythology of love, the elusiveness of the love object – all as the centerpiece of this work – formulate the basis for this story.

We begin with Elizabeth Connelly, a single woman living in New York – some time in the twentieth century, before computers or the current Internet generation – and discover her real life as an “editor-in-chief” at what is known in that day as a “vanity press.” She meets her potential authors, praises their work – even when it is less than stellar – and signs them to contracts. They pay their fee and dream their dreams.

But one day she meets an author – Tupper Daniels, a southern gentleman – and in helping him “create an ending” for his unfinished manuscript, she stumbles down a path of exploration that leads her into the surreal world of elusive fathers – traveling fathers like her own – who are leading secret lives. Questioning all the stories told her by her mother, and examining her own tendency to tell tales – even create myths – about her own past loves, she begins to understand that fantasies, illusions and love myths have a life of their own, flourishing because of the necessity to preserve those very myths.

Fascinating portrayal of love, literature, and the elusive nature of dreams, “A Bigamist’s Daughter” is a memorable novel that earns five stars.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Alice McDermott’s A Bigamist’s Daughter is her first novel, Alice McDermott before she became ALICE MCDERMOTT. Its themes foreshadow McDermott’s later novels: Catholicism, moral ambiguity, absent fathers. Its style also foreshadows McDermott’s later novels: emotional precision, unresolved ending, and movement backwards and forwards over time. But A Bigamist’s Daughter is wordier in places than McDermott’s later novels; its most believable and affecting character is Elizabeth, the young editor at its center; and McDermott portrays her other main characters— Elizabeth’s lover and Elizabeth’s mother—from the outside in, rather than convince me of them emotionally from the inside out. The central mysteries at the core of A Bigamist’s Daughter—just what was Elizabeth’s father and why did her mother stay with him—also felt somewhat unconvincing. I was left not understanding why. Why was Elizabeth’s father so loved? Why did Elizabeth’s mother remain married to him? A Bigamist’s Daughter is well worth reading for McDermott completists and admirers of such McDermott novels as The Ninth Hour and Charming Billy. But I wouldn’t recommend starting your McDermott reading with A Bigamist’s Daughter.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read a few other Alice McDermott novels with admiration, but if A Bigamist's Daughter had been my introduction, I would have stopped reading her after this. I can see suggestions in this book of the writer that she becomes, even by her second novel, but in this book she does not seem to have a hold on her talent yet. It just doesn't come together. We spend too much time with secondary characters who drop away; there are too many scenes that don't seem to have much bearing on the whole. We never really get to know any of the characters. And though it's clear that McDermott consciously chose her points of view, I found her switching between third and first person to be disruptive. As one character says, "...some authors just take a while to get a following....some need to develop a momentum." This seems to be the case with Alice McDermott. But she does develop a "momentum" and her talent comes to the fore in her other books.

[amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man this book was hard to follow... I think there might've been an awesome story in there somewhere...if only I could've found it.

[Sarah Gray · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book may be interesting if you subscribe to a traditional view of gender and believe that women are innately tied to and less than men.

Otherwise, avoid this.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 3 out of 5]

First book that McDermott published (1982) but the fourth one I read in my (temporary?) obsession with reading her books. Found this quote ”McDermott’s style is to temper the tragedy of her characters’ lives with prose in shades of purple, to turn ordinary lives and events into extraordinary narratives through her language.  In truth, not much goes on plot-wise.” in a review of one of there newer books in A Fine Literary Tapestry blog . I’m glad I didn’t read this one first as it didn’t have quite the impact (and was somewhat confusing) of the other books I read by her.

[kayli · Rating 5 out of 5]

“…it occurs to her that every great realization given up, spoken, placed in another’s clumsy hands is, at heart, silly; every message from the grave a stale sermon or a slick song; every fiction, with all its attempts at sense and order, climax and resolution, words that mean something and change everything, laughable. Terribly laughable. Merely an excuse for fear, for laziness, for bad luck.”

[kp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This first novel by Alice McDermott displays all her best qualities: wit, striking imagery, and troubled hearts drawn with a delicate touch.

[Mike Cuthbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot of bigamy going on in this novel by outstanding talent Alice McDermott. First is the bigamy that marked the life of Elizabeth (the first person focus of the novel.) Her father was the possessor of more than one family and Elizabeth has been dealing with the conflicts her knowledge of her father’s predilections cause within her. Second, as “editor-in-chief” of the Vista Books vanity press in New York, her somnolent, desperately lonely life becomes invigorated by a young southern writer and his manuscript about a bigamist. As the “editor,” of a vanity press, her main duties include getting the client (author) to sign a contract that allows them to pay for the publishing of their own book, which Tupper Daniels wants to do. Unlike most of her clients, Tupper seems to understand the workings of a vanity press but still wants to work with Elizabeth since he cannot find an ending. Elizabeth being lonely and Tupper handsome and gracious, they soon end up as more than client and editor. Here’s where the multiple-level bigamy comes in: Elizabeth is still coping with the disappearance of Billy, a former boyfriend, whom she cannot get over. Throughout the book, Elizabeth tries to deal honestly with the love she still harbors for Billy and we begin to sense it is going to block everything for her. She and Tupper take some romantic trips and Tupper questions her deeply about the bigamist in his novel, her father and, eventually, her feelings about Billy. Elizabeth is dealing with the very likely fact that bigamists can be good people—that they can actually love at least two people equally—the situation Elizabeth finds herself in. It only complicates matters that relations with her mother became strained, in part because of her father’s actions, and her death is a turning point in the novel. Tupper is a very nice guy and a decent writer. He deeply loves Elizabeth but he still doesn’t have an ending for his novel. This is not an action-packed read. The dialogues are strained and subtle and profoundly complex, but that’s what makes it a fascinating read. A lot of your reaction to the book may depend on your attitudes toward love and marriage and bigamy, but that’s sort of the point! Though written over thirty years ago, the reader should not feel any time imperative pushing the actions along. The feelings and problems are infinite and McDermott wisely takes her time dealing with them. Nevertheless, this makes a terrific summer read.

