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Absolution
A riveting account of women’s lives on the margins of the Vietnam War.
In Saigon in 1963, two young American wives form a wary alliance. Tricia is a starry-eyed newlywed, married to a rising oil engineer “on loan” to US Navy Intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a talented hostess and determined altruist, on a mission to relieve the “wretchedness” she sees all around her.
When Tricia miscarries, Charlene sweeps her into a cabal of well-dressed do-gooder American wives. Armed with baskets filled with candy and toys, they descend on hospitals, orphanages, and a leper colony on the coast, determined to relieve suffering, no matter the cost.
Sixty years later, Charlene’s daughter reaches out to Tricia, now widowed and living in Washington. As the two relive their shared experience in Saigon, they are forced to come to terms with the ways their own lives have been shaped and stunted by Charlene’s pursuit of “inconsequential good.”
With a narrative impact that recalls Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, Alice McDermott confronts the unresolved mysteries and ironies of America’s tragic interference in Southeast Asia.
In Saigon in 1963, two young American wives form a wary alliance. Tricia is a starry-eyed newlywed, married to a rising oil engineer “on loan” to US Navy Intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a talented hostess and determined altruist, on a mission to relieve the “wretchedness” she sees all around her.
When Tricia miscarries, Charlene sweeps her into a cabal of well-dressed do-gooder American wives. Armed with baskets filled with candy and toys, they descend on hospitals, orphanages, and a leper colony on the coast, determined to relieve suffering, no matter the cost.
Sixty years later, Charlene’s daughter reaches out to Tricia, now widowed and living in Washington. As the two relive their shared experience in Saigon, they are forced to come to terms with the ways their own lives have been shaped and stunted by Charlene’s pursuit of “inconsequential good.”
With a narrative impact that recalls Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, Alice McDermott confronts the unresolved mysteries and ironies of America’s tragic interference in Southeast Asia.
324 pages, Hardcover
First published October 31, 2023
5336 people are currently reading
54806 people want to read
About the author
Alice McDermott
25 books1,539 followersAlice McDermott (born June 27, 1953) is Johns Hopkins University's Writer-in-Residence. Born in Brooklyn, New York, McDermott attended St. Boniface School in Elmont, Long Island, NY [1967], Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead NY [1971], the State University of New York at Oswego, receiving her BA in 1975, and later received her MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1978.
She has taught at the UCSD and American University, has been a writer-in-residence at Lynchburg and Hollins Colleges in Virginia, and was lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire. Her short stories have appeared in Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle, and Seventeen.
The 1987 recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, and three-time Pulitzer Prize for Fiction nominee, lives outside Washington, with her husband, a neuroscientist, and three children.
She has taught at the UCSD and American University, has been a writer-in-residence at Lynchburg and Hollins Colleges in Virginia, and was lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire. Her short stories have appeared in Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle, and Seventeen.
The 1987 recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, and three-time Pulitzer Prize for Fiction nominee, lives outside Washington, with her husband, a neuroscientist, and three children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,365 reviews
January 5, 2024
major historical events told through the eyes of women living on the edges of them...chef's kiss.
there is a lot to want to look away from in this book—white saviorism, privilege, treatment of those with disabilities, the culturally palatable forms of racism, colonization—but most all of it is deftly and wisely handled, commenting on itself even in the moments in which the characters embodying it seem unaware.
at some points it gets a little ahead or behind of itself in this attempt, but most of the time it's impressive in its rendition of both this subject and what it is to be a woman, to be a mother, and to be flawed at both.
bottom line: this is underrated.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
there is a lot to want to look away from in this book—white saviorism, privilege, treatment of those with disabilities, the culturally palatable forms of racism, colonization—but most all of it is deftly and wisely handled, commenting on itself even in the moments in which the characters embodying it seem unaware.
at some points it gets a little ahead or behind of itself in this attempt, but most of the time it's impressive in its rendition of both this subject and what it is to be a woman, to be a mother, and to be flawed at both.
bottom line: this is underrated.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
April 17, 2023
Right from the beginning I was in Saigon in the early 1960’s, a different place than I imagine when thinking of Vietnam. Tricia, a young newlywed finds herself within a clique of women who want to believe they were living a charmed life in this exotic place with servants galore and garden parties. This life, however is juxtaposed against the starving children in the streets, children in excruciating pain in the hospital from napalm burns, the disfigured lepers, the ominous sound of artillery in the distance, a precursor of what was to come, the place I think of when I think of Vietnam.
Tricia sees them for who they are, yet desires to be a part of them believing it would be good for her husband’s success. She is taken under the wing of Charlene, a cunning and manipulative, corporate wife. “I want to do good,” she says with baskets of toys, books, clothes and helping in ways that are questionable. Tricia stays by Charlene’s side, until she doesn’t and makes her own choice in a scene which makes the reader question as she does - is it really “inconsequential good”.
The story is mainly told by Tricia in her older years to Rainey, Charlene’s daughter. She seamlessly goes back to her years growing up in New York, as well as telling Rainey about the time they were in Vietnam. We also get Rainey’s perspective, mostly on her relationship with her mother. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my very favorite character, Dom, who as a young soldier is seen in the hospital cradling and calming the suffering young children. I was moved to know this kind young man, full of heart and care turns out to be the same in his later life.
At times, I thought this felt different from her other stories filled with ordinary, yet extraordinary characters, Irish Catholics in Brooklyn, or Long Island. I was wrong. What I found here once again was McDermott’s keen sense of time and place in which characters, realistic with their flaws reflect a humanity that we connect with. They were just in another place for a while. Don’t expect to find a lot of action, just quiet, beautiful story telling about a not so quiet time. Alice McDermott has long been a favorite writer of mine and with this one, I’ve read all nine of her novels I’ve loved them all and I highly recommend any of them as well as her non fiction book on writing. It’s not a surprise her books have won multiple literary awards.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Farrar, Strauss and Giroux through Edelweiss.
Tricia sees them for who they are, yet desires to be a part of them believing it would be good for her husband’s success. She is taken under the wing of Charlene, a cunning and manipulative, corporate wife. “I want to do good,” she says with baskets of toys, books, clothes and helping in ways that are questionable. Tricia stays by Charlene’s side, until she doesn’t and makes her own choice in a scene which makes the reader question as she does - is it really “inconsequential good”.
The story is mainly told by Tricia in her older years to Rainey, Charlene’s daughter. She seamlessly goes back to her years growing up in New York, as well as telling Rainey about the time they were in Vietnam. We also get Rainey’s perspective, mostly on her relationship with her mother. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my very favorite character, Dom, who as a young soldier is seen in the hospital cradling and calming the suffering young children. I was moved to know this kind young man, full of heart and care turns out to be the same in his later life.
