The Absent Woman
by Marlene Lee
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Pub Date Apr 01 2013 | Archive Date Aug 24 2017
Description
Advance Praise
The Absent Woman is the story of Virginia Johnstone, who, in search of herself, has left her husband, her two young children, and her safe, comfortable, boringly conventional life, and has driven from her Seattle home to a small coastal town where she moves into an old, ramshackle hotel.
The theme of the discontented runaway wife has been put to novelistic use again and again, but The Absent Woman is fresh, original, compelling—a book wonderfully written, clear, deft, specific, while at the same time beautifully poetic, not only in its descriptions of nature, but of small, often overlooked things.
Virginia has an observant eye. The people she meets, some of whom become of great importance to her, are brought to keenest life, as are her thoughts, her fears and hopes in this new milieu. It is a book often painful in her unflinchingly honest self-searchings. It is also very moving, never sentimental, in the deepness and compassion of her feelings. And it is funny as well, given her observant eye and unique dry humor.
It is a novel for all seasons, a novel about life in all its loveliness and anguish, a novel to be remembered.
Ella Leffland, author of Rumours of Peace, Knight, Death, and The Devil, Mrs. Munck, etc.
In Marlene Lee's
psychologically astute debut, THE ABSENT WOMAN, Virginia Johnstone finds
herself straining against the limitations of her existence as a comfortable
suburban wife and mother. She leaves her husband and her boys to embark on a
sometimes exhilarating, sometimes excruciating, and always compelling journey
of self-examination. In lucid prose, Lee tells a marvelous story with
echoes of Kate Chopin's THE AWAKENING.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781909374416 |
| PRICE | CA$15.99 (CAD) |
| PAGES | 232 |
Featured Reviews
Julie H, Reviewer
A simple easy to read story about Virginia who is trying to find her place in the world and happiness after her marriage ends. This book is well written and questions happiness and your responsibilities as a parent after a marriage ends. Virginia's 2 boys stay with her ex husband and he thinks she is selfish for trying to have a life of her own. The feelings of all the characters in the book are considered and the changes in everybody's lives are well described. A fairly short book but definitely worth reading.
Barbara R, Educator
Virginia Johnstone leaves her marriage and children to live in Hilliard, fifty miles north of Seattle. She is a restless soul and needs to find some passion in her life.
Marlene Lee writes well and her descriptions are elegant. The characters are fleshed out and rounded and the narrative moves along at a good pace. At first I felt uncomfortable because I couldn't relate to a woman who would leave her children, Matt and Lawrence aged just eleven and nine, in search of more fulfilment in her life. Why couldn't she do this within her marriage? The abandonment issues she causes her children seems to elude her. By the middle of the story I was thoroughly engaged in how she would work through the various complications of her relationships with her lover, her piano teacher and her family.
Towards the latter half of the book I began to feel confused about the character of Virginia. She seemed to be written as a very middle aged person - indeed the character describes herself several times as being middle aged. But she is only thirty-four! When did thirty-four become middle-aged? Did the writer change her mind about the age of the character at some stage during the writing?
In addition, I could not work out at what period this story was set. I assumed it was contemporary but there are no references to our modern day. The names of the characters, her husband Ron, her lover Greg and so on all seem to be names from the 1950s.
And the ending seemed hollow. But it was an interesting read with some beautiful writing and good insights into people and behaviour.
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