I've been a longtime fan of Alice McDermott's work, and Absolution is certainly a worthy addition to her oeuvre. She brings the time period and setting to life in such a beautiful way, and of course, the characters shine. I liked getting to know Charlene from Patricia's perspective. I would have liked to know more about Patricia's relationship with her husband after they left Saigon.

McDermott includes just enough politics to provide depth to the narrative without overwhelming it.

The ending is a bit abrupt, but perhaps this is only because I was so enjoying my time with the characters.

Absolution is a marvel. Alice McDermott tells a story about "inconsequential good", set in Saigon in 1963. Patricia is a quiet, thoughtful newlywed married to oil engineer Peter, but no matter what she thinks, she would never question Peter's decisions. Charlene, a practiced corporate wife who won't take no for an answer, welcomes Patricia to her "cabal" of do-gooders, helping starving children, hospital patients, and lepers. Some of Charlene's methods of raising money and manipulating people are questionable, but she plows into the fray, always doing good, and always sure that she knows what is best for everyone around her.

McDermott has chosen to tell this story through several long letters, from Patricia to Charlene's daughter, Rainey, and Rainey writes about her relationship with her mother. This works beautifully, with the reader scarcely aware that these are letters after the fact. The devout Catholicism of Patricia and Peter and all of the schemes and good deeds dreamed up by Charlene are set against the backdrop of Vietnamese suppression of Buddhists and the United States backing a South Vietnam military coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem. Patricia and Rainey write about how their lives have been marked by the same kinds of unintended consequences that followed America’s interference in Southeast Asia.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on November 7, 2023.

This is only the third of Alice McDermott’s books that I’ve had the pleasure to read, a story that begins in the early 1960’s and is set in both the US and Vietnam. But as it is the early 60’s, it begins with a cocktail party, because that was the way life was - everything had to be just so, the right attire, the right lipstick, the hair carefully styled and the stockings carefully attached to avoid runs. Everything needed to be picture perfect.

In Saigon, the men who are stationed there are present throughout the story, although this story is more about the lives of the women, primarily Tricia, a newlywed and Charlene, who seems to see Tricia as someone she can transform into someone who is… more like her - which isn’t necessarily a good thing. Tricia seems to be, at the start, someone who avoids using the word ‘no.’

The descriptive writing of the location alternates between heartbreaking and alluringly enticing. The adults begging in the street is hard enough, but the children begging is heartbreaking. The stories of the children in the hospital, disfigured and in pain, set against the wild parties and the other luxuries these families have - the servants, the luxury of expensive dinners while others beg for food, any food.

Tricia seems to be aware of everything, except perhaps how Charlene has become her ‘director,’ and that Charlene never seems to see Tricia as a capable adult. She perceives her as weak, and manipulates her, because she believes Tricia needs to be more like her.

Many years later, Tricia shares these memories with Charlene’s daughter, who is now an adult. The memories of her earlier years in New York when she was growing up, through their experiences when they were in Vietnam.

Another time, another place, another beautifully shared story by Alice McDermott


Pub Date: 07 Nov 2023

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Absolution by Alice McDermott is one of the finest examples of her talent. Those of her books that I've read have all dealt with different aspects of Irish Catholic life in America. In her later years,

Patricia relates her experiences in Vietnam early in the 1960's when, newly married, she followed her husband Peter, an engineer, because that was what you did in those days. Despite having a college degree. And teaching job in Harlem. The lengthy first section deals with those events, peppered with side comments on the traditions, the clothes, the country as seen by her younger self, and how it was unthinkable to question any decision or information given by a husband. The phrase "...in those days..." was used a lot. The reader learns early on that this account is a letter written to someone she had encountered over there.

Patricia and Peter, both devout Catholics, find themselves overwhelmed by the heat, the rumblings of conflict, the cold war, the American contingent and the things expected of them in that society. The book is a beautiful addition to McDermott's continuing exploration and explanation of the Catholic mindset as well as a portrait of Vietnam under the waning days of the Diem regime. Highly recommended.

Alice McDermott is one of my favorite authors, so I was eager to have the opportunity to read an advance copy of her newest novel, Absolution. As usual, McDermott hits it out of the park! Absolution is quietly compelling with exquisite writing and characters that leap from the page – all in a completely unexpected and surprising setting. Told in a backward-looking format, the story unfolds in two long, letter-writing sequences – an often unnecessary gimmick that works so well here, in the hands of McDermott. The pacing is excellent.