At times, I thought this felt different from her other stories filled with ordinary, yet extraordinary characters, Irish Catholics in Brooklyn, or Long Island. I was wrong. What I found here once again was McDermott’s keen sense of time and place in which characters, realistic with their flaws reflect a humanity that we connect with. They were just in another place for a while. Don’t expect to find a lot of action, just quiet, beautiful story telling about a not so quiet time. Alice McDermott has long been a favorite writer of mine and with this one, I’ve read all nine of her novels I’ve loved them all and I highly recommend any of them as well as her non fiction book on writing. It’s not a surprise her books have won multiple literary awards.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Farrar, Strauss and Giroux through Edelweiss.
November 19, 2023
McDermott’s writing is lush and vivid. I was in Vietnam with the heat, the bugs and witnessing the startling beauty paralleled with the sadness of poverty and disease. This is a story that takes place in Saigon, just before the war erupts in 1963. American women who work together to be ‘help meets’ for their husband’s blossoming careers. Their naïveté in thinking the small acts they committed were helping a greater cause.
McDermott masterly takes us through a characterization of quiet expansiveness while bringing us on a journey to a place in time where a country, in its own greed, failed to recognize it didn’t belong.
5⭐️
McDermott masterly takes us through a characterization of quiet expansiveness while bringing us on a journey to a place in time where a country, in its own greed, failed to recognize it didn’t belong.
5⭐️
December 24, 2023
3.5 stars
“Be a helpmeet to your husband. Be the jewel in his crown.”
Women were pretty fixtures during the setting of this book, the 1960s. I couldn’t help but think of Paul Scott’s first novel in the Raj Quartet (The Jewel in the Crown) while reading that quote. Come to think of it, the jewel in the crown metaphor works just as well here with the American wives of those men stationed in Vietnam. I suppose I could go so far as to say it was that feeling of paternalism that made these men believe they were doing the right thing by interfering with that conflict in the first place. Oh, and that word “helpmeet” was used three times in a matter of two pages within the first six pages of this, my first novel by Alice McDermott. McDermott clearly made her point about these women. I, on the other hand, had to smirk and wonder what exactly I was getting myself into! But she writes a pretty compelling story that rang true to the time and place after all.
“I recall our hubris on that first morning in Saigon, our confidence, our Western centrism enhanced, inflated beyond all forgiveness, by our far more conceited, bone-deep New-Yorker-from-Yonkers self-regard.”
The majority of this novel reflects the musings of a woman, Tricia, looking back on the time when she followed her husband to Vietnam when the two were newly married. There she meets a charismatic and confident woman, Charlene. Charlene is not the kind of woman to sit on the sidelines and meekly follow instructions, however. She gets involved with charitable events and dreams up her own schemes to cheer up the children at the hospital as well as those exiled to the leprosy community. Charlene is one of those women we all know. She’s attractive to men but a “mean girl” when it comes to other women. If the “mean girl” likes you, however, all is well in your world, right?! Well, this sort of woman often has a way of manipulating those within her circle. In this case, Tricia becomes her “project”. The thing is, some good is actually done here. But what motivates a person? Can she go too far? Are her efforts truly selfless? In an earlier thread in Tricia’s life, a friend’s aunt makes a statement that I found worked quite well when I considered it in light of Charlene’s efforts towards altruism:
“… self-sacrifice is never really selfless. It’s often quite selfish.”
I enjoyed this overall. It went down easily enough – not fluffy but not as heavy as I would expect a topic like this to be. Not that I wasn’t moved by some of these scenes, because I was – particularly when Tricia holds a child in pain in the hospital. The child who was one minute a separate entity that needed to be soothed, and the next, while in her arms, a solid and breathing being, exuding humanity in her suffering and bringing forth the empathetic part of Tricia’s nature.
One little inconsistency that niggled me a bit – can’t help but point it out. Early on in the book Tricia notes: “In those days, the war, Vietnam itself, was nothing at all like what it would become… Saigon was still a lovely, an exotic, adventure (we’d also seen The King and I – in fact, I saw it four times) – and the cocoon in which American dependents dwelled was still polished to a high shine by our sense of ourselves and our great, good nation.” Umm, Saigon and Bangkok are not the same, the last I knew. Perhaps she was displaying her naiveté, but still it rankled!
The above combined with a weird, hard to digest coincidence at the end kept me from loving this, but I admired it enough to seek out Alice McDermott again in the future. This had a lot of food for thought surrounding the morals of meddling in the affairs of others – both on a small and grand scale. How does one reconcile with this later in life?
“As you say, no such thing as a life without regret. Maybe because we fortunates have far too many options.”
“Be a helpmeet to your husband. Be the jewel in his crown.”
Women were pretty fixtures during the setting of this book, the 1960s. I couldn’t help but think of Paul Scott’s first novel in the Raj Quartet (The Jewel in the Crown) while reading that quote. Come to think of it, the jewel in the crown metaphor works just as well here with the American wives of those men stationed in Vietnam. I suppose I could go so far as to say it was that feeling of paternalism that made these men believe they were doing the right thing by interfering with that conflict in the first place. Oh, and that word “helpmeet” was used three times in a matter of two pages within the first six pages of this, my first novel by Alice McDermott. McDermott clearly made her point about these women. I, on the other hand, had to smirk and wonder what exactly I was getting myself into! But she writes a pretty compelling story that rang true to the time and place after all.
“I recall our hubris on that first morning in Saigon, our confidence, our Western centrism enhanced, inflated beyond all forgiveness, by our far more conceited, bone-deep New-Yorker-from-Yonkers self-regard.”
The majority of this novel reflects the musings of a woman, Tricia, looking back on the time when she followed her husband to Vietnam when the two were newly married. There she meets a charismatic and confident woman, Charlene. Charlene is not the kind of woman to sit on the sidelines and meekly follow instructions, however. She gets involved with charitable events and dreams up her own schemes to cheer up the children at the hospital as well as those exiled to the leprosy community. Charlene is one of those women we all know. She’s attractive to men but a “mean girl” when it comes to other women. If the “mean girl” likes you, however, all is well in your world, right?! Well, this sort of woman often has a way of manipulating those within her circle. In this case, Tricia becomes her “project”. The thing is, some good is actually done here. But what motivates a person? Can she go too far? Are her efforts truly selfless? In an earlier thread in Tricia’s life, a friend’s aunt makes a statement that I found worked quite well when I considered it in light of Charlene’s efforts towards altruism:
“… self-sacrifice is never really selfless. It’s often quite selfish.”
I enjoyed this overall. It went down easily enough – not fluffy but not as heavy as I would expect a topic like this to be. Not that I wasn’t moved by some of these scenes, because I was – particularly when Tricia holds a child in pain in the hospital. The child who was one minute a separate entity that needed to be soothed, and the next, while in her arms, a solid and breathing being, exuding humanity in her suffering and bringing forth the empathetic part of Tricia’s nature.
One little inconsistency that niggled me a bit – can’t help but point it out. Early on in the book Tricia notes: “In those days, the war, Vietnam itself, was nothing at all like what it would become… Saigon was still a lovely, an exotic, adventure (we’d also seen The King and I – in fact, I saw it four times) – and the cocoon in which American dependents dwelled was still polished to a high shine by our sense of ourselves and our great, good nation.” Umm, Saigon and Bangkok are not the same, the last I knew. Perhaps she was displaying her naiveté, but still it rankled!
