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Evensong
Margaret Maguire—a widow and grandmother, home from the hospital in time for Christmas—is no longer able to ignore the consequences of having married an imperious and arrogant man. Despite her efforts to be a good wife and mother in small-town Iowa, her adult children are now strangers to one another, past hope of reconciliation. Margaret’s granddaughter could be the one to break the cycle, but she can’t do it without Margaret’s help. It’s time to take stock, to examine the past—even time for Margaret to call herself to account.
By turns tenacious and tender, contrary and wry, Margaret examines her life’s tragedies and joys, motivations and choices, coming to view herself and the past with compassion, if not entirely with forgiveness. Beautifully rendered and poignantly told, Evensong is an indelible portrait of a woman searching for tranquility at the end of her days.
By turns tenacious and tender, contrary and wry, Margaret examines her life’s tragedies and joys, motivations and choices, coming to view herself and the past with compassion, if not entirely with forgiveness. Beautifully rendered and poignantly told, Evensong is an indelible portrait of a woman searching for tranquility at the end of her days.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published May 16, 2017
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1074 people want to read
About the author
Kate Southwood
3 books62 followersKate Southwood received an M.A. in French Medieval Art from the University of Illinois, and an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts. She is the author of novels Falling to Earth (a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick) and Evensong. She has written for The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and the Huffington Post, among others. Born and raised in Chicago, she now lives in Oslo, Norway with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
August 4, 2017
I’ve been circling myself all these years, trying and failing to be brave, trying to riddle out the truth of it and portion out the blame in all the places it should be.
Who is to blame for the way our life turned out? My mind shouts: Our parents! But that’s too easy, even if often large portions of the blame lay correctly at their feet. Our choices are complicated and influenced by so many factors, and for those who choose to procreate it can have a domino effect for generations. My choices certainly haven’t been easy: If you told me 10 years ago where I’d be, I would have laughed; If you told me 3 years ago what I would’ve done, I never would have believed it. Things keep happening, but they don’t happen to us, we make them happen, even through passive indecision, and often that’s the hardest thing to reconcile: You’ve only got yourself to blame.
Kate Southwood’s Evensong (the title paying homage to Haruf, perhaps?) explores the regret, guilt, blame, and nostalgia of an 82-year-old woman nearing death. The writing is subtle and tender, and at parts almost unbearably sad. The protagonist isn’t very likeable and I rolled my eyes at her actions (or inactions), but she was familiar and realistic – many are bitter and unpleasant, and remain blind to what they have done. Most of us are fixed in our ways and trying to change is futile, so round and round we go.
Everything was over, everything was done, and when we found him I saw the girls’ faces that were both stricken and relieved and I wondered if they would ever be able to say that it was good that he was gone.
It really needs to start being OK for some of us to dislike a parent. They are just people, after all, and some people are unlikeable, oppressive, toxic. It remains taboo, and we tell our spouses in bed late at night, or a therapist, but how many would casually blurt out My dad is a piece of shit, or My mother is a monster. We don’t do these things. Usually we even feel guilty saying them in our head. When a parent is not a good parent and not a good person, maybe we’re glad when they’re gone, maybe we breathe easier and walk lighter. But love-hate is a complex thing, and one of the women in this book has a poisonous love-hate for her father that I think will resonate with some readers.
Life came and went for these people quietly, unhappily, and ordinarily.
I highly recommend this talented and underrated author. Evensong and Falling to Earth are both excellent.
Who is to blame for the way our life turned out? My mind shouts: Our parents! But that’s too easy, even if often large portions of the blame lay correctly at their feet. Our choices are complicated and influenced by so many factors, and for those who choose to procreate it can have a domino effect for generations. My choices certainly haven’t been easy: If you told me 10 years ago where I’d be, I would have laughed; If you told me 3 years ago what I would’ve done, I never would have believed it. Things keep happening, but they don’t happen to us, we make them happen, even through passive indecision, and often that’s the hardest thing to reconcile: You’ve only got yourself to blame.
Kate Southwood’s Evensong (the title paying homage to Haruf, perhaps?) explores the regret, guilt, blame, and nostalgia of an 82-year-old woman nearing death. The writing is subtle and tender, and at parts almost unbearably sad. The protagonist isn’t very likeable and I rolled my eyes at her actions (or inactions), but she was familiar and realistic – many are bitter and unpleasant, and remain blind to what they have done. Most of us are fixed in our ways and trying to change is futile, so round and round we go.
Everything was over, everything was done, and when we found him I saw the girls’ faces that were both stricken and relieved and I wondered if they would ever be able to say that it was good that he was gone.
It really needs to start being OK for some of us to dislike a parent. They are just people, after all, and some people are unlikeable, oppressive, toxic. It remains taboo, and we tell our spouses in bed late at night, or a therapist, but how many would casually blurt out My dad is a piece of shit, or My mother is a monster. We don’t do these things. Usually we even feel guilty saying them in our head. When a parent is not a good parent and not a good person, maybe we’re glad when they’re gone, maybe we breathe easier and walk lighter. But love-hate is a complex thing, and one of the women in this book has a poisonous love-hate for her father that I think will resonate with some readers.
Life came and went for these people quietly, unhappily, and ordinarily.
I highly recommend this talented and underrated author. Evensong and Falling to Earth are both excellent.
