Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for sharing an advance copy of this new novel. I’m definitely an outlier in Netgalley reviews on this one. I finished the book, but I felt it to be a struggle, it just didn’t keep my attention. I don’t think I really go it, at the end, I felt let down and like it was unfinished or could have been more. Just not for me, I think.

Absolution was my first McDermott, and there is no doubt she is an incredible writer. Told mostly through letters wrriten after the fact, we learn the story of Tricia and Charlene, two "do gooder" wives living in Saigon in 1963. The pair seek out to "help" the people of Vietnam with their dolls and candy and later in life reflect on what, if any, good they actually did.

I didn't like this story per say, but I liked this book if that makes any sense at all. A lot of what was happening in Vietnam and how its residents are viewed made me very uncomfortable, and thats the point. Even though that is the point, something is giving me pause and stropping me from giving this 5 stars. I think sometimes our white women were a bit let off the hook. Books where characters have hindsight is something I love, and that's whole point of Absolution. The women's inconsequential good is much more selfish than selfless, and it took hindsight for them to realize that. Were they trying to repair the world or repair themselves? Is it possible to do both?

Ann Patchett called this book the best of 2023 and believe sit should win the Pulitzer. While I'm not quite there, I still recommend this book and so grateful to have read it!

'There's a real danger in the bestowing of gifts upon the hopeless only to inflate the ego of the one who does the bestowing'.

Tricia is a newlywed who finds herself newly placed in Vietnam in the early 1960s. There are, of course, a whole gaggle of dependents; wives and children of men who've been recruited to lend an American hand to the war with the North. But, Tricia sees herself simply as a support to her husband, 'but my real vocation in those days, my aspiration, was to be a helpmeet for my husband'. However, her self-conscious days of sidelining herself at cocktail parties come to an abrupt end when she meets Charlene. Charlene is a dynamo. Charlene is everything Tricia isn't. Charlene subsumes Tricia into her world of charity, 'self-sacrifice is never really selfless. It is often quite selfish'.

'Absolution' examines the role of women, acceptance, value, and moral obligation, under the intense, hot, humid environment of Vietnam, 'I recall our hubris...our Western centrism enhanced, inflated'. Its epistolary design lends the story a memoir-like quality. Memories that refract upon reflection. The conflation of charity and good deeds with egotism, juxtaposed with turning away completely, 'who wants to gaze at suffering?'

I've never read anything by Alice McDermott before, but I just loved this book. It works on so many different levels: historical fiction, contemporary fiction, and literary fiction. There is naivety yet wisdom, cultural paradigms yet independence. It is a faceted crystal. Anyone who enjoys thought-provoking characters, beyond a storyline-driven book, will adore this read.

Alice McDermott's Absolution is an amazing book that takes the reader back to the days when wives were to be seen and not heard, when complex issues seemed simple, and doing good meant stopping the spread of communism. Absolution shows us a rarely seen side of Vietnam, and not the black and white approach that got America into the war. It is the story of American women who are there as the "helpmates" of their working husbands as they fight the onslaught of communism. In the opening pages, we read: "There were so many cocktail parties in those days. And when they were held in the afternoon we called them garden parties, but they were cocktail parties, nonetheless. You have no idea what it was like. For us. The wives."


It is the story of two very different wives, Tricia, a much in love newlywed and Charlene, sophisticated, bossy, take charge type. a leader, a party goer. Under that veneer, she is a conniving do-gooder. In 1963 Vietnam, these women and their friends were clueless about what was really happening, clueless about the burns on children and backed a corrupt Catholic government. Yet, these two women, seemingly so different, form a complex relationship. Led by Charlene, they want to do good when wives are to be seen, not heard. In their stifling environment they do little things, trying to improve the lives of children one by one.

Looking back after 60 years, Tricia and Charlene's daughter, catch up and reflect. As is much of the book, their reflections are heartfelt and poignant, and "doing good" takes on a different picture.

McDermott is known for Catholic themes in her book...BUT you don't need to be Catholic to love and appreciate this wonderfully written novel. It should definitely be a Pulitzer nominee.

