Father Melancholy's Daughter

Margaret Bonner #1

by Gail Godwin

Father Melancholy's Daughter, is widely recognized as one of the author's most poignant and accomplished novels -- a bittersweet and ultimately transcendent story of a young girl's devotion to her father, the rector of a small Virginia church, and of the hope, dreams, and love that sustain them both in the wake of the betrayal and tragedy that diminished their family.

Genres: Fiction, Religion, Book Club, Southern, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Novels

404 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1991

About the author

Gail Kathleen Godwin is an American novelist and short story writer. She has published one non-fiction work, two collections of short stories, and eleven novels, three of which have been nominated for the National Book Award and five of which have made the New York Times Bestseller List.

Godwin's body of work has garnered many honors, including three National Book Award nominations, a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for both fiction and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Five of her novels have been on the New York Times best seller list.
Godwin lives and writes in Woodstock, New York.

Reviews

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 5 out of 5]

After several days of ponderation, I'm bumpin' this up to 5 stars. There were just so many things I loved about it, in spite of the two things that almost made me give up on it. I find myself already looking forward to re-reading it down the road, just to savor the best parts.

I am not the slightest bit religious. I'm a unbeliever in the truest sense of the word. So I think it says a lot for this novel that I loved it even though it's full of religious references. There's no preachiness to it. The religious stuff is there because Father Melancholy is an Episcopal priest, and it's just part of the story.
Instead of giving up on the book, I gave myself permission to scan or "skip-read" the heavily religious parts and the parts where Margaret broods about her mother. (She's a little obsessive.) After that, I thoroughly LOVED the story for the characters and the messages and the fine way this novel was crafted. And I just fell in love with Father Melancholy! He's the most well-developed character in the book. I felt like I actually knew him and could see his facial expressions and hear his laughter.

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025 Review
A lovely slow read over Holy Week and Eastertide. I loved revisiting these characters and Romulus and walking through Holy Week alongside the Gowers. Godwin is one of those authors whose characters I can re-encounter and understand all over again and anew. She is really something special.

2022 Review
An exquisite reading experience. Godwin is a master of the form, and the way she ends the book has me marveling. I could finally place when Margaret was narrating the story, and I treasure it when first-person narratives do that. Her voice was just as true in the letters and diary entries as it was all along, because it was the same voice. The characters, similarly, are very dear to my heart, especially the side characters whom Godwin describes so winsomely. Elaine Major is a character I'll not soon fuh-get. And what Godwin does with Ned Block, absolutely smashing. Godwin's narrative eye has true compassion for everyone. Yes, everyone, even that one.

Not only does Father Melancholy's Daughter examine life in the Episcopal Church in the 1970s and 80s, the novel is full of church history and liturgy from the past 2,000 years. I felt a resonance with this part of the novel in a way few other novels have achieved, even the most churchy ones, and the read was worth it for that alone. However, Godwin will be remembered as one of the great Southern novelists. Like all of the best Southern greats, even the short-story-tellers, her work is slow like a banquet. Not an efficient weeknight meal, nor even a formal banquet where one must eat as quickly as the Queen or go hungry, but a languorous, intimate feast. It's so close to a five-star read for me--it might earn it on the next reading. A perfect read for Lent and Holy Week, since the book borrows some structure from the church year.

Looking forward to more Godwin in my future. Evidently there's a second book in this world, though the series title is a spoiler for something I think happens between this book and the next. Recommended for anyone who's crazy about religious fiction.

Content warnings: sudden death; parental leavings and death; a minor/adult relationship our heroine "backslides" with a 17-year-old at the age of 20, though he initiates the relationship; it's not graphic

[Marne Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was either going to be a masterpiece or a disaster. There are several dramatic moments that happen during the course of this novel, but Godwin doesn’t actually let us see any of them. Instead, she does that thing that Kazuo Ishiguro does so well, letting us figure out what has happened through the stream of consciousness of a narrator who can never actually let her mind settle on the emotionally-charged moments of her life. For instance, we are told on the first page that the story begins on the last day Margaret will ever see her mother. This sequence goes on for 50 pages, every single moment of the day being rendered in exquisite detail. But do we ever see the moment when she actually learns her mother is gone? No, instead the camera switches to a different scene from a different moment in Margaret’s life. This might sound tiresome, and it could easily be if Godwin was a less capable writer, but somehow she makes it work. I enjoyed watching her perform this magic and waiting to see if she could keep all the plates spinning in the air. I think she did.

[Sarah Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Utterly taken by surprise, I felt his fingers firmly on my elbow as he led me away. That was the way it went, wasn't it? You had to stop wanting something, or at least forget you wanted it for a minute, before it would come to you on its own."

Father Melancholy's Daughter is about an Episcopal priest's daughter growing up in Virginia in the 1970s. The tragedy of Margaret's life is that when she is a young girl, her mother leaves for a few days of vacation which gradually extends to a year away from her family, before being killed in a car wreck. Margaret is then left alone with her father and an assorted collection of church members.