December 28, 2016
Kate Southwood’s first book, Falling to Earth, was replete with haunting universal forces: how do we comprehend our own destiny in the face of a natural disaster – an earthquake – that is, by its very nature, unfair?
In Evensong, the author’s theme is more insular and specific: how does one woman, Margaret Maguire, who is nearing her life’s end, reconcile her life’s choices and what those choices have meant for her two daughters? This time, the adversary is not a mindless outside force; it’s a mindful and internal one.
Right from the start , Margaret reflects, “I’ve been circling myself all these years, trying and failing to be brave, trying to riddle out the truth of it and portion out the blame in all the places it should be.” Margaret was the plainer of two sisters and surprised herself with her “catch”: a handsome and imperious dentist named Garfield with a wrestler’s build and black pomaded hair who sucked up all the air in the room.
Those looking for bells and whistles will not find them here. The story unfolds like a photo slowly taking shape within in a darkroom, yielding up its secrets and taking on a shape. From vignettes, we see the challenging interactions between Margaret and Garfield’s domineering mother, the births of her daughters, the claiming of the older daughter by Garfield and his mother, the rifts that develop over time and take on a life of its own.
Most of all, we learn that none of us who make choices – which encompasses all of humankind – are truly blameless. Thinking of her husband, a man who was both feared and revered, she says, “I had chosen him, aft4er all, so you could say that the fault all lay with me.”
Throughout these pages, I believed thoroughly in the authenticity of Margaret Maguire and in her courageously honest voice. Kate Southwood has beautifully captured a tableau of an ordinary Iowan family that in its own way is unique and deserving of attention. 4.5 stars.
In Evensong, the author’s theme is more insular and specific: how does one woman, Margaret Maguire, who is nearing her life’s end, reconcile her life’s choices and what those choices have meant for her two daughters? This time, the adversary is not a mindless outside force; it’s a mindful and internal one.
Right from the start , Margaret reflects, “I’ve been circling myself all these years, trying and failing to be brave, trying to riddle out the truth of it and portion out the blame in all the places it should be.” Margaret was the plainer of two sisters and surprised herself with her “catch”: a handsome and imperious dentist named Garfield with a wrestler’s build and black pomaded hair who sucked up all the air in the room.
Those looking for bells and whistles will not find them here. The story unfolds like a photo slowly taking shape within in a darkroom, yielding up its secrets and taking on a shape. From vignettes, we see the challenging interactions between Margaret and Garfield’s domineering mother, the births of her daughters, the claiming of the older daughter by Garfield and his mother, the rifts that develop over time and take on a life of its own.
Most of all, we learn that none of us who make choices – which encompasses all of humankind – are truly blameless. Thinking of her husband, a man who was both feared and revered, she says, “I had chosen him, aft4er all, so you could say that the fault all lay with me.”
Throughout these pages, I believed thoroughly in the authenticity of Margaret Maguire and in her courageously honest voice. Kate Southwood has beautifully captured a tableau of an ordinary Iowan family that in its own way is unique and deserving of attention. 4.5 stars.
February 7, 2017
Evensong is a quietly moving book about family life and love. There is not much happening outwardly in the book as far as plot, but rather it is all about what is happening internally and between the words that are spoken and the looks that are exchanged. I enjoyed reading it slowly, and I think the author did a tremendous job of expressing so much in between the lines.
" but he likely thought it a plain enough fact that the truths in our lives are all right there to be seen if we let ourselves see them, which makes my only real tragedy the fact that I never looked longer at myself."
" but he likely thought it a plain enough fact that the truths in our lives are all right there to be seen if we let ourselves see them, which makes my only real tragedy the fact that I never looked longer at myself."
September 4, 2017
The brilliant blurb and the stunning cover were what attracted me and led to my reading of this novel. I had never read this author's work before. This novel captures the recollections and reminiscences of elderly widow Margaret Maguire. When we first meet the elderly Margaret she is in hospital, and she is desperate to be released and back home for Christmas.
She gets her wish and, under the care of her granddaughter Melissa, she continues with her reflections of her life and family.
"things come to me in flashes, though,
like photographs held up and then snatched away"
The reader enters Margaret's mind as she reflects back on her life. Choices made, both good and bad. She reveals her regrets and self-recriminations. People that have touched her life, some loved, some not so much...
"Gar's appetites and petty cruelties"
The novel reveals her innermost thoughts, her fear of losing her independence, her memories of her life as the wife of a bully... Her husband, Garfield, was a dentist who died in his dental office some forty years earlier. On one hand he was arrogant, critical, domineering, disrespectful, controlling, and condescending. On the other hand he was handsome, extremely intelligent, and could be kind to others - just not others in his family.
"I didn't lose Joanne overnight. I let go by degrees."
Margaret reflects on her relationships with her two daughters. Joanne, the eldest who her husband goaded into hating him - who she lost to him as a tiny girl. She feels that by letting Garfield 'parent' Joanne, that she had in fact, failed her.
"It is fair to say that Garfield had one set of rules for himself, and another for everyone else, and in this Joanne is his heir."
"He taught his distrust of imagination to Joanne, though, and what is truly unforgivable, he stamped out any imagination she had herself."
Then there came Lee, her youngest daughter, who she 'kept for herself'.
