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An Unfortunate Woman
Very good in illustrated wrappers (black line bottom edge, crease on back cover.) SIGNED first edition - First printing, a trade paperback, issued simultaneously with hardcover. While this novel focuses strongly on the title character, Peggy McCloud, the theme is one which Gifford has explored several times over the years, and thus this echoes in places "My Mother's People" and in turn is echoed in his newest book 'Wyoming." SIGNED on the title page. 171 pp.
171 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1984
About the author
Barry Gifford
145 books206 followersBarry Gifford is an American author, poet, and screenwriter known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and film noir- and Beat Generation-influenced literary madness.
He is described by Patrick Beach as being "like if John Updike had an evil twin that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and wrote funny..."He is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Much of Gifford's work is nonfiction.
He is described by Patrick Beach as being "like if John Updike had an evil twin that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and wrote funny..."He is best known for his series of novels about Sailor and Lula, two sex-driven, star-crossed protagonists on the road. The first of the series, Wild at Heart, was adapted by director David Lynch for the 1990 film of the same title. Gifford went on to write the screenplay for Lost Highway with Lynch. Much of Gifford's work is nonfiction.
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October 23, 2023
An Unfortunate Woman charts the story of one woman’s life from childhood through adolescence to motherhood and her string of ill-starred marriages along the way.
Presented as an autobiography, it weaves largely between post war Chicago and New York as 58-year-old Peggy McCloud reflects on a life which has veered from the good time days as a model and gangster’s girl to bankruptcy, single parenthood and through a catalogue of heartache.
As such there’s a sense author Barry Gifford is leaning heavily on his own itinerant childhood experience of being brought up with a beauty queen mother and a father who operated on the fringes of organised crime.
Indeed his semi-autobiographical A Good Man To Know gives the game away with the principal of his 1992 work sharing all of the personality traits, not to mention name, with McCloud’s first husband and Gifford’s own father, Rudy Winston, who died when the writer was 12.
But that was a son’s reflections of his father - a subject he would to return again throughout his career - and An Unfortunate Woman is his mother’s stage and we are confidante to her fictional counterpart’s thoughts as she grows from ugly duckling to a beautiful swan rubbing shoulders with the rich, famous and infamous while captivating every man she meets.
Throughout she struggles to know what it is she’s looking for and, when she does finally work it out, what she needs to do to achieve it.
Ultimately this 1983 novella is about the relationships of a daughter, sister, mother, lover and friend and while there are few surprises along the way each turn is handled with enough skill to fashion a character the reader cares about.
An Unfortunate Woman is one of Gifford’s first novels and his eye for forging a wide cast of colourful characters across his pages which has become a trademark of his more celebrated later works is there to see.
While there’s enough to hold the attention it’s short on gripping drama, despite McCloud’s life less ordinary, and it’s ultimately her good heart, searing honesty and the story’s pace which keeps the reader engaged to the end.
Presented as an autobiography, it weaves largely between post war Chicago and New York as 58-year-old Peggy McCloud reflects on a life which has veered from the good time days as a model and gangster’s girl to bankruptcy, single parenthood and through a catalogue of heartache.
As such there’s a sense author Barry Gifford is leaning heavily on his own itinerant childhood experience of being brought up with a beauty queen mother and a father who operated on the fringes of organised crime.
Indeed his semi-autobiographical A Good Man To Know gives the game away with the principal of his 1992 work sharing all of the personality traits, not to mention name, with McCloud’s first husband and Gifford’s own father, Rudy Winston, who died when the writer was 12.
But that was a son’s reflections of his father - a subject he would to return again throughout his career - and An Unfortunate Woman is his mother’s stage and we are confidante to her fictional counterpart’s thoughts as she grows from ugly duckling to a beautiful swan rubbing shoulders with the rich, famous and infamous while captivating every man she meets.
Throughout she struggles to know what it is she’s looking for and, when she does finally work it out, what she needs to do to achieve it.
Ultimately this 1983 novella is about the relationships of a daughter, sister, mother, lover and friend and while there are few surprises along the way each turn is handled with enough skill to fashion a character the reader cares about.
An Unfortunate Woman is one of Gifford’s first novels and his eye for forging a wide cast of colourful characters across his pages which has become a trademark of his more celebrated later works is there to see.
While there’s enough to hold the attention it’s short on gripping drama, despite McCloud’s life less ordinary, and it’s ultimately her good heart, searing honesty and the story’s pace which keeps the reader engaged to the end.
Displaying 1 of 1 review