The above combined with a weird, hard to digest coincidence at the end kept me from loving this, but I admired it enough to seek out Alice McDermott again in the future. This had a lot of food for thought surrounding the morals of meddling in the affairs of others – both on a small and grand scale. How does one reconcile with this later in life?
“As you say, no such thing as a life without regret. Maybe because we fortunates have far too many options.”
November 11, 2023
Alice McDermott – what a fine storyteller. Absolution is my first taste of her writing, and she's left me hungry for more.
A quiet read, the novel transports us to 1963 Saigon in the midst of the Vietnam War, where two young American wives form a tenuous friendship. I say tenuous because Charlene is a force of nature, manipulative and more than willing to break rules to accomplish her goals, and when she meets quiet, passive Tricia, she steamrolls the other woman into helping her raise money for gifts to orphaned and unwell children.
The story of these two women is told 60 years later when Tricia connects with Charlene’s daughter, Rainey, and they relive their time in Saigon. And through their shared memories, a reckoning occurs – that of the impact Charlene had on both their lives in her quest to do her inconsequential good.
We all know that women had little autonomy during this time in history. They didn’t have much of a say in the inner workings of their marriage and in their career (if they even did work outside the home), and McDermott does an excellent job of showing not only how little power these women had but also how so many of them carried a low-level anger and frustration because of it.
And this powerlessness is the reason Charlene is so determined to accomplish her altruism. It’s really all she can do while in Vietnam, and because she has such little power in other aspects of her life, she doesn’t hesitate to bend the system, and people, to her will, all in the name of doing good. But what’s unfortunate is that she doesn’t care if others are harmed in the process, her children included.
Tricia and Charlene’s story is riveting. And McDermott’s writing is lovely and brilliant in its introspection. She challenges us as readers to ponder the idea of whether any good is ever too small, to the point where it’s not even worth doing. And also, does the good work itself absolve a person of their immoral machinations?
The book does end abruptly, so be prepared for the story to just sort of stop. But I was okay with it, because McDermott only ever meant for us to have a slice of these women’s lives. A snapshot is all she gives us, and a snapshot must satisfy us.
My sincerest appreciation to Alice McDermott, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.
A quiet read, the novel transports us to 1963 Saigon in the midst of the Vietnam War, where two young American wives form a tenuous friendship. I say tenuous because Charlene is a force of nature, manipulative and more than willing to break rules to accomplish her goals, and when she meets quiet, passive Tricia, she steamrolls the other woman into helping her raise money for gifts to orphaned and unwell children.
The story of these two women is told 60 years later when Tricia connects with Charlene’s daughter, Rainey, and they relive their time in Saigon. And through their shared memories, a reckoning occurs – that of the impact Charlene had on both their lives in her quest to do her inconsequential good.
We all know that women had little autonomy during this time in history. They didn’t have much of a say in the inner workings of their marriage and in their career (if they even did work outside the home), and McDermott does an excellent job of showing not only how little power these women had but also how so many of them carried a low-level anger and frustration because of it.
And this powerlessness is the reason Charlene is so determined to accomplish her altruism. It’s really all she can do while in Vietnam, and because she has such little power in other aspects of her life, she doesn’t hesitate to bend the system, and people, to her will, all in the name of doing good. But what’s unfortunate is that she doesn’t care if others are harmed in the process, her children included.
Tricia and Charlene’s story is riveting. And McDermott’s writing is lovely and brilliant in its introspection. She challenges us as readers to ponder the idea of whether any good is ever too small, to the point where it’s not even worth doing. And also, does the good work itself absolve a person of their immoral machinations?
The book does end abruptly, so be prepared for the story to just sort of stop. But I was okay with it, because McDermott only ever meant for us to have a slice of these women’s lives. A snapshot is all she gives us, and a snapshot must satisfy us.
My sincerest appreciation to Alice McDermott, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.
October 11, 2023
Clearly, I'm going to be in the minority here, but I just don't get the praise for this. If anything, this is very "White People Taco Night" or "Chicken Broccoli" if that makes any sense?
Yes, yes, the writing is beautiful, and it's a reflection on a specific time in history and a slice of life for these over-privileged, white women who were married to military officers who were stationed in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) during a very specific time. There's a very veiled discussion of race and guilt, but honestly, it's just so convoluted and mixed and jumbled within the 300+ pages that it's really beside the point. Tricia's part and her past timeline, as well as her timeline in Vietnam, is strange. Her guilt over not having children is interesting because it's what is so expected of women of her time.
Tricia's tales of Charlene's 'good works' show some good intentions but again, it's the white savior complex that so often comes with books and films. The continual misnaming of Ly as Lily in the book was infuriating. Ly clearly said that it was her name and yet Tricia said that she just couldn't adjust.
The leper village, the officer's club, the Barbies....
I feel that there is so much more going on during this time in Saigon that could be explored, way more than what these women were doing. Their shopping and lunching were so meaningless. The lives of the women working for these women were more interesting to me. I wanted to know more about them, where did they go at night? Where were their families? What happened to them when the white people left? That is interesting to me, not what sort of house someone moved into afterward.
This is what I mean by "White People Taco Night". This is the oatmeal version of a war story so that it's palatable for white women to read and sleep at night. I don't need a continuation of the white savior that no one asked for.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Yes, yes, the writing is beautiful, and it's a reflection on a specific time in history and a slice of life for these over-privileged, white women who were married to military officers who were stationed in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) during a very specific time. There's a very veiled discussion of race and guilt, but honestly, it's just so convoluted and mixed and jumbled within the 300+ pages that it's really beside the point. Tricia's part and her past timeline, as well as her timeline in Vietnam, is strange. Her guilt over not having children is interesting because it's what is so expected of women of her time.
Tricia's tales of Charlene's 'good works' show some good intentions but again, it's the white savior complex that so often comes with books and films. The continual misnaming of Ly as Lily in the book was infuriating. Ly clearly said that it was her name and yet Tricia said that she just couldn't adjust.
The leper village, the officer's club, the Barbies....
I feel that there is so much more going on during this time in Saigon that could be explored, way more than what these women were doing. Their shopping and lunching were so meaningless. The lives of the women working for these women were more interesting to me. I wanted to know more about them, where did they go at night? Where were their families? What happened to them when the white people left? That is interesting to me, not what sort of house someone moved into afterward.
This is what I mean by "White People Taco Night". This is the oatmeal version of a war story so that it's palatable for white women to read and sleep at night. I don't need a continuation of the white savior that no one asked for.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.
November 13, 2023
Absolution by Alice McDermott is a Blend of Historical and Literary Fiction!