[Sterlingcindysu · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.

The spoiler is, there isn't any real bigamist in the book--perhaps the father was (a traveling "government" worker) but there's no proof and no other family. The daughter and mother never really discuss it, which is one of the points made from a man writing a book about a bigamist--how the wives never really ask, so the man never has to lie. Perhaps he just liked to travel, just as the missing father image in A Glass Menagerie who was a "telephone worker who fell in love with long-distance." The writer lays out the philosophy that a bigamist is a true romantic because he falls in love again and again, and wants to commit, vs. just having an affair.

The best part for me was when it was discussed that perhaps a woman (the grandmother) may have been the bigamist and the writer just dismisses it out of hand--that all his lofty arguments about a bigamist only holds true for men and women can't reach that level.

I also liked it when a woman pointed out that one "commits" bigamy, but you don't "commit" monogamy or marriage.

The basic plot of an editor working at a vanity press was really interesting and Elizabeth, the main character, is a romantic vision in her own right. She loved so much once that he couldn't measure up to her ideals, so she left him. As good an excuse as any!

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

McDermott's debut. While it's well-written - her use of language is consistently exceptional, her plots are always interesting yet the turf is familiar and easy to identify for Catholic (especially Irish) Baby Boomers, and her characters subtly complex - this was not my favorite of her books. I guess I just didn't like Elizabeth - the aloofness, the lying, the casual love affairs - or her Mom, for some of the same reasons. The book was somewhat slow reading, possibly because I was not warming to the main character, who, at times, just didn't seem that deep or nice. The ending, while appropriate for the story, left me cold, just as Elizabeth did. I was disappointed in her detachment. On another note, written in 1982, the novel seems very dated in the description of a woman's role - dated even for the time period. This may reflect Elizabeth's unrealistic expectations for her life, and her hollowness. I did enjoy the leitmotif of the sham publishing house, and how it mirrors Elizabeth's false emotions, memories ad even dreams. Recommend, just because McDermott is so good, and others may have a different take on Elizabeth. This reader may be too Catholic and too traditional.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this slowly for a quilt of reasons, largely because it's so beautiful, quietly gorgeous, and partly because the central kernel is based on the self-pub company where I work (and where Alice McDermott worked thirty years before me). Despite the wry amusement of how nothing changes in certain corners of New York, this book is devastatingly lovely, honest, raw emotion tucked deep within the characters. One I will re-read over again in different seasons of life, and underline different passages every time.

[Marybeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice McDermott so young, so fresh, so Catholic, and so dare I say, sexy? I believe a lot of her nuanced Catholicism is lost on a lot of readers who were not inundated with the religion from a young age. I've read a lot of reviews of this novel, and never once did anyone mention the marriage of God to a nun in comparison to the main character's transcendent marriage that only she attended. This book currently has the trophy place of art deco vanity placement because I love it so much. There is a lot of missed symbolism with this novel in other scenarios in my life as well.

[Lucy Montgomery · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was another book I found on my 2011 book-a-day calendar. I have read other books by Alice McDermott so I expected a melancholy vibe. In addition to this, however, I found the book moved slowly, the characters remained largely undeveloped and the plot lines were simply depressing. I do think Ms. McDermott is a good writer but find that this (and most of her other books that I've read) are just not enjoyable to read. I would not recommend it!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot seemed contrived. Did not get the MO of the main character --

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

A debut for Alice. Not the same quality as her later books. I had a difficult time getting into it, and staying into it.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t like any of the characters, and the story rang false.

[Joanna Spock Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book for a dollar from the owner of my liquor store who's ex-wife is the book business, because I'd heard of the author. It's her first book, and was written in 1982, and my copy is from 1999. I liked the overall style of the book, but I didn't really like any of the characters - everyone, damaged. I found the female lead especially shallow. I liked the story about her father, and I was so sure I knew the ending - and then - surprise! I didn't, and I liked that alot. I know may people think the book had no ending, or a poor ending, but I think that's just because they had already decided what the ending would be, and I applaud the author for not doing the obvious. I did have a problem with the time - it seemed that the present story took place in the late 80's, early 90's, but it felt like late 50's, early 60's to me; I was imagining her in a belted, full skirt that came below her knees and flats. Finally, the cover of my copy shows a woman sitting at a desk facing the wall - she would have been facing into the room as she dealt with clients all day. That to me is an Editor error, along with typos, which should only occur on Chinese take-out menus. I'll be checking out her other books.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like Alice McDermott's later work, but this one is obviously early and not very well developed. Elizabeth Connelly, daughter of a bigamist, is a hard character to care about from a reader's point of view. She is cold and cynical, and yet surprisingly meek and malleable when it comes to men. Her lover Tupper, is so poorly written that I half expected him to turn out to be a serial killer. Why she would be attracted to him remains a mystery.