When I first started to read this book I was put off by the myriad characters introduced in the preliminary chapters. Members of Margaret's family, both living and dead, siblings, in-law's, they were all there - and I found it difficult to discern who they were at first. As the chapters unfolded I gradually was able to keep them distinct in my mind. Margaret, now in her late eighties, is the last of her generation. Her parents, in-laws, siblings, and husband are all gone.
"It's the people sitting at your table that you'll remember, not the food.
The food doesn't matter."
This is a story of the mundane events that make up a life. The slights, the bickering, the petty jealousies, the criticisms that are inherent in every family, but are more prevalent in some. The things that matter and the things that we think matter, but don't really when all is said and done. A novel about life - and death - and how it comes to us all whether we're ready for it or not. How we create our own truths. How living and dying with dignity is something to be strived for, but is not always possible.
This is a thought-provoking novel of literary fiction that I can see would not be for everyone. A very slow-paced story, with myriad characters and some repetition, but beautifully told. I liked Margaret, but found her wanting in some way that I cannot define... She was probably never truly happy - perhaps that's it.
She gets her wish and, under the care of her granddaughter Melissa, she continues with her reflections of her life and family.
"things come to me in flashes, though,
like photographs held up and then snatched away"
The reader enters Margaret's mind as she reflects back on her life. Choices made, both good and bad. She reveals her regrets and self-recriminations. People that have touched her life, some loved, some not so much...
"Gar's appetites and petty cruelties"
The novel reveals her innermost thoughts, her fear of losing her independence, her memories of her life as the wife of a bully... Her husband, Garfield, was a dentist who died in his dental office some forty years earlier. On one hand he was arrogant, critical, domineering, disrespectful, controlling, and condescending. On the other hand he was handsome, extremely intelligent, and could be kind to others - just not others in his family.
"I didn't lose Joanne overnight. I let go by degrees."
Margaret reflects on her relationships with her two daughters. Joanne, the eldest who her husband goaded into hating him - who she lost to him as a tiny girl. She feels that by letting Garfield 'parent' Joanne, that she had in fact, failed her.
"It is fair to say that Garfield had one set of rules for himself, and another for everyone else, and in this Joanne is his heir."
"He taught his distrust of imagination to Joanne, though, and what is truly unforgivable, he stamped out any imagination she had herself."
Then there came Lee, her youngest daughter, who she 'kept for herself'.
When I first started to read this book I was put off by the myriad characters introduced in the preliminary chapters. Members of Margaret's family, both living and dead, siblings, in-law's, they were all there - and I found it difficult to discern who they were at first. As the chapters unfolded I gradually was able to keep them distinct in my mind. Margaret, now in her late eighties, is the last of her generation. Her parents, in-laws, siblings, and husband are all gone.
"It's the people sitting at your table that you'll remember, not the food.
The food doesn't matter."
This is a story of the mundane events that make up a life. The slights, the bickering, the petty jealousies, the criticisms that are inherent in every family, but are more prevalent in some. The things that matter and the things that we think matter, but don't really when all is said and done. A novel about life - and death - and how it comes to us all whether we're ready for it or not. How we create our own truths. How living and dying with dignity is something to be strived for, but is not always possible.
This is a thought-provoking novel of literary fiction that I can see would not be for everyone. A very slow-paced story, with myriad characters and some repetition, but beautifully told. I liked Margaret, but found her wanting in some way that I cannot define... She was probably never truly happy - perhaps that's it.
December 31, 2016
Having absolutely loved Kate Southwood's first novel, "Falling to Earth", a memorable and beautifully rendered story of devastation, loss and envy, I was primed to love her latest, "Evensong", which again explores the dense psychology of family and society in a small Midwestern town. I was not disappointed!
In "Evensong", we center around Margaret Doud Maguire; wife of handsome and arrogant dentist Garfield, mother of two daughters, Joanne and Lee. We begin as she leaves the hospital after suffering a heart attack. Home now for Christmas and attended by her beloved granddaughter, she reflects back on her life and how her many choices of in-action molded her daughters' lives and psyches. If I have to sum it up in one sentence: this is a story about motherhood.
Kate Southwood is an immensely talented writer and the novel is at times funny and at times heart-wrenching - like life.There were many times I had a hard time sympathizing with Margaret. She was much too passive for my taste; culpable for what she allows to happen through her silence. Though she does look back on her past with a modicum of self-criticism, noting many of the times she "would have" or "should have" stood up for herself, more often than not she shrugs and says, "It wouldn't have done any good."
Of course, we must ask ourselves how much of these character traits are inherent and unchangeable? Yet if we expect bullies to change, can't we also expect their victims to change as well? I have no answers, but I do recommend this beautifully written story of one woman's life, both molded and trapped by the era and society in which she lived.
In "Evensong", we center around Margaret Doud Maguire; wife of handsome and arrogant dentist Garfield, mother of two daughters, Joanne and Lee. We begin as she leaves the hospital after suffering a heart attack. Home now for Christmas and attended by her beloved granddaughter, she reflects back on her life and how her many choices of in-action molded her daughters' lives and psyches. If I have to sum it up in one sentence: this is a story about motherhood.