We are surrounded by story. ~ Alice McDermott
Absolution is a story told mostly in the first-person voice of Tricia, a quiet and reserved newlywed, living in 1963 Saigon with her engineer husband on loan to US Navy Intelligence. Tricia is quickly befriended by Charlene, a polished corporate wife and mother of three, who proves to be painfully persuasive, a bit of a rebel, and a consummate do-gooder.
Tricia holds fond memories of Charlene's daughter, Rainey, who reaches out to her sixty years later when an unlikely encounter stirs memories of her mother and their time together in Vietnam...
Absolution is my first Alice McDermott novel and I'm blown away by her beautiful writing style that's both engaging and evocative, constructed of simple words streaming together, so thoughtfully and artfully, carrying me away to another time and place in my mind.
McDermott has crafted characterizations that feel historically correct for the time period. Not every character is likable but all are important to the story and feel authentic.
Absolution audiobook is narrated by Jesse Vilinsky and Rachel Kenney who give life to Tricia and Rainey. Jesse's voicing of Tricia's first-person narration is reminiscent of listening to a close friend telling you her story of a time spent far away and long ago. Her narration is exceptional.
Through McDermott's affecting writing style and storytelling, I was mesmerized by Tricia's reflections of the year she spent in Saigon. The joy and heartbreak, the pleasure and frustration, the freedom and obligation, it was as intoxicating as it was sobering. Her personal experiences and observations of being an American woman and a new wife in the 1960's was raw, painful, and maddening. I began to feel what she felt. I took on her pain.
I am such an emotional reader and this book stole my heart. I will definitely be searching this author's backlist and I highly recommend Absolution to readers who enjoy a blend of Historical and Literary Fiction like I do!
4.75⭐rounded up!
Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Alice McDermott for an ALC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.
We are surrounded by story. ~ Alice McDermott
Absolution is a story told mostly in the first-person voice of Tricia, a quiet and reserved newlywed, living in 1963 Saigon with her engineer husband on loan to US Navy Intelligence. Tricia is quickly befriended by Charlene, a polished corporate wife and mother of three, who proves to be painfully persuasive, a bit of a rebel, and a consummate do-gooder.
Tricia holds fond memories of Charlene's daughter, Rainey, who reaches out to her sixty years later when an unlikely encounter stirs memories of her mother and their time together in Vietnam...
Absolution is my first Alice McDermott novel and I'm blown away by her beautiful writing style that's both engaging and evocative, constructed of simple words streaming together, so thoughtfully and artfully, carrying me away to another time and place in my mind.
McDermott has crafted characterizations that feel historically correct for the time period. Not every character is likable but all are important to the story and feel authentic.
Absolution audiobook is narrated by Jesse Vilinsky and Rachel Kenney who give life to Tricia and Rainey. Jesse's voicing of Tricia's first-person narration is reminiscent of listening to a close friend telling you her story of a time spent far away and long ago. Her narration is exceptional.
Through McDermott's affecting writing style and storytelling, I was mesmerized by Tricia's reflections of the year she spent in Saigon. The joy and heartbreak, the pleasure and frustration, the freedom and obligation, it was as intoxicating as it was sobering. Her personal experiences and observations of being an American woman and a new wife in the 1960's was raw, painful, and maddening. I began to feel what she felt. I took on her pain.
I am such an emotional reader and this book stole my heart. I will definitely be searching this author's backlist and I highly recommend Absolution to readers who enjoy a blend of Historical and Literary Fiction like I do!
4.75⭐rounded up!
Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Alice McDermott for an ALC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.
June 25, 2023
In this story the wives of two American men stationed in Vietnam in 1963 are brought to the forefront. It’s the story of their lives during a very tumultuous year as these two with very different personalities…come together to try and help the Vietnamese people around them.
The story also moves to sixty years later with the reappearance of a Vietnam vet that they knew when they were in Saigon and they look back on their time there.
A really good story.. only my second by this author.. also loved The Ninth Hour
4+ stars
Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for the ARC!
The story also moves to sixty years later with the reappearance of a Vietnam vet that they knew when they were in Saigon and they look back on their time there.
A really good story.. only my second by this author.. also loved The Ninth Hour
4+ stars
Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for the ARC!
September 11, 2023
'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.
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.
May 9, 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
October 31, 2023
For most of its 336 pages, "Absolution" seems like "The Ugly American" told from the rarely heard point of view of the wives of American diplomats and businessmen in 1960s Saigon. With an engrossing plot, richly complex characters, and sharp observations of even the smallest social gestures, this compelling novel explores important themes such as colonialism, friendship, religion, and the meaning of “doing good.”
Then, the last one-fourth of the story takes a sharp turn that enhances the themes with new insights and poignancy, although somewhat weakening the narrative.
The set-up: In early 1963, young newlyweds Tricia and Peter Kelly arrive in Saigon, where Peter will be working as a lawyer for the Navy. Over the next eight months, Charlene – the charismatic, brilliant, beautiful, and manipulative wife of a wealthy American oilman -- lures shy Tricia into increasingly convoluted schemes that skirt both law and danger. They start by hiring a local woman to sew traditional clothing for “Saigon Barbies,” which will be sold to Americans to raise money for charity; from there, they travel deeper into uncharted roads, to deliver gift baskets to a leper colony. Meanwhile, Tricia is trying to get pregnant, and the U.S.-backed Diem regime is rotting from corruption, paranoia, and violence.
The story is told through letters from Tricia to Charlene’s grown daughter, Rainey, some 60 years later, with a letter from Rainey sandwiched in.
One of the beauties of this novel is the sharp detail and complexity with which almost all the characters are described (although there are just too many to keep track of). Over and over, award-winning author Alice McDermott toys with stereotypes, then tosses them aside. For instance, if Charlene is too often a bully, a flirt, and a distant mother, she is the only one of the complacent wives who sees the inequality and cares enough to try to help the Vietnamese, even in her admittedly small ways. Or consider Peter: Sometimes he is such a knee-jerk anti-Communist that it seems he must be a covert CIA operative. Yet he is deeply religious, naively viewing JFK and Diem – “two Catholic presidents standing together to defeat the march of communists, to fulfill Our Lady’s promise at Fatima” – as a “miraculous, portentous, historic alignment of the stars.”
The long-ago milieu is also richly described -- the Americans’ faith that their government was well-meaning, that a benevolent God was on their side against Communism, that it was perfectly normal for Westerners to live in elegant mansions while the Vietnamese worked as their servants, that women should obey their husbands.
The book also raises important questions about whether outsiders like Charlene, well-meaning or not, can ever really help.
At a couple of moments, the narrative hints at a dangerous turning point, to some degree playing on the reader’s knowledge of what looms in Vietnam. When that point repeatedly fails to occur, it initially feels like weak plotting.
In fact, that apparent letdown is proof of award-winning author Alice McDermott’s refusal to rely on clichés, her insistence on digging for the truth. After all, the war and its impact also didn’t follow the path that looked so obvious back in 1963.
Adapted from my review in the "New York Journal of Books" https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...
Then, the last one-fourth of the story takes a sharp turn that enhances the themes with new insights and poignancy, although somewhat weakening the narrative.