Alice McDermott has produced another fine piece of literature. Her characters are well-developed, with a plot line that loops the reader continually back around to the striving for absolution. Traditionally minor characters during the 1950s-1970s, women are, in fact, the major players in this novel set in Vietnam in the lead=up to the US involvement in the Vietnam war. Tricia and Charlene, both "helpmeets" to their husbands, are women who want to "do good," and find various charitable ways and methods to achieve that in the poor country of Vietnam. The book is composed of Tricia's writing about the time to Charlene's daughter, and the daughter's brief response. Both seem to be seeking absolution throughout their lives. While an easy read, it leaves a lasting imprint.

My first Alice McDermott and definitely not my last. Equal parts heartfelt and off putting, you kind of feel like a frog in a pot reading this one. McDermott knows how to create a very evocative, unsettling atmosphere and the subject matter of GIs living in Saigon during the Vietnam War is her backdrop. She also covers what it meant to be a “help meet” wife to an ambitious man in the late 50s/early 60s and it sounds… so awful. You can feel the mess of the situation in the mc’s voice but it’s also painful to hear them wise up, because they’re seriously deluded in their white savior glory. Such a satisfying slow burn. Highly recommend but check the trigger warnings.

This is a stunning book. In its simplest description, it is a book about the wives of businessmen and military men in Vietnam in 1963. And it is brilliant in its painting of this time and and place and people. But Absolution is so much more. This is a novel about the ways of being a woman in the world then, and now. It is a novel about how we reconcile desire with reality. It is a novel about the moral obligations we hold to ourselves and others.
The structure of the novel is epistolary (but not glaringly so), with a directed form of address that implicates who is being spoken to in the novel and draws the reader in. It moves through time in ways that allows the reader to recognize the changing nature of the world and the wry way we can look back on our past selves with a discerning eye and a bit of chagrin. On every page, there were bits of description or introspection that made me pause and utter an internal, "Yes, that's right." In all, it's a great book, one of McDermott's finest (and that's saying something).

I could tell from page one that this book would be good but it turned out to be outstanding. McDermott really nails all the descriptions of how life "'used to be" and raises some interesting questions - is it worth trying to do good even if it's just a tiny bit. Mostly set in Vietnam in the early 60th I learned a lot about the country.

It’s 1963 in Vietnam and newlywed Tricia is attempting to fit in with the other military and corporate wives in Saigon. Absolution is set in the present with Tricia writing to her “friend” Charlene’s daughter to describe events at that time and the repercussions that were felt even decades later.
The writing was wonderfully descriptive in this layered character-driven story!
*Thanks to Farrar, Straus & Giroux and NetGalley for the advance reader review copy

I hate when I’m the first naysayer amongst a flood of fabulous 5 star reviews but…I found myself struggling a bit to stay excited about this story. I found parts really slow and maybe the formality of the epistolary format didn’t work for me. There certainly were extremely moving parts (burned children in the hospital) and McDermott certainly gets the time period. I am sure many will love this one but it didn’t quite work for me.

Such an extraordinary novel, first for the characters created and the stories told, but also for the primary setting, Saigon in 1963, and for the various themes, summed up by the title. Read slowly with great care, because small details turn out to be very significant. What’s it about? Love and evil. Also being a parent, being a wife, being an innocent, being good. The main character is Patricia, a shy young bride…besotted with her husband. This is not a loss of innocence story exactly, perhaps better described as an account of wisdom acquired. It’s not a political novel, only as much as the ex-pat community in Saigon are there for political and ideological reasons.
Perhaps McDermotts best novel ever, and that’s saying a lot.

Alice McDermott's Absolution is a beautifully-written historical novel set in Saigon during the time period when the U.S. had military advisors not combat troops in Vietnam but interestingly is not told from the perspective of these men. McDermott takes us into the lives of two memorable characters - Tricia and Charlene, young American women whose husbands are stationed in Saigon in 1963.

Tricia is a demure newlywed who has recently arrived with her engineer husband "on loan" to the Navy - self-conscious and unsure of herself as she tries to adjust to this new life in Vietnam. She soon meets Charlene at an embassy party and the more experienced woman draws Tricia into her "cabal" of do-gooder American wives and their various fundraising projects in Saigon. (One of these projects involves selling Barbie dolls outfitted in Vietnamese clothing which was quite interesting given the prominence of Barbie in popular discourse this summer.) The country club lives of the Americans with their cocktail parties, servants and gated homes is juxtaposed against the poverty and hardship that the Vietnamese are experiencing during the ongoing conflict between South Vietnam and the Communists of the North. The story of these two women is unfurled as a series of letters 60 years later between Tricia and Charlene's daughter, Rainey, who was a young child during the Vietnam years. After meeting a veteran who knew her mother in Vietnam, Rainey felt the need to reach out to Tricia. Tricia tells Rainey about their time in Saigon and also reminisces about growing up in New York.