I was drawn to this book for personal reasons. My mother was the daughter of an Episcopal priest (who also suffered from depression) and she also lived in Virginia in the 1970s. In fact, I'm familiar with many of the other Episcopal churches mentioned such as Low Moor, Danville, etc. It was ironic that I selected this as a means of delving into my mother's history, since much of the book deals with Margaret trying to discover the mystery of who her mother was.

Something about Margaret's thoughts reminded me greatly of how I think: "But of course how you imagine something ahead of time and the way it turns out are always two different stories. Whether it's a looked-forward-to evening, or a trip, or even just what you will say to someone the next time you see him, the real thing is invariably different. Sometimes just a little bit different, often unbelievably different. Why, then, did people spend such large portions of their days and nights plotting scenarios that they knew from experience would never go off exactly as planned? Why didn't they learn?" Really, why can't I learn? Wise words, Margaret.

I also really enjoyed/appreciated the dynamic between Margaret, Ben, and Father Adrian. I'm sure many can relate to the Ben situation - a guy being obsessed with you and seemingly perfect but for whom you feel nothing. You cannot even feel compassion for the fact that he's hopelessly in love with you. All Margaret feels is numb and slightly irritated by his clinginess and refusal to accept no as an answer. And God knows I can relate to the Father Adrian situation too - secretly pining away for someone who barely knows you exist. That's its own particular form of torture. I was disappointed that that particular storyline was left largely unresolved. Those prove the most disappointing in real life too - the constant wondering of what might have been about something that never really was.

In many ways, I connected with Margaret and her story because we're in similar life stages - post college, in a state of becoming rather than solid being, struggling to find the plot of our own life narratives. And I think in this novel, Margaret is torn between taking the lead of her mother's life story or following her father. I was pleased with her final decision.

[Phoebe Kate Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arguably a candidate for one of the finest contemporary literary novels currently in print. Fascinating from the first sentence to the last, it has everything you could want in a piece of fiction -- finely nuanced and memorable characters, subtle and skillful plotting, splendid word craftsmanship, a keen sense of the importance of details, a writing style that is deeply moving without the taint of sentimentality, an unerring and empathetic portrayal of human nature and a delicate exploration into the realm of the spiritual. The intricate and complicated relationships between father and child, mother and child, husband and wife, lovers, friends and ultimately between a human being and what he/she understands as a Higher Power are Godwin's focus. I don't often get really excited about a book, but this one smacked me upside the head and absolutely stunned me with its sheer brilliance. Read it read it read it read it -- you won't be disappointed. It will make you laugh, make you think and break your heart.

[Debbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up after reading 50 pages of several novels. Initially, I was drawn to its slow pace and the writer's precision, but I never developed a connection to the characters or the story. Many reader's compare the author to Anne Tyler and I agree. If you love Tyler you may love this too. For me it was a little too plain.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually don’t write reviews of books, except in letters to close friends. But I became so connected to this book, especially to Walter Gower, that I wanted to say a few things on this site. Every day, when I picked up the book, I felt as though I had entered meditation and dharma talk time with my sangha of community. Often, I whispered “yes” to myself, then sat with my eyes closed, allowing the wise words from his heart sink in.
One thing I’ve learned from being on this site, and listening to podcasts, is that we all approach books and reading in so many different ways. And often, our reactions to books stems from the works meeting or not meeting our expectations. I believe that I’ve always approached books with more curiosity than expectations, with an open mind and open heart. I read this gem of a book without wondering what would happen to the characters, what choices they would make. I simply wanted to experience the story, the lives, the reflections.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book was so strange for me. I kept thinking it was set in England, because all of the books I've ever read with priest or vicars or what-have-you-Christian-guys were English. It was jarring every single time someone said something that made me remember we were in the States.

I like the characters well enough, it's just that nearly all of their experiences were completely outside of my own that I couldn't quite find common ground. I'm fairly certain that I'd have liked this better if I had a Christian background.

Modern/realistic fiction isn't at all my thing, and I'm pleasantly surprised that I liked this as well as I did. Parts of it reminded me of Madeleine L'Engle at her most spiritual.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, I loved this book even more as a re-read in 2023. In many ways, I am very unlike Margaret Gower, the protagonist, and yet she’s one of a handful of characters that I identify with most strongly. She has always struck me as introverted and possibly highly sensitive. She views the world from a place of watchful curiosity. She is always working to make sense of her world and the threads of her experience. I can’t wait to get to Evensong and the second part of her story. (Plus a father and daughter who read Victorian children’s classics together and think of time through the lens of the Church Year…I mean, enough said!)

This is an exquisitely crafted novel, and I’m longing for the Close Reads podcast to cover it someday. I thought about listing out all the craftedness I noticed this time but really it’s best experienced.