The set-up: In early 1963, young newlyweds Tricia and Peter Kelly arrive in Saigon, where Peter will be working as a lawyer for the Navy. Over the next eight months, Charlene – the charismatic, brilliant, beautiful, and manipulative wife of a wealthy American oilman -- lures shy Tricia into increasingly convoluted schemes that skirt both law and danger. They start by hiring a local woman to sew traditional clothing for “Saigon Barbies,” which will be sold to Americans to raise money for charity; from there, they travel deeper into uncharted roads, to deliver gift baskets to a leper colony. Meanwhile, Tricia is trying to get pregnant, and the U.S.-backed Diem regime is rotting from corruption, paranoia, and violence.
The story is told through letters from Tricia to Charlene’s grown daughter, Rainey, some 60 years later, with a letter from Rainey sandwiched in.
One of the beauties of this novel is the sharp detail and complexity with which almost all the characters are described (although there are just too many to keep track of). Over and over, award-winning author Alice McDermott toys with stereotypes, then tosses them aside. For instance, if Charlene is too often a bully, a flirt, and a distant mother, she is the only one of the complacent wives who sees the inequality and cares enough to try to help the Vietnamese, even in her admittedly small ways. Or consider Peter: Sometimes he is such a knee-jerk anti-Communist that it seems he must be a covert CIA operative. Yet he is deeply religious, naively viewing JFK and Diem – “two Catholic presidents standing together to defeat the march of communists, to fulfill Our Lady’s promise at Fatima” – as a “miraculous, portentous, historic alignment of the stars.”
The long-ago milieu is also richly described -- the Americans’ faith that their government was well-meaning, that a benevolent God was on their side against Communism, that it was perfectly normal for Westerners to live in elegant mansions while the Vietnamese worked as their servants, that women should obey their husbands.
The book also raises important questions about whether outsiders like Charlene, well-meaning or not, can ever really help.
At a couple of moments, the narrative hints at a dangerous turning point, to some degree playing on the reader’s knowledge of what looms in Vietnam. When that point repeatedly fails to occur, it initially feels like weak plotting.
In fact, that apparent letdown is proof of award-winning author Alice McDermott’s refusal to rely on clichés, her insistence on digging for the truth. After all, the war and its impact also didn’t follow the path that looked so obvious back in 1963.
Adapted from my review in the "New York Journal of Books" https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...
November 19, 2023
Having filled my novel, THE GUEST ROOM, with Armenian (and some American) Barbies, I was fascinated to see how one "enterprising" American wife in Vietnam in 1963 creates Saigon Barbies in Alice McDermott's haunting new novel, ABSOLUTION. As we all saw in Greta Gerwig's brilliant "Barbie" movie this past summer, the Barbie Doll's Tantalus vase of meanings is an entry into the exploration of gender role socialization -- and a way to travel back and forth in time, given the different and iconic roles the doll has played in its history. But the Saigon Barbies are but one of the many remarkable ways that McDermott brings to life Saigon in the months before the Kennedy Assassination. And, as always, for McDermott, character comes first, and the two generations of women we meet in this moving novel gave me -- a novelist who has written one book about, in part, the legacies the Vietnam War for Americans -- new insights into what that world was like for the wives of the spies and "engineers" and "advisors" sent there in the early 1960s.
November 21, 2023
A well written, yet not too interesting story about the wives of rich Americans in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. It is written in the epistolary format of a letter being sent to the adult version of an eight year old girl, Rainey, who we meet at the beginning of the story. There is a tone about it that makes you feel like something significant is going to happen. I did not encounter this significant event. My other concern with the story is that Tricia, the main character is writing a letter to Rainey for the first 3/4 of the book, then Rainey writes back and the tone is exactly the same as Tricias. Being that Rainey is from a different generation, one would expect different language and different phrasing. The denouement does come about 92% into the book but it was also a bit vanilla for me. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
November 29, 2023
4.5 Stars
At the beginning of her novel Absolution Alice McDermott tells us "You have no idea what it was like. For us. The women, I mean. The wives." McDermott is referring to the young and naive women who accompanied their husbands to Vietnam in the early 1960's. Patricia, now an elderly widow, retrospectively recounts the events of her life then and there. This unique lens lends itself to a quiet intimate peek into the lives of these women. Some of their actions and choices are specific to their generation. Some of them are universal such as choices surrounding parenthood and family.
Though the war is in the background, McDermott only lets it filter into the story obliquely, I see the parallel between the charitable interventions of Charlene and her friends and the growing American military intervention.
Along the way McDermott writes beautiful descriptions all the while asking big questions. How do you define good and then attempt to do the right thing? And when you don't get it right can you forgive yourself? Can you forgive others? She shows us mere mortals making mistakes, failing, doing terrible things, doing wonderful things, loving and hating each other.
Because the story is told looking back, it gives Patricia the opportunity to draw a through line from where women were in 1963 to where we are now, and perhaps to what that means for where we go from here.
Every word in Alice McDermott's novel shines like highly polished cut glass and her characters are rich and nuanced. I couldn't ask for more.
Publication 2023
At the beginning of her novel Absolution Alice McDermott tells us "You have no idea what it was like. For us. The women, I mean. The wives." McDermott is referring to the young and naive women who accompanied their husbands to Vietnam in the early 1960's. Patricia, now an elderly widow, retrospectively recounts the events of her life then and there. This unique lens lends itself to a quiet intimate peek into the lives of these women. Some of their actions and choices are specific to their generation. Some of them are universal such as choices surrounding parenthood and family.
Though the war is in the background, McDermott only lets it filter into the story obliquely, I see the parallel between the charitable interventions of Charlene and her friends and the growing American military intervention.
Along the way McDermott writes beautiful descriptions all the while asking big questions. How do you define good and then attempt to do the right thing? And when you don't get it right can you forgive yourself? Can you forgive others? She shows us mere mortals making mistakes, failing, doing terrible things, doing wonderful things, loving and hating each other.
Because the story is told looking back, it gives Patricia the opportunity to draw a through line from where women were in 1963 to where we are now, and perhaps to what that means for where we go from here.
Every word in Alice McDermott's novel shines like highly polished cut glass and her characters are rich and nuanced. I couldn't ask for more.
Publication 2023
November 29, 2023
While I believe this book was written very well, I’m struggling to find points of redemption. The plot quickly fell apart about halfway through and became a random assortment of events and characters. Finished up with a short “where are they now” segment for random characters. Random is about the only word I can use to describe this book.
January 18, 2024
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 remembers her experiences in Vietnam early in the 1960's when, as a newly married woman, 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.
In her later years, Patricia remembers her experiences in Vietnam early in the 1960's when, as a newly married woman, 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.
November 17, 2023
McDermott has written another of her trademark, slice of life style books about seemingly unremarkable people, this time giving us a different glimpse into the very early (1963) Vietnam War. Not a war novel as such, but a look at the wives of American engineers and contractors living in Saigon at that time. Women were expected to be "helpmeets" to their husbands, as in, look good, stay quiet, know your place. That wasn't good enough for some of them, so they found other, acceptable ways to be useful. But when does meaning well and doing good turn into harm when it goes too far?