While it is easy to condense the “helping” in this novel to just that of one, specific character, it’s really much broader than that. Absolution is, at its heart, a story of altruism, of “doing good” – in all its many and varied forms. So often, acts of altruism are performed to assuage the “guilt” or obligation of the giver, rather than to match the true needs and desires of the recipient – and Absolution demonstrates that . . . masterfully.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on August 8th, 2023.

One of my best books of the year. The story is about a young, innocent , devout Catholic newlywed in Saigon just before the outbreak of war. Her life is all about tea parties and cocktail parties and acting as a "helpmeet: to her husband. She is all too soo involved in what is tthe actual state of affairs and makes a valiant, though not really successful attempt to assert herself and learn about the real situation in Saigon.
WOnderfully drawn sympathetic characters and a morality tale about guilt and absolution.

This story is mainly set in Saigon in the early days before the war broke out. Two military wives meet Patricia and Charlene. Patricia is a newlywed hoping to start a family. She is more timid and demure while Charlene is what I would describe as an aggressive do gooder. Charlene takes Patricia under her wing as a fellow do gooder. You find out early on that while Charlene is trying to do good things, she goes about it in a shady way. Both women are very emotionally deep in completely opposite ways. Patricia notices everything about everyone she meets and Charlene feels deeply about loving the unfortunate. The writing in this book is lovely and intense. I loved all of the perspectives of the characters. The book is written as a long letter from Patricia to Charlene's daughter Lily ( I missed this fact somehow and was a little put off by the writing style 😂 and confused) but now that I've figured that out, I can look back with even more enjoyment. This book is almost a love letter to that crazy whirlwind friend in your life that you don't know exactly why you follow but you do. To that person that you love but also secretly hate a little bit. The person that changed your life so much and is just unforgettable.

I have been reading Alice McDermott’s novels my whole life. A great book by a great author. I was a young mother during Vietnam, I totally remember the times and mores of those years. Her portrayal was very real and brought back many memories. Thank you so much for my advance copy I will continue to follow this author.

I loved reading about the women who lived as ex-pats in the early days of the Vietnam War. Tricia, a young wife from New York, tells her story to the grown-up daughter of Charlene, the woman who indoctrinated Trish into life as a spouse living in a foreign country. As Tricia looks back sixty years, she sees her innocence, shyness, and overwhelming desire to please her husband, Peter.

Charlene, an experienced ex-pat, pulls Tricia into her charitable schemes for the many children in an orphanage. Charlene is bossy, not easily intimidated, and crafty in finding ways to fulfill what she sees as the right thing to do for everyone, including Tricia. The tragic mistakes of the war are somewhat mirrored in the misguided ventures of charitable acts by the foreign women in poverty-stricken and war-torn Vietnam. As the French depart and leave behind architecture to admire, the American women move in with the attitude that they know what needs to be done. They are, of course, Americans!

McDermott wrote a sad book but an important one. What Charllene and her 'cabal' did in the sixties affected lives for generations. I recommend this book to everyone who has ever lived overseas and is interested in the history of the American presence in Vietnam.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

Absolution by Alice McDermott is a poignant and powerful novel that gives voice to the experiences of American women during the Vietnam War. Tricia and Charlene are two very different women, but both are navigating the challenges of being a wife in a society that values men's ambitions above their own. As they forge an uneasy alliance in Saigon, they begin to question their roles in the war and their own desires to make a difference.

McDermott's prose is lyrical and evocative, bringing to life the sights, sounds, and smells of Saigon in the 1960s. She deftly weaves together the perspectives of Tricia, Charlene, and Charlene's daughter, creating a rich and complex narrative that explores themes of obligation, sacrifice, and redemption. The characters are flawed and fully realized, with motivations that feel both universal and specific to their time and place.

Absolution is a masterful work of historical fiction that sheds light on a lesser-known aspect of the Vietnam War. McDermott's skillful storytelling and empathetic portrayal of her characters make this a novel that will stay with readers long after they've turned the final page.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. This book follows the young American wives in Saigon in 1963 as their husbands have been hired by the government to figure out the future of Vietnam. Tricia meets Charlene, a brilliant and beautiful woman who wants to help the locals, the hungry children, patients in hospitals and even at a leper colony, but Charlene won’t simply join a charitable organization, for some reason she has to do it all on her own, unauthorized. This means raising funds by sometimes troubling ways. Tricia gets caught in the whirlwind that is Charlene and see a glimpse of the city that few see. The book is a fond looking back at this confusing time as, in the present day, one of Charlene’s children has reached out to Tricia asking for memories of her mother from that time. A lovely book, showing a group of women who are not always featured in Vietnam War stories.