Kate Southwood is an immensely talented writer and the novel is at times funny and at times heart-wrenching - like life.There were many times I had a hard time sympathizing with Margaret. She was much too passive for my taste; culpable for what she allows to happen through her silence. Though she does look back on her past with a modicum of self-criticism, noting many of the times she "would have" or "should have" stood up for herself, more often than not she shrugs and says, "It wouldn't have done any good."
Of course, we must ask ourselves how much of these character traits are inherent and unchangeable? Yet if we expect bullies to change, can't we also expect their victims to change as well? I have no answers, but I do recommend this beautifully written story of one woman's life, both molded and trapped by the era and society in which she lived.
June 3, 2017
A lovely, introspective story of a long-widowed woman looking back on her life and choices. There is a lot of keen insight into human nature, memory, and desire. Although there isn't a lot of what might pass for "action" in the plot, the depth of the story and the strong characters kept me turning the pages. The people in this book felt so real to me, it was as if I knew them. The best comparisons I can think of for this author are Marilynne Robinson and Margaret Drabble.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book. An honest review was requested.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book. An honest review was requested.
January 9, 2018
This novel asks the reader to become immersed in the thoughts and regrets of a woman in her 80's who had a heart attack and is being cared for by her only granddaughter, now about 25 years old. Her two daughters, both divorced, also make frequent appearances. The older woman, Margaret, had married Garfield, who in all her remembrances was an overbearing bully whose worst result was in the personality of their older daughter, Joanne. The novel is full of examples about Garfield belittled those around him, while he would have seen it as "challenging them to improve." He is also portrayed as hypocritical and divided in his opinions, switching them as they suited him. And Margaret stood by and allowed all of this --- which she regrets, to a point. She admits her complicity in their family's failures, but got her revenge after he died an early death by basically erasing him from their lives. But the damage was already done to Joanne, and Garfield's influence lived on in a thousand ways that Margaret couldn't control.
This was a difficult novel to read, and it got into my thoughts and moods. But maybe that was the author's intent. Because when one is around that kind of person, it affects everything. Your relationships with others. Your ability to be yourself. I found myself wondering why she hadn't divorced him -- was it truly because it "wasn't done" back then? (40's, 50's, and '60's in Iowa) Or was it because, as she said at one point, the problems that occurred during the daytime could be forgiven in the bedroom at night. If so, that's pretty shallow, and I felt sorry for her and for her daughters.
This was a difficult novel to read, and it got into my thoughts and moods. But maybe that was the author's intent. Because when one is around that kind of person, it affects everything. Your relationships with others. Your ability to be yourself. I found myself wondering why she hadn't divorced him -- was it truly because it "wasn't done" back then? (40's, 50's, and '60's in Iowa) Or was it because, as she said at one point, the problems that occurred during the daytime could be forgiven in the bedroom at night. If so, that's pretty shallow, and I felt sorry for her and for her daughters.
November 3, 2021
For having dark undertones, this book was interesting and it made me stop to think about if life is passing me by. The main character seems to not have lived the life she wanted, so she is full of regrets now that she is close to death. Margaret tries to mend the emotional fences with her daughters. She tries to fill in a few of the memories for her granddaughter. This was a book worth reading, just a little dark in undertone. I might seek out this author again.
February 18, 2018
I loved Evensong's candid, prickly narrator and her reflections on her life. In her eighties when the novel begins, she reveals early on that her husband took pleasure in bullying people, so her frankness about her family made me flinch more than a few times, but I would not have missed it for the world.
January 9, 2017
moving story. internal conditions of why character made certain decisions throughout her life. simple yet deep
March 27, 2017
Thank you to W.W. Norton & Company for the advance reader copy of this book that I won in a Goodreads giveaway.
I have been watching for a new book by Kate Southwood ever since I read her unforgettable "Falling to Earth." In "Evensong," a widow in her 80s, Margaret Maguire, returns to her home at Christmas following a heart attack, and reflects upon her life. Her warm memories of life with her wonderful parents and brother and sister contrast strongly with the harsher memories of her life, and her two daughters' lives, under the stern thumb of her arrogant and, as it turns out, unlovable husband.
The book’s jacket indicates that Margaret hopes that her granddaughter will break the cycle of dysfunction established over three generations, at least, of Maguires, from her husband's domineering mother, to her husband to her daughter, whom her husband intentionally molded in his image. But while there are hints that it's not too late for her granddaughter, it's unclear why, because the granddaughter was really a secondary character, drifting mostly into the present as Margaret muses on her own past. It’s also unclear how Margaret, nearing the end of her life, can still protect her granddaughter (who is already an adult when the novel takes place) from the past influence of Margaret’s poisonous daughter, and a future that on the surface seems almost predetermined. We are meant to conclude that it is not, but that did not seem to be the focus of the book.
That said, the book was beautifully written and enjoyable to read.
I have been watching for a new book by Kate Southwood ever since I read her unforgettable "Falling to Earth." In "Evensong," a widow in her 80s, Margaret Maguire, returns to her home at Christmas following a heart attack, and reflects upon her life. Her warm memories of life with her wonderful parents and brother and sister contrast strongly with the harsher memories of her life, and her two daughters' lives, under the stern thumb of her arrogant and, as it turns out, unlovable husband.