McDermott has written a captivating and thought-provoking examination of moral ambiguities. Over the course of the novel, the question is raised many times of who actually benefits from actions that are intended to be morally good. Were they trying to heal the world or trying to heal themselves? Are good deeds merely a quest for absolution? Also raised is the issue of "inconsequential good" asking whether good deeds actually have an impact of any consequence as well as the recognition that good intentions can have far-reaching and unintended consequences. This moral ambiguity of actions applies to individuals but is also a subtle observation on the motivations of the US government and what they were trying to accomplish in Vietnam. It is with hindsight that Tricia considers these questions.

The novel also provides insight into the life of women in the '60s. The women at the centre of this story were intelligent, educated women yet were still expected to defer to their husbands and were limited in what they could do. Tricia aspires to be a mother and a "helpmeet" to her husband but has no real ambitions or expectations of her own. Charlene's all-encompassing altruism is no doubt fueled by her need to channel her intelligence and ambition into something that will make a difference.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Alice McDermott's Absolution - it's a quiet, insightful story told with compassion - highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for sending a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advanced copy of this novel about women dealing with rememberance, quilt, children lost and found, and the shadow of war on their lives.

What sometimes amazes me is all the history that my Mother has lived through. The birth of Rock 'n Roll, the March on Washington, watching people attacked by police protesting for their rights, or protesting an unjust war, the resignation of a president and the multiple indictments on another. When people talk about how America used to be, she mentions these events and lots more, gaining rights as a women, and watching the get stripped away again, the constant fear of nuclear war, and of course Vietnam. A war which she lost people she knew, and possibly her husband, my father, until he was given a last minute reprieve. The shadow of that conflict still covers many people, and their relationships, with others. Absolution is a novel by the gifted writer Alice McDermott which tells of two women before Vietnam was even known to American, and the effect on one of them even today.

1963 in Saigon and a young woman, Tricia has come to Saigon with her husband, trained as an engineer but working with Naval Intelligence, as a newlywed. Tricia left a job as a teacher, and a city New York City that she loved to be with her husband, in a place that she was unfamiliar with. Charlene is the queen bee of the American expat community. The perfect hostess, Charlene is a mean girl in many ways, with a wish to help all the people of Vietnam, though her idea of help is probably different than most. She takes Tricia under her wing, and begins to motivate and mold Tricia in ways that Tricia is not sure that she wants. Until tragedy strike, and Tricia is suddenly lost in ways she never thought she would be. 60 years later Charlene's daughter has tracked Tricia down and Tricia shares her stories about life before and during Vietnam and how things never really felt the same after.

A book that is hard to categorize, but one that slowly reveals itself as it is read. Alice McDermott can create characters that seem so real, so strong that in many ways one feels that one is reading a memoir, and not a novel. Both characters seem so much of their era, the last of the Eisenhower era in Charlene, clashing with the woman who knows they are giving up alot to be their husbands helpmates, but don't understand why, or how to get out of it. The story is told in a mix of flashbacks and straight narration, with Tricia discussing New York in such a way that one wishes to travel in time. Also the way McDermott writes about Vietnam is fascinating, a more mature look than say Graham Greene's The Quiet American. The writing is of course very good, with a different kind of plot, and one that goes in places one does not expect.

Recommended for fans of McDermott of course, but this would be a good place to start new readers on McDermott's works also. Especially for readers who are starting to tire of World War II set stories, a new setting might interest them, and the beautiful writing and skill that McDermott has will make them want to read more.

Set in Saigon, this is a novel about the women on the periphery of the Vietnam War and how in helping we can do considerable harm. Alice McDermott writes about the human heart like no other. For years she has been giving us brilliant, deeply felt, elegant novels. Absolution is her masterpiece. Settle in, you’re safely in the hands of a master.