As always, Alice McDermott mixes rich characterization and descriptive settings into a deceptively simple plot that goes deeper than you think. I have loved all her books and this is no different.
As always, Alice McDermott mixes rich characterization and descriptive settings into a deceptively simple plot that goes deeper than you think. I have loved all her books and this is no different.
July 15, 2024
4+
Absolution is defined by Goggle as “the release from guilt, obligation, or punishment”. The synonyms given are: forgiveness, pardoning, exoneration, remission.
Alice McDermott's fine novel delves into many aspects of forgiveness and guilt, one being the American occupation in Saigon in 1963 and the subsequent war. Can we, or the characters in this book, absolve ourselves? Can a country be forgiven? What can we do to assuage our guilt and does that do any good or just make us feel less guilty?
Charlene and Patricia, the two main characters, are military wives expected to entertain, socialize and be attentive to their husbands. Charlene, more worldly, domineering, ambitious and manipulative, takes the newly wed and very innocent Patricia under her wing. She involves her in projects that, in her estimation, the Vietnamese people need. She thinks she knows what is best for Patricia too.
The story is told in letters between Charlene’s daughter and Patricia many decades later. Patricia is an old woman now able to see the moral implications of those years as well as her strange friendship with the overpowering Charlene. I, like Patricia, definitely would have done some things differently looking back now to my 20-something-year-old self.
I loved this book. I have known many Charlenes and many Patricias. They were very authentic. The turmoil of that time period due to our country’s involvement there, the role of wives, and the complicated relationships women often have with one another were also very real. I have only read 3 or 4 other books by this author and don’t remember liking them to the extent I enjoyed Absolution. I highly recommend it.
Absolution is defined by Goggle as “the release from guilt, obligation, or punishment”. The synonyms given are: forgiveness, pardoning, exoneration, remission.
Alice McDermott's fine novel delves into many aspects of forgiveness and guilt, one being the American occupation in Saigon in 1963 and the subsequent war. Can we, or the characters in this book, absolve ourselves? Can a country be forgiven? What can we do to assuage our guilt and does that do any good or just make us feel less guilty?
Charlene and Patricia, the two main characters, are military wives expected to entertain, socialize and be attentive to their husbands. Charlene, more worldly, domineering, ambitious and manipulative, takes the newly wed and very innocent Patricia under her wing. She involves her in projects that, in her estimation, the Vietnamese people need. She thinks she knows what is best for Patricia too.
The story is told in letters between Charlene’s daughter and Patricia many decades later. Patricia is an old woman now able to see the moral implications of those years as well as her strange friendship with the overpowering Charlene. I, like Patricia, definitely would have done some things differently looking back now to my 20-something-year-old self.
I loved this book. I have known many Charlenes and many Patricias. They were very authentic. The turmoil of that time period due to our country’s involvement there, the role of wives, and the complicated relationships women often have with one another were also very real. I have only read 3 or 4 other books by this author and don’t remember liking them to the extent I enjoyed Absolution. I highly recommend it.
January 13, 2024
The anguish of the earth absolves our eyes. . . .
---SIEGRIED SASSOON, "Absolution"
That stunning epigraph opens the latest novel by Alice McDermott, Absolution. According to Wikipedia sources, Siegfried Sassoon was an English war poet, writer and soldier. Sassoon became one of the leading posts of World War I and was decorated for bravery on the Western Front. It is said that his poetry both described the horrors of the war in the trenches. Soon Sassoon became a focal point for dissent and against the continuation of the war with his lone protest in July 2017 entitled Soldier's Declaration. It is immediately apparent the underlying protest and upheaval that was the hallmark of the Vietnam War will be an underlying theme of this epistolary novel.
It is 1963 in Saigon opening a riveting account of the women's lives living on the margins of the Vietnam War that will seem unsettling and unbelievable unless one can remember those days of the Kennedy presidency and the rising protests against the Vietnam War with all of its horrors. It is a time of flux in the struggle for women's independence. One of the brides recalls that on her wedding day, the only advice from her father was: "Be a helpmeet to your husband. Be the jewel in his crown." And throughout this epistolary narrative an important through-line is that of the American Barbie doll, a fitting metaphor indeed. It is in this book that the American wives take center stage in literature about the impact of the Vietnam War. The women focused primarily upon are Charlene, described as a practiced corporate spouse, beautiful and a bully. She embraces Tricia, a shy newlywed of a rising attorney on loan to navy intelligence, as part of her charitable cabal. Much of the opening of the book centers on the charitable project organized by Charlene and her cabal, the Saigon Barbie project which begins to have far-reaching ramifications throughout the story. Key to the project is the intricate handiwork of Vietnamese house girl and seamstress, Lily. The narrative unflinchingly shows the altruism and insular frivolity of the expatriate lifestyle in Saigon. But it is in retrospect that the many threads and lessons learned during that pivotal time begin to come to light as Charlene's daughter, Rainey, reaches out sixty years later to Tricia and they begin their epistolary relationship shining a light on that time in society. This is by far one of the finest and most impactful books that I have read by Alice McDermott.
August 25, 2024
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.
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.
April 28, 2025
Hated this book. I think I’m mostly fatigued from reading too many books about the impact of the Vietnam War on the US veterans and civilians with very little acknowledgement or care or compassion for the impact on the Vietnamese, the resulting diaspora, the multigenerational trauma, the US imperialism, etc.
The merit of this book on its own was also low for me. I found all the characters annoying. It’s as if a town of “Karens” descended on Saigon with the most ignorant white saviorship agenda ever.
The merit of this book on its own was also low for me. I found all the characters annoying. It’s as if a town of “Karens” descended on Saigon with the most ignorant white saviorship agenda ever.
June 13, 2024
My yoga instructor reminds us several times during practice to stop holding our breath in anticipation of the next pose. Of course, none of us realize we have stopped breathing, but from the stillness in the room, you can hear the lack of specific, deliberate ujjayi inhales and exhales.
I think this is what Saigon in 1962-63 must have felt like. A brief interval of collective held breath before the United States plunged into war. Of course, the U.S. had been allied with South Vietnam for several years and participating in an escalating conflict with the North Vietnamese Army, but in 1963 it was still possible for a Western expat community of military attachés and oil execs to pretend they were in an exotic playground.
Alice McDermott captures this singular moment in time in Absolution, an exquisitely rendered portrait of marriage, self-actualization, and moral equivocation. In a story that moves between early 1960's Saigon and the Maryland shore sixty years later through a series of letters and flashbacks, McDermott offers a perspective of the Vietnam war I've not yet read. Through Tricia, a newlywed just arrived from the States with her Navy lawyer husband, we see the strange remove of an expat wife, how she was able to exist in a culture not her own without engaging, moving from social club to cocktail party by way of servants and generous living allowances.