The story of her father is merely alluded to. Her mother is an enigma. Her co-workers are flat and predictable. It felt as though McDermott herself wasn't really sure where she was going with the plot, and, when in doubt, returned to Elizabeth and Tupper using each other for sexual relief. When they finally declare their love for one another, you don't believe either one of them.

The novel is an attempt to examine woman's role in work and relationships. But the theme goes nowhere, the ending is ambiguous, and it all ends at a stranger's gravesite on Long Island. I guess the fact that McDermott was only 28 when she wrote this explains a lot. I'm glad she remained a writer and went on to write vastly better novels. Her language is great and her later work makes up for this early non-starter.

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was attracted to this book because I've read a few other McDermott novels and have thoroughly enjoyed them. What interested me the most about this book was the setting - a New York vanity publishing office in the early 1980s. McDermott's description of the deceitful practices used by the publisher reminded me of a brief encounter I had with a similar company around the same time, where it was very obvious that their advertising claims were as fictional as the works that they 'published.' Aside from the setting, McDermott's heroine, Elizabeth, is an interesting and complex character who searches for love, meaning, and ways to justify what she does for a living. Her shallow, deceitful relationship with Tupper, where we try to determine who is using whom, kept my interest until the end. Though the book meanders at times (frankly, I found a lot of the background story about Elizabeth's parents to be less interesting than the present day narrative), it's still an enjoyable book by a masterful author.

[Bookreaderljh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an early novel by Alice McDermott and it felt like the characters (and the author) still had time to grow. The basic story is about Elizabeth - a mid-twenties editor at a vanity press publishing house and her basic job is to convince wannabe authors to self publish their works - making money for her publishing house, stroking the egos of the authors, and then moving on to the next mark in her schemes. Lying comes to Elizabeth as second nature and despite learning more about her throughout the books, I could never get past that flaw in her character enough to actually like her. She becomes involved with (and ultimately called out by) one of her "authors". Tupper is writing a book about a bigamist - a man who vanishes from one family to (possibly) another on a regular basis. That back story is very close to Elizabeth's relationship with her father and so Tupper seeks her help to find a way to finish his story. He believes past predicts future and so their time together revolves around stories of her past and her family. But even though they are involved - it is difficult to call them close. There are moments of wonderful writing - the chapter on the death of Elizabeth's mother is so raw but true. I saw glimpses of McDermott's later novels but was surprised by how much Elizabeth's life and relationship to Tupper wore me down emotionally.

[Dottie Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though skillfully written, this book left me feeling very depressed. I finally concluded that it is really about lifelong imposters who are unable to reveal to others their true feelings, histories, and identities. They may have the capacity to love, but not to commit to to others on a permanent basis. They are able to convincingly express love, and in turn to appreciate that they are deeply cared for, but they feel compelled to move on to new relationships when their true identities are threatened by insight or discovery. Even more depressing, the book implies that this may be an inherited tendency.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much to discuss in this book. Elizabeth has made a career choice - sort of deal with the devil. She accepts the position of editor in chief of a vanity press which appears to be a publishing house but isn't. She pretends to appreciate any author who will pay to see his book in print. She comes very close to being a con man. She is intrigued by a new author who writes about a bigamist since she strongly suspects her own father had other families. She begins an affair with the author pretending to help him write a final chapter but she wants nothing more despite her growing love. It begins to seem like her life is a form of bigamy never trusting or believing in anyone, running away from any commitment.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wherein McDermott began her explorations of how 2d and 3d generation Irish Catholic women meet the modern world. (Later editions are significantly more engaging.) McDermott's craft shows in her debut; her insight has yet to be honed. What to make of the comment about losing signficance: "Like watching a sunset with an atheist," as if only a believer could get the miracle? Our protagonist and the narrative struggle with true love, true commitment, and the truth, while she lives, mostly, a lie.

[John Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Alice McDermott's first novel and it has a different feel to it than her later much more controlled novels. It tells the story of Elizabeth, an editor at a vanity press, who is working with Tupper on his his novel about a bigamist. She becomes involved romantically with him and also realizes that her father may have been a bigamist. I liked the playfulness of the novel, but found that it didn't hold together very well, even up to the end.

[Janée Baugher · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might have noticed that I only offer five-star reviews. Why? Who am I to criticize an author's work? Anyhow, the way this book was edited is a bit problematic for me. I felt as though there were missing transitions, like blocks of text were removed and then lines were pasted back together in a random manner. From sentence to sentence in places, I was completely lost. Was this mode of editing a type of erasure or experimental craft that I'm ignorant to?