The book’s jacket indicates that Margaret hopes that her granddaughter will break the cycle of dysfunction established over three generations, at least, of Maguires, from her husband's domineering mother, to her husband to her daughter, whom her husband intentionally molded in his image. But while there are hints that it's not too late for her granddaughter, it's unclear why, because the granddaughter was really a secondary character, drifting mostly into the present as Margaret muses on her own past. It’s also unclear how Margaret, nearing the end of her life, can still protect her granddaughter (who is already an adult when the novel takes place) from the past influence of Margaret’s poisonous daughter, and a future that on the surface seems almost predetermined. We are meant to conclude that it is not, but that did not seem to be the focus of the book.
That said, the book was beautifully written and enjoyable to read.
April 26, 2017
A beautiful, slowly unfolding story about a woman near the end of her life as she tries to counter the consequences of her choice of husband (nothing squicky, just not a great person, in the end). I picked this up specifically because it is set in Iowa - somewhere down near Ft Madison - and although it isn't specifically evocative of place, it very much deserves its comps to Marilynne Robinson's Gilead with with the focus on a long life and the past.
August 4, 2023
A woman’s journey to find autonomy, with a narcissistic man and their offspring. Painful and lovely.
June 12, 2017
Kate Southwood is rising to the top of the contemporary writers of what is often called domestic fiction. I loved her first novel, Falling to Earth! Evensong is similar in the sense that both fit well the praise Elizabeth Berg offered in the blurb for Evensong: "The story is as specific as an intimate memory whispered by a person to herself, and as universal as the ongoingness of life itself." Margaret "Maggie" Doud Maguire.... I include all of the narrator's names because it is the many fractured parts of her identity that challenge her in life's final days.
How do you come to terms with a life not especially well-lived? The answers Southward offers are often uncomfortable, frustrating, challenging, especially if you've had someone in your life who walked a similar path. But, for me at least, there was much to be felt, to be learned.
How do you come to terms with a life not especially well-lived? The answers Southward offers are often uncomfortable, frustrating, challenging, especially if you've had someone in your life who walked a similar path. But, for me at least, there was much to be felt, to be learned.
October 25, 2017
I put this book down several times to read something else but kept coming back to it. It was disturbing to watch this woman, at the end of her life, focus so much on her mistakes and regrets. Her reminiscing shows us the good parts too. There was no one to blame, even though you want to parcel it out for her. It really came down to choices, the ones she made and the ones forced upon her.
The author prose is beautiful.
The author prose is beautiful.
January 13, 2018
Rating this book was difficult because it hit too close to home. Gar reminded me of how I have led my life, doing as I'm told and never doing anything right. In some ways it was hard to read like picking a scab, and sometimes the "ah ha" moments were literally stunning.
July 7, 2018
Have you ever read a book that was depressing yet you knew it had elements of a classic? (No, not all classics are depressing.) I picked up this book in the new book section of the library because of the title Evensong. Evensong services in the churches I visited in the UK are beautiful. They are evening services filled with song of psalms, prayers, and canticles. I was looking for some lighter reading and I thought that this book would fulfill that need.
Alas, I'm in the same camp as reviewers who are conflicted about this book. However, let me start first with the classic elements of the book. Fans of Virginia Woolf and streams of consciousness will appreciate the spirit of Woolf and her style of writing in Southwood's novel. The evensong in Evensong is the song of her life which Maggie sings after a heart attack as she looks at the interplay of her present with her past. The prose is beautiful and may be the main reason I continued reading. When Maggie thinks upon her brother Porter (pages 12-13), Southwood's lyrical prose is so eloquent, I wanted to keep reading even though I already had the feeling that this story was going to be depressing. Indeed the character of Porter carries the main light notes in this story which throbs with the dark notes of Maggie's choices and the choices she feels are forced upon her.
I have not read Woolf since I was much younger, and now I'm wondering if I would find her novels depressing if I were to read them now. Therefore, I'm also wondering if this story would be best suited for a mid-aged reader (or even younger although my guess is that a college-aged student would have to be assigned the novel -- as many classics are -- just as I was assigned to read Woolf in college). The hope in reading the novel at that age would be to come up with better choices in one's own life than Maggie did in hers, and to make amends better than Maggie or perhaps sooner than Maggie does. Maggie's relational issues are as much caused by her as by her husband.
I must add the story carries lots of situations that could stir up emotions in those who have been through challenging childhoods and/or marriages.
I'm rating this at 2 stars. I noticed a comment from one reviewer to another asking whether the reviewer with 2 stars was doing so because of emotions or the writing. It was the feelings brought on by the book. While the book did not cause emotional problems for me, I still found it a sad book in spite of it's fairly happy ending, and my two stars are simply for "I didn't like it." The writing is excellent and I would be fine with it as a book discussion group choice (but I wouldn't be reading it again).
Alas, I'm in the same camp as reviewers who are conflicted about this book. However, let me start first with the classic elements of the book. Fans of Virginia Woolf and streams of consciousness will appreciate the spirit of Woolf and her style of writing in Southwood's novel. The evensong in Evensong is the song of her life which Maggie sings after a heart attack as she looks at the interplay of her present with her past. The prose is beautiful and may be the main reason I continued reading. When Maggie thinks upon her brother Porter (pages 12-13), Southwood's lyrical prose is so eloquent, I wanted to keep reading even though I already had the feeling that this story was going to be depressing. Indeed the character of Porter carries the main light notes in this story which throbs with the dark notes of Maggie's choices and the choices she feels are forced upon her.