Wow. This book took my breath away - set in Saigon during the Vietnam War, the novel focuses on two women and their relationship as “wives” of men working in the country in a non-military capacity. The author’s ability to make me FEEL the time period on every page along with feeling the tension and complexity of life in the role of wife and guest in a foreign country in war was astounding. I felt the heat and humidity. I could hear the multiple languages or Vietnamese and French and English. I held my breath as the story took me in uncomfortable places and morally-ambiguous and morally-appalling situations. There’s so much to unpack In this that I want to reread (which I NEVER do) and meet with friends to discuss. This is a spectacular novel. Stop what you’re doing and go read it.

I have long been a fan of Alice McDermott. Absolution is a masterpiece. What more can I say? This is a novel the world needs, now, and ever. I loved these characters as they endeavored to heal a broken world by doing all the good they can in the limited ways they could.

Patricia was a young wife when she and her husband arrived in Saigon in 1963. She appears conventional and her values are traditional; she wants to be a good helpmate to her husband and longs to be a mother. But she has been drawn to more radical women.

Her friend in youth was impelled by her slave-owning roots to become involved in Civil Rights activism in the South. Her new friend Charlene, a wife and mother living in Saigon, brashly breaks the rules to raise money for charitable acts, taking gifts to civilians in the hospital and making new clothes for those in the leper colony. They are helped by Dominic, a young soldier with a wife and child. He shares his great love by volunteering at the hospital.

In old age, Patricia is contacted by Charlene’s daughter. Patricia shares her story, and learns the story of her old friend and her continuing acts of radical love, and also of Dominic whose goodness persisted until the end and whose story moved me to tears.

Barbie dolls, The Kennedys in the White House, Librium for housewives, men treating their wives like children, ignoring the poverty of Viet Nam, American’s anti-communism idealization justifying our involvement in Viet Nam, vividly renders the era. A more innocent time, in terms of ignorance and acceptance of the status quo. Patricia sees the burns on children, unaware they are napalm burns. Her husband believes that Buddhist protesters self-immolating were Communist infiltrators.

Charlene is a memorable character, angry and rebellious, beautiful and sophisticated, a woman Patricia is warned about. Her plans for doing good are not always well thought out and not always successful. But she insists on acting, on doing something, anything, for the great sin is to ignore the pain of the world.

In a year when I have read so many stunningly good books, this one rates at the top of my list of favorites. For its story telling and characters and for its insight and message and emotional and intellectual impact.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

Award winning author McDermott focuses her incredible talent on historical fiction with this book, and she chooses an era that doesn't get nearly enough attention, which is the Vietnam War, particularly in the early years. Tricia and Charlene are living in Vietnam, married to men whose careers have put them in service to their country. We see first hand what it must be like, and we follow both womens' intriguing efforts to influence their husbands' decision making, and by extension, policy. This is perfect for book clubs, and will attract readers well beyond just those who seek out historical fiction.

Alice McDermott has always been one of my favorite authors each of her books drew me in from first to last place.Absolution is so beautifully written from the opening scene I was totally involved the characters came alive these young women living in Saigon helpmeets to their husbands who are stationed there during the Vietnam war.This is a book I will be recommending and I expect it will win awards .One of those special books whose characters stay with you long after you read the last words.#netgalley #fsg

Alice McDermott has provided a stunning evocation of what it meant to be an "American wife" in Vietnam in 1963 when women were "helpmeets" to their husbands, expected to be focused on family to the exclusion of much else. McDermott probes what this means when the society in which one is thrust is foreign, in political turmoil, and filled with veiled references to events and ideas happening just under the surface. Told through a framing device as a long conversation between two pivotal characters the book offers a languid wry mediation on a generation only on the cusp of learning to question authority and the patriarchy. Highly recommend for fans of literary fiction. Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for e-ARC

This quiet story is about a young married woman who travels with her husband to Viet Nam in the early 1960's. The young couple are in newlywed bliss, hoping to start a family. Since wives didn't work, Tricia found herself befriended by a military wife who takes on various charities. Tricia is easy influenced, until she isn't. When in the US, her time was spent taking care of her appearance, the home and meals for her husband. In Viet Nam, servants did all the work which left them with time to fill. The friendship between Tricia and Charlene is complex and nuanced. The story is captivating and I didn't care where it took me, I was going. The story was told by Tricia in her senior years as letters to Charlene's daughter. There is so much to unpack in this gorgeous book. Without question, it is the best book I have read this year. Just who seeks and who receives, absolution?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar Strauss and Giroux for this extraordinary read. I will be recommending this book nonstop.