And yet some did step into the world around them, their curiosity and good intentions resulting in life-altering consequences. Tricia is drawn into a scheme to raise money for injured and impoverished Vietnamese children by charismatic Charlene, a seasoned expat wife and mother of three. Charlene can handle herself in a jeep, at a leper colony, in a hospital ward and in the tennis club all without breaking a sweat. It's Charlene's daughter Rainey, in elementary school in 1963, whom Tricia writes to sixty years later, recalling Charlene's driving force behind events that would shape Tricia's life.
Absolution is beautifully written, with astonishing attention to period and place detail. Without imposing judgment on her characters, McDermott shows us how the desire to help can do unintended harm.
Quietly provocative and devastating, this is an unforgettable read.
I think this is what Saigon in 1962-63 must have felt like. A brief interval of collective held breath before the United States plunged into war. Of course, the U.S. had been allied with South Vietnam for several years and participating in an escalating conflict with the North Vietnamese Army, but in 1963 it was still possible for a Western expat community of military attachés and oil execs to pretend they were in an exotic playground.
Alice McDermott captures this singular moment in time in Absolution, an exquisitely rendered portrait of marriage, self-actualization, and moral equivocation. In a story that moves between early 1960's Saigon and the Maryland shore sixty years later through a series of letters and flashbacks, McDermott offers a perspective of the Vietnam war I've not yet read. Through Tricia, a newlywed just arrived from the States with her Navy lawyer husband, we see the strange remove of an expat wife, how she was able to exist in a culture not her own without engaging, moving from social club to cocktail party by way of servants and generous living allowances.
And yet some did step into the world around them, their curiosity and good intentions resulting in life-altering consequences. Tricia is drawn into a scheme to raise money for injured and impoverished Vietnamese children by charismatic Charlene, a seasoned expat wife and mother of three. Charlene can handle herself in a jeep, at a leper colony, in a hospital ward and in the tennis club all without breaking a sweat. It's Charlene's daughter Rainey, in elementary school in 1963, whom Tricia writes to sixty years later, recalling Charlene's driving force behind events that would shape Tricia's life.
Absolution is beautifully written, with astonishing attention to period and place detail. Without imposing judgment on her characters, McDermott shows us how the desire to help can do unintended harm.
Quietly provocative and devastating, this is an unforgettable read.
January 25, 2024
I thought I'd enjoy this one more than I did. Perhaps my expectations were off.
The writing was admirable, and the themes touched on were of interest to me, but there were so many parts of that era and location that felt skimmed and skeletonized that I felt something was missing from the literary meal, leaving me a bit unsatisfied.
The story follows two women--wives of military men--who must find their own way to exist in Vietnam in the 60's. The women are a study in contrasts. Charlene is strong-willed and determined, but pursues her agendas with manipulation, dishonesty, and a disregard for convention or the feelings of others. Tricia is passive and self-conscious and allows herself to be drawn into Charlene's orbit, doing her bidding without question most of the time. That bidding involved multiple projects that were designed to "give" to others, ostensibly to improve the lives of those less fortunate. But with many acts which appear altruistic or selfless, there can be a darker side that has more to do with the giver than those receiving, and it's not always welcome or helpful.
Through these efforts we see bits and pieces of a country where the poor suffer terribly, where conflict and disease create layers of additional suffering, and where relatively privileged women intersect with that culture in sometimes bizarre ways. I think that's where my less than enthusiastic response might come from. Of all the things one could do to try to help those in need, the ways chosen left me scratching my head.
The writing was admirable, and the themes touched on were of interest to me, but there were so many parts of that era and location that felt skimmed and skeletonized that I felt something was missing from the literary meal, leaving me a bit unsatisfied.
The story follows two women--wives of military men--who must find their own way to exist in Vietnam in the 60's. The women are a study in contrasts. Charlene is strong-willed and determined, but pursues her agendas with manipulation, dishonesty, and a disregard for convention or the feelings of others. Tricia is passive and self-conscious and allows herself to be drawn into Charlene's orbit, doing her bidding without question most of the time. That bidding involved multiple projects that were designed to "give" to others, ostensibly to improve the lives of those less fortunate. But with many acts which appear altruistic or selfless, there can be a darker side that has more to do with the giver than those receiving, and it's not always welcome or helpful.
Through these efforts we see bits and pieces of a country where the poor suffer terribly, where conflict and disease create layers of additional suffering, and where relatively privileged women intersect with that culture in sometimes bizarre ways. I think that's where my less than enthusiastic response might come from. Of all the things one could do to try to help those in need, the ways chosen left me scratching my head.
January 17, 2024
This novel deals with one of the major issues related to the US involvement in Vietnam - - what good are we doing? - - except in this case the main characters are the wives of men (military and not) stationed in Vietnam before full war erupted. The main character (Tricia) is a rather naïve, newly married young woman, who has recently arrived with her husband in Vietnam. There she meets Charlene, who brings her into her group of American women. We see lives of the American women in Vietnam, where cocktail parties, shopping and multiple “wonderful” servants were the main attractions. However, Charlene is also trying to “do good” by organizing her group of women to sell Vietnamese-dressed Barbie dolls (sewing of Barbie dresses courtesy of a young Vietnamese woman) to raise money to buy little gifts to bring to children who are patients in hospitals as well as to patients in a leprosorium. Tricia sees burned children (napalm or just accident?) and young people with leprosy. She questions whether the stuffed toys are really “doing good” for a nation that is suffering from violence, hunger and sickness. She is a naïve character, who is influenced by, yet tries to analyze and rise above, the things that are happening around her. A major underlying theme is motherhood or the lack of children. There are other themes and scenes as well, including religion (Catholicism – Diem was Catholic), miscarriage, the fairly secret jobs of the male spouses, and the subtle but real manner in which the American women take advantage of the Vietnamese women characters. I am always “in” for a novel about Vietnam, but I found this one to be really unique and very well done.
December 1, 2023
No need to summarize the plot here. Others have already done that.
There's so much I could talk about with regards to this book, so many passages and conflicts and themes. but: One of the reviews I came across -- Kirkus, I think -- advised against even reading the flap copy. I concur. Absolutely. The less one knows going in, the more revelatory the experience will be.
"Absolution" is subdued in tone, almost self-effacing, but it quietly speaks to all kinds of morally complex questions. The main protagonist is a young woman very early in the process of discovering who she is, what she believes in. The book is set in Vietnam, very early on in the American involvement, before the... well, before what was to come. The story is primarily told from the perspective of that woman, no longer young, looking back. One of the earliest sentences in the book reads, “You have no idea what it was like. For us. The women, I mean. The wives.”
And with all this the stage is set for us to watch innocence yield to experience. For the young woman, the people around her, and America. For the reader to watch it all unfold -- and to (thrillingly, to my mind) ponder why McDermott chose to give her novel the title "Absolution." It's a hell of a question for book groups to address. I'd love to sit in.