I have not read Woolf since I was much younger, and now I'm wondering if I would find her novels depressing if I were to read them now. Therefore, I'm also wondering if this story would be best suited for a mid-aged reader (or even younger although my guess is that a college-aged student would have to be assigned the novel -- as many classics are -- just as I was assigned to read Woolf in college). The hope in reading the novel at that age would be to come up with better choices in one's own life than Maggie did in hers, and to make amends better than Maggie or perhaps sooner than Maggie does. Maggie's relational issues are as much caused by her as by her husband.
I must add the story carries lots of situations that could stir up emotions in those who have been through challenging childhoods and/or marriages.
I'm rating this at 2 stars. I noticed a comment from one reviewer to another asking whether the reviewer with 2 stars was doing so because of emotions or the writing. It was the feelings brought on by the book. While the book did not cause emotional problems for me, I still found it a sad book in spite of it's fairly happy ending, and my two stars are simply for "I didn't like it." The writing is excellent and I would be fine with it as a book discussion group choice (but I wouldn't be reading it again).
February 10, 2025
4.5
Fue una lectura inesperadamente fuerte y triste.
Maggie,una señora en sus 80's y que se recupera de un infarto, nos cuenta la historia de su vida a través de sus recuerdos.
Nos cuenta sobre sus hermanos,sus padres,sus cuñados,sus sobrinos,sus antiguos pretendientes,su suegra,sus hijas,su nieta y su esposo.
No es una historia fea o particularmente dramática,solo es cotidiana y eso es lo que lo hace insoportable.
Te deja ver el daño que su esposo y ella le hicieron a sus hijas,el infierno de que su esposo se fuera a la guerra mientras ella se quedaba a vivir con su suegra,el dolor de perder a sus hermanos mayores sin los que nunca había estado y el pequeño infierno que era su marido.
El infierno que fue elegirlo,el infierno que fue no tenerlo,el infierno que fue tenerlo,el infierno que fue cuando murió y el infierno que dejó atrás,sin importar cuánto se esforzó Maggie en borrarlo de su vida.
Esto ocurre en los 50's y 60's,me hizo entender por que las mujeres estaban tan cansadas de su vida doméstica. Solo imaginarlo fue horrible. Fue triste. Fue desesperante.
Ver a Maggie hacer un lazo con su nieta que nunca pudo tener con sus hijas,porque no está profundamente contaminada con el recuerdo de su difunto esposo,fue emotivo. Ella sabe que su nieta tiene posibilidades que ella jamás pudo tener por cuestiones socioculturales.
"Me casé con un hombre que merecía morir solo."
Garfield era terrible y eso que no era un "mal hombre". No obstante,la huella que dejó atrás era más profunda de lo que merecía.
Son de esos libros que te hacen disfrutar no vivir en esos tiempos pero ¿es realmente tan diferente a la actualidad?
Fue una lectura inesperadamente fuerte y triste.
Maggie,una señora en sus 80's y que se recupera de un infarto, nos cuenta la historia de su vida a través de sus recuerdos.
Nos cuenta sobre sus hermanos,sus padres,sus cuñados,sus sobrinos,sus antiguos pretendientes,su suegra,sus hijas,su nieta y su esposo.
No es una historia fea o particularmente dramática,solo es cotidiana y eso es lo que lo hace insoportable.
Te deja ver el daño que su esposo y ella le hicieron a sus hijas,el infierno de que su esposo se fuera a la guerra mientras ella se quedaba a vivir con su suegra,el dolor de perder a sus hermanos mayores sin los que nunca había estado y el pequeño infierno que era su marido.
El infierno que fue elegirlo,el infierno que fue no tenerlo,el infierno que fue tenerlo,el infierno que fue cuando murió y el infierno que dejó atrás,sin importar cuánto se esforzó Maggie en borrarlo de su vida.
Esto ocurre en los 50's y 60's,me hizo entender por que las mujeres estaban tan cansadas de su vida doméstica. Solo imaginarlo fue horrible. Fue triste. Fue desesperante.
Ver a Maggie hacer un lazo con su nieta que nunca pudo tener con sus hijas,porque no está profundamente contaminada con el recuerdo de su difunto esposo,fue emotivo. Ella sabe que su nieta tiene posibilidades que ella jamás pudo tener por cuestiones socioculturales.
"Me casé con un hombre que merecía morir solo."
Garfield era terrible y eso que no era un "mal hombre". No obstante,la huella que dejó atrás era más profunda de lo que merecía.
Son de esos libros que te hacen disfrutar no vivir en esos tiempos pero ¿es realmente tan diferente a la actualidad?
June 9, 2017
I loved 'Falling to Earth' so when I saw that Kate Southwood had a new book out, I ordered it on the spot. Unfortunately, it is not nearly as riveting as her previous novel. In 'Evensong', an older woman looks back on her life and the choices she made - or did not make. Basically, she reveries in her passivity which moved her along like a child's car ride at the carnival, slow and steady but just pretending to steer.
The novel opens up with Margaret in the hospital following a heart attack. We learn that she's a widow and her husband was a controlling, arrogant, egotistical man who lacked empathy. They had two daughters and Margaret, by default, allowed her husband almost complete control over their oldest. Essentially, she let her husband raise her and set rules and standards that she did not like. Despite Margaret's internalized anger about how their daughter was being raised, she did not speak up.
