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Absolution
2023: Other Books
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Absolution by Alice McDermott - 4 stars (Subdue)
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What a lovely review, Joy! I'm so glad that you enjoyed it. I thought it was beautifully written too.
Great review! I was intrigued by this book but needed to know more before I signed up. Thanks for the more. My interest was rekindled by watching the movie "The Sapphires" on Prime.
Holly R W wrote: "What a lovely review, Joy! I'm so glad that you enjoyed it. I thought it was beautifully written too."Thanks, Holly! Once I saw your review, I knew I had to read it.
Sarah wrote: "Great review! I was intrigued by this book but needed to know more before I signed up. Thanks for the more. My interest was rekindled by watching the movie "The Sapphires" on Prime."Thank you, Sarah. Hope you enjoy it!
This book covers unusual subject matter about the wives who accompanied their husbands to Vietnam during the early 1960s. These military men were acting as advisors to the South Vietnam government. The period in history was one in which women had limited options and were expected to be “helpmeets” to their husbands. Protagonist Patricia Kelly, a recently married twenty-three-year-old Irish Catholic woman, has accompanied her husband, Peter, to Vietnam. Peter is an officer in Naval Intelligence. Patricia forms friendships with the other wives. They attend garden parties, lunches, and cocktail parties. They lead lives of privilege with local domestic staff taking care of everyday needs.
One of the wives, Charlene, is particularly bold, assertive, and influential. If it were a different time and place, Charlene could easily be a corporate executive. She develops money-making schemes around the new-at-the-time Barbie doll, imagining a “Saigon Barbie” to sell for fund-raising for charity work. Of course, she hires her Vietnamese seamstress at low wages to produce the outfits and is oblivious to the fact that she is taking advantage.
It is structured around a dialogue between an older Patricia, telling her story to one of Charlene’s children, Raney. They had met during their time in Vietnam when Raney was a child. It is beautifully written, contains interesting characters, provides insights on the changes in roles for women, and supplies an unusual angle on war-related themes. It appears to be veering off in a strange direction in the middle chapters, but after staying with it, I figured out what the author intended and very much enjoyed it.