For some reason, I hadn't read any of Alice McDermott's writing before, which is odd given how widely praised her work has been. I'm very glad I have begun to address that oversight. I'm already tempted to read "Absolution" again.
My thanks to the publisher and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
There's so much I could talk about with regards to this book, so many passages and conflicts and themes. but: One of the reviews I came across -- Kirkus, I think -- advised against even reading the flap copy. I concur. Absolutely. The less one knows going in, the more revelatory the experience will be.
"Absolution" is subdued in tone, almost self-effacing, but it quietly speaks to all kinds of morally complex questions. The main protagonist is a young woman very early in the process of discovering who she is, what she believes in. The book is set in Vietnam, very early on in the American involvement, before the... well, before what was to come. The story is primarily told from the perspective of that woman, no longer young, looking back. One of the earliest sentences in the book reads, “You have no idea what it was like. For us. The women, I mean. The wives.”
And with all this the stage is set for us to watch innocence yield to experience. For the young woman, the people around her, and America. For the reader to watch it all unfold -- and to (thrillingly, to my mind) ponder why McDermott chose to give her novel the title "Absolution." It's a hell of a question for book groups to address. I'd love to sit in.
For some reason, I hadn't read any of Alice McDermott's writing before, which is odd given how widely praised her work has been. I'm very glad I have begun to address that oversight. I'm already tempted to read "Absolution" again.
My thanks to the publisher and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
Read
December 25, 2023No rating. DNF
A five star author approaching this locale and period in/at a two star angle. It's probably an excellent book but after 50 plus pages I just can't do it. Just too trivial and precious. Stereotype laden for women NOTHING like any I myself knew in the period, on top of it. Not anywhere I ever was anyway.
Vietnam war has faces for me. One closest who died before he was 22. And others who left soon after. Lunching and garter belts? I just can't do it the onus of these druthers.
And none of them need absolution. In fact the opposite. Others enjoy this view of eyes but it's not for me.
A five star author approaching this locale and period in/at a two star angle. It's probably an excellent book but after 50 plus pages I just can't do it. Just too trivial and precious. Stereotype laden for women NOTHING like any I myself knew in the period, on top of it. Not anywhere I ever was anyway.
Vietnam war has faces for me. One closest who died before he was 22. And others who left soon after. Lunching and garter belts? I just can't do it the onus of these druthers.
And none of them need absolution. In fact the opposite. Others enjoy this view of eyes but it's not for me.
December 21, 2023
This book for me was slow, confusing and anti-climactic. I kept waiting for something to happen all the way to the end. It jumped around so much at one point I thought I had picked up the wrong book. I get what the author was trying to do, I just don’t think it was done well or introduced in a way that could easily be followed.
April 8, 2024
Absolution was my first McDermott book, many thanks to my GR friends for bringing it to my attention.
I can't remember the last time I read a novel in epistolary form. In this case, it worked really well, as correspondence between Tricia and Rainey. They first met in 1963 in Saigon, when Tricia was a newlywed and Rainey was the young daughter of another American couple. Rainey contacted Tricia, now a retired teacher and widow, to rehash and fill in some of the gaps in memory and history.
Tricia recounts her time in Vietnam, when she met Rainey and her formidable mother, Charlene, a do-it-all, fierce woman, with boundless energy and determination.
McDermott's vivid writing brings back another era, where the American wives had good intentions that could be deemed as a white saviour complex.
This novel offers another perspective from Vietnam, from the point of view of the wives, who were expected to smile pretty, not get their pretty heads too bothered with the men's issues, look after the home, and keep themselves occupied with charity work.
Recommended
I can't remember the last time I read a novel in epistolary form. In this case, it worked really well, as correspondence between Tricia and Rainey. They first met in 1963 in Saigon, when Tricia was a newlywed and Rainey was the young daughter of another American couple. Rainey contacted Tricia, now a retired teacher and widow, to rehash and fill in some of the gaps in memory and history.
Tricia recounts her time in Vietnam, when she met Rainey and her formidable mother, Charlene, a do-it-all, fierce woman, with boundless energy and determination.
McDermott's vivid writing brings back another era, where the American wives had good intentions that could be deemed as a white saviour complex.
This novel offers another perspective from Vietnam, from the point of view of the wives, who were expected to smile pretty, not get their pretty heads too bothered with the men's issues, look after the home, and keep themselves occupied with charity work.
Recommended
November 25, 2023
This is another quiet and thoughtful book, which I so enjoy reading. It centers around two women (Tricia and Charlene) who have accompanied their military husbands to Saigon in the early 1960's. This is just before major fighting breaks out in the Vietnam war. Tricia is 23 years old and a newlywed. Charlene is older with three young children. As it turns out, Charlene is a dynamo. In a different era, she would be a CEO of a major company. Soon, Tricia is swept by Charlene into her orbit. Tricia, a faithful Catholic, is often troubled by Charlene's pragmatic, amoral decision-making.
The narrative reflects Tricia's point of view. We are privy to her thoughts and feelings. There are other secondary characters in the book who are also interesting: a talented Vietnamese seamstress, two American doctors, nuns who run a lepers' asylum, and a 19 year old, good-hearted military medic (Dominic). A key character is Charlene's 5 year old daughter, Rainey, whom Tricia bonds with. At the end of the book, we meet Rainey again as a grown woman and hear her point of view of her Saigon years.
I enjoyed how the author brought Barbie into the story. Rainey loved playing with her Barbie doll. The Vietnamese seamstress (Lily) dressed it up in traditional Vietnamese garb as a gift for her. Soon, the enterprising Charlene decided to sell these Saigon Barbies as a way of funding her various charities. Lily was then paid (a quarter per outfit) to sew them. Each Barbie sold for $25.00.
Barbie is symbolic of the way (middle-class, white) American women were treated during this time period. The author goes into detail about how men were the decision makers and were dominant and how women had circumscribed roles.
This is a multi-layered book, giving readers much to think about.
4.5 stars
The narrative reflects Tricia's point of view. We are privy to her thoughts and feelings. There are other secondary characters in the book who are also interesting: a talented Vietnamese seamstress, two American doctors, nuns who run a lepers' asylum, and a 19 year old, good-hearted military medic (Dominic). A key character is Charlene's 5 year old daughter, Rainey, whom Tricia bonds with. At the end of the book, we meet Rainey again as a grown woman and hear her point of view of her Saigon years.
I enjoyed how the author brought Barbie into the story. Rainey loved playing with her Barbie doll. The Vietnamese seamstress (Lily) dressed it up in traditional Vietnamese garb as a gift for her. Soon, the enterprising Charlene decided to sell these Saigon Barbies as a way of funding her various charities. Lily was then paid (a quarter per outfit) to sew them. Each Barbie sold for $25.00.
Barbie is symbolic of the way (middle-class, white) American women were treated during this time period. The author goes into detail about how men were the decision makers and were dominant and how women had circumscribed roles.
This is a multi-layered book, giving readers much to think about.
4.5 stars
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