As Margaret ponders her life, I felt more and more frustrated about her lack of assertiveness and extraordinary passivity in almost everything. The book examines the decades in which Margaret let herself be ensnared by her husband's core values, intentionally negating her own. She looks back at herself with compassion but I viewed her as a coward.
The book has little in the way of action. It consists of a series of reminiscences. I kept waiting for something to 'happen', for Margaret to be jolted into the reality of what she'd let go of but, even in her last days, she finds excuses for just going along with things.
The novel opens up with Margaret in the hospital following a heart attack. We learn that she's a widow and her husband was a controlling, arrogant, egotistical man who lacked empathy. They had two daughters and Margaret, by default, allowed her husband almost complete control over their oldest. Essentially, she let her husband raise her and set rules and standards that she did not like. Despite Margaret's internalized anger about how their daughter was being raised, she did not speak up.
As Margaret ponders her life, I felt more and more frustrated about her lack of assertiveness and extraordinary passivity in almost everything. The book examines the decades in which Margaret let herself be ensnared by her husband's core values, intentionally negating her own. She looks back at herself with compassion but I viewed her as a coward.
The book has little in the way of action. It consists of a series of reminiscences. I kept waiting for something to 'happen', for Margaret to be jolted into the reality of what she'd let go of but, even in her last days, she finds excuses for just going along with things.
March 10, 2017
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a quiet, deliberate book about and family and love--or lack thereof. Full confession: at first I did not get into it, largely because I was confused with the cast of characters. I think a page with a family tree would have been a great help. Note: this confusion disipated shortly thereafter because the characters were well drawn and then introduced with greater depth.
The book is Margaret's story--from a young gir/woman, to a dying grandmother. From the blurb:
"By turns tenacious and tender, contrary and wry, Margaret examines her life’s tragedies and joys, motivations and choices... Beautifully rendered and poignantly told, Evensong is an indelible portrait of a woman searching for tranquility at the end of her days." ABSOLUTELY.
There's Margaret, her husband, Garfield [not a particularly nice man], her brother Porter, sister Estelle, children Joanne and Lee, granddaughter Melissa and various parents, spouses and other characters. For a slight book, there's a lot of people to track in the generational life cycle and rhythms that Evensong portrays--how: "Life is bookended with this kind of repose." Southwood depicts everyday events extremely well, thoughtfully, and sometimes with humor.
I loved Margaret--nee Doud, but stuck with Maguire--the surname she got when she married but never fully accepted. I loved her relationship with her sister Estelle [and her reflections after Estelle's death] and her relationship with her granddaughter, Melissa.
Here are some lines that stuck with me:
"... I watched the moths outside trying to get at my fluorescent sink light until I grew sick of the small thud of their bodies..." [I could so hear/see that]
"... while we worked through the wobble in our legs those first months without him."
and in talking about gravesites: "... who hd decided that plumb lines and right angles were most approporiate to death. Why couldn't it be ragged? Why shouldnt it look like raw as a wound, as if, barehanded, someone had torn the earth apart?"
Some humor, but mostly serious ponderings of age and time. Wonderful observances.
My only real criticism. I thought it could have ended with Chapter 34; Chapter 35 seemed a bit unnecessary though I understand a full circle.
This is a quiet, deliberate book about and family and love--or lack thereof. Full confession: at first I did not get into it, largely because I was confused with the cast of characters. I think a page with a family tree would have been a great help. Note: this confusion disipated shortly thereafter because the characters were well drawn and then introduced with greater depth.
The book is Margaret's story--from a young gir/woman, to a dying grandmother. From the blurb:
"By turns tenacious and tender, contrary and wry, Margaret examines her life’s tragedies and joys, motivations and choices... Beautifully rendered and poignantly told, Evensong is an indelible portrait of a woman searching for tranquility at the end of her days." ABSOLUTELY.
There's Margaret, her husband, Garfield [not a particularly nice man], her brother Porter, sister Estelle, children Joanne and Lee, granddaughter Melissa and various parents, spouses and other characters. For a slight book, there's a lot of people to track in the generational life cycle and rhythms that Evensong portrays--how: "Life is bookended with this kind of repose." Southwood depicts everyday events extremely well, thoughtfully, and sometimes with humor.
I loved Margaret--nee Doud, but stuck with Maguire--the surname she got when she married but never fully accepted. I loved her relationship with her sister Estelle [and her reflections after Estelle's death] and her relationship with her granddaughter, Melissa.
Here are some lines that stuck with me:
"... I watched the moths outside trying to get at my fluorescent sink light until I grew sick of the small thud of their bodies..." [I could so hear/see that]
"... while we worked through the wobble in our legs those first months without him."
and in talking about gravesites: "... who hd decided that plumb lines and right angles were most approporiate to death. Why couldn't it be ragged? Why shouldnt it look like raw as a wound, as if, barehanded, someone had torn the earth apart?"
Some humor, but mostly serious ponderings of age and time. Wonderful observances.
My only real criticism. I thought it could have ended with Chapter 34; Chapter 35 seemed a bit unnecessary though I understand a full circle.
May 24, 2017
"I believe now that Porter took me to the frog pond to let me know that I could understand anything worth understanding by being watchful and patient and by waiting until the thing showed itself to me. You might say that he couldn't have known that, that he was only a child himself, but he likely thought it a plain enough fact that the truths in our lives are all right there to be seen if we let ourselves see them."
With that quote I was hoping for characters or the main character, Maggie, to have experience more insightfulness about why she made the choices she did in her life. It is a story of her life. It is a story about the people that surround her. The story kept my interest but I was always searching for more depth.
With that quote I was hoping for characters or the main character, Maggie, to have experience more insightfulness about why she made the choices she did in her life. It is a story of her life. It is a story about the people that surround her. The story kept my interest but I was always searching for more depth.
June 9, 2017
I thought the book was lovely and well-written. I would have enjoyed more of it. However, one thing drove me CRAZY reading it.
Early on, Margaret mentions that her mother passed away on the evening of Lee's birth. She muses at length that it's almost as if the world only has space for a limited number of family members and her mom slipped away to make room for Lee. Later, she talks about how she buried her miscarried child, a year before Lee was born, at her mother's grave. I reread that passage several times to be sure I understood it right. I did, and toward the end of the book, Margaret again references that she buried her baby with her mom. Obviously, only one of these two touching stories about her deceased mom can be true.
I always wonder how these things slip by editors.
Early on, Margaret mentions that her mother passed away on the evening of Lee's birth. She muses at length that it's almost as if the world only has space for a limited number of family members and her mom slipped away to make room for Lee. Later, she talks about how she buried her miscarried child, a year before Lee was born, at her mother's grave. I reread that passage several times to be sure I understood it right. I did, and toward the end of the book, Margaret again references that she buried her baby with her mom. Obviously, only one of these two touching stories about her deceased mom can be true.
I always wonder how these things slip by editors.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 29, 2018
The finest novel I've read since Brad Watson's "Miss Jane", a wonderfully told story of a woman looking back on her life with an impossible --now deceased-- husband, two daughters that don't get along. Maggie Doud McGuire has just had a heart attack and it's Christmas and her family gathers around, possibly more out of pity than anything else.
The characters are genuine, the dialogue is unaffected and it reveals a story filled with poignancy and pain. Ms. Southwood's prose is intimate and tender, and you feel and see the world from inside Maggie's mind, troubled as it often is. Maggie is alternately strong and vulnerable, passive and assertive, like all of us.......I loved this book.
The characters are genuine, the dialogue is unaffected and it reveals a story filled with poignancy and pain. Ms. Southwood's prose is intimate and tender, and you feel and see the world from inside Maggie's mind, troubled as it often is. Maggie is alternately strong and vulnerable, passive and assertive, like all of us.......I loved this book.
May 23, 2017
This is a sweet, introspective book about an elderly widow who, after a heart attack returns home at Christmas with the hope of reconciling her daughters, who are now all but strangers to each other. Margaret ponders her life and the consequences of her life's choices and eventually leans on her granddaughter to bring some peace to the family.
This is a nice read, slow and thought-provoking, but it takes a little while to get into it and get the characters sorted out. Still, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who likes introspective, family drama.
This is a nice read, slow and thought-provoking, but it takes a little while to get into it and get the characters sorted out. Still, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who likes introspective, family drama.
June 2, 2017
The idyllic white peak cover on the backdrop of turquoise belies the complexity and uniqueness of this novel. Beautifully written, Southward has managed to take a common idea for a novel, a person reflecting back on the course of their life as they near the end of it, and fashion a realistic and unusually authentic portrait free of cliches or truisms. Highly recommend if you are looking for a smart, reflection-provoking book whose themes will linger with you for years to come.
September 26, 2017
I'm conflicted about this novel. It is well written but the main characters angst at the end of her life troubled me. Her review of her life, decisions she had made, her relationship with her husband and her children; how things said and unsaid affect these relationships. The line in the book that rang true to her conflict for me was on page 108 "I surprise myself and hope that Melissa never changes her name. She'll bear a man's name either way. It might as well be the one she grew up with."
October 4, 2017
A lovely, introspective story of a long-widowed woman looking back on her life and choices living in rural Iowa. Her warm memories of life with her wonderful parents and brother and sister contrast strongly with the harsher memories of her life, and her two daughters' lives, under the stern thumb of her arrogant and, as it turns out, unlovable husband. Some humor, but mostly serious pondering of age and time.
July 2, 2019
I loved this book. It reminded me in some ways of Robinson's Home/Gilead/Lila, an admittedly rather intense and serious comparison -- and not just because it takes place in Iowa. It is a woman's accounting of her life, while close to the end of it. I think one of its bravest aspects is the candor with which she evaluates her children and her decisions that may have contributed to their personalities. I also think what this text does with memory is really interesting.
June 23, 2017
This is a novel about one woman's life and how mistakes she made played down through the generations. It is about how small decisions have lasting consequences and how easy it is to both allow ourselves to know and not know. What makes this book so moving is it's quiet observations about how families operate. A lovely portrait of a life.
July 4, 2017
Maggie is 81 and has suffered a heart attack. When she returns home to her memories she reflects on her life. Her marriage to Garfield, a man who looked like a catch, had so many negative effects on her life and her family. This book made me think about the choices we all make and how they not only impact our life but our family and friends.
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