I love Father Melancholy and his intense and wonderful and trying personhood. I love Margaret’s relationship with her father and how complex it is after the Defining Event of her childhood happens. I love the very realistic community at St Cuthbert’s Episcopalian Church and how terrifically ordinary and yet holy its members are. I love Ben and his intensity, but I love Adrian and his own unique intensity even more. And then there’s Madelyn Farley. The novel comes to an exquisite end with a reconciliation between her Defining Event and her grief stricken and yet newly hopeful college graduate self. This is a novel that explores grief and faith in poignant ways. A literary novel, to be sure, but a deeply human story.

[Arlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

When have I last read a book that touched my heart on so many levels? Margaret Gower is deprived of her mother at the tender age of six when Ruth Gower leaves Romulus, Va for a life with her good friend, Madelyn. Being the Rector's Wife, this decampment caused tongues to wag. Margaret is left to be raised by her father, Walter. Walter tries to put a good face on this separation, sure that Ruth will return when she has had a chance to live for a while out of the fishbowl of parish life. When Ruth is killed in an accident a year after she has left her family, Walter and Margaret must fashion a new life for themselves. Walter never allows Margaret to be bitter over her mother's abandonment, so Margaret transfers her anger to her mother's friend, Madelyn. As Margaret grows up, she begins to see things in a new light and allows herself to move past the conflicts of her life.. Beautifully written and tenderly true, this book will be one I think on for days to come.

[Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorites. The dust jacket barely mentions the book's secondary religious theme (it was primarily about a young woman coming to terms with her identity in relationship to her parents). But the book is very rich theologically, with a fairly traditional theological outlook embedded in a novel of unquestioned credentials as high quality contemporary fiction. The human relationships, too, between the father & daughter was one of deep respect & affection. A rare book, indeed! The father lives (& the daughter learns) "the grace of daily obligation." All in all, a masterpiece of contemporary fiction.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shows that life can be rich, interesting, and even uplifting in the midst of tragedy. A young girl and her father, a priest with depression, are abandoned by the mother, who later dies. She goes on to make typical adolescent mistakes and in the end falls in love with a man training to be a priest. Despite her father's mental illness and her mother's abandonment, the daughter lives a good, thoughtful life and connects with the theater friend her mother ran away with. This is a great book. Even though I cannot remember the names of the main characters, I highly recommend it.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book! I really want to pass it on to any who love a great novel that has “more”. It will be especially loved by Episcopalians or Catholics who understand liturgy.and although Margaret ‘story is not a preachy one in anyway, the backdrop is the small community in Virginia where her dad is rector. It takes her life from age 7 to 22.....the characters in this book are very well developed, lots of plot twists and unexpected turns.....And beautifully written. I am delighted I fell upon this book at our local library.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow read, not because it is unengaging, but because it is so dense and beautifully written. Fantastic story of the daughter of an Episcopalian priest whose mother leaves the family and ultimately dies. I liked the usage of the church year to unspool this quiet story. There is a sequel, which I have, that I look forward to reading.

[Eleanor]

I loved this but it’s quite odd, possibly a book that could not have been written now or indeed significantly earlier than it was written. A lot of its surface details are of personal interest to me: the protagonist, Margaret, lives in rural Virginia, attends UVA in Charlottesville (my hometown), is the daughter of an Episcopalian priest, falls in love with another ordained and slightly older man, and ends up visiting parts of England I know well, such as Farnham. A lot of its other details remind me of Madeleine L’Engle’s adult novels: Margaret’s father’s tendency towards depression and passionate interest in the writings of mystics like Meister Eckhart, for example; the focus on ruptured family relationships; the characters’ fundamental acceptance of traditional gender roles, even if the novel itself pushes against them. Margaret’s mother, referred to always as “Ruth”, leaves the family when Margaret is six to live with a close female friend (though apparently not in a sexual way) and dies in a car accident while away from home. The story is about Margaret’s growing up, both chronologically—from child to young woman—and emotionally—from an abandoned, wounded girl to someone with agency in her own life. The events of the final act, though I won’t spoil them, are absolutely necessary to this emotional development; clearly Margaret can’t become her own person without them, painful though they feel. Turns out my mother, who was visiting last week and saw this on my shelf, loves Gail Godwin. I’ve never read her before but I think, based on this, that she might be a sort of intellectualised version of Lee Smith, a Southern female author with both an academic and a spiritual bent. I’ll definitely seek out more of her work. Source: passed on by Rebecca—thank you!

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this decades ago, and can't remember it except that I loved it.

[Tracy Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it took me a long time to actually finish this book it was not a boring read. I enjoyed reading it when I had the time. The characters were written in such a way as it was easy to become attached to them. I loved the way that Father "Walter" Gower and Margaret Gower lived seperate lives but also lived together and knew each other so intimately and cared for each other so well. There was a lot of talk of religion and God and church but it had a purpose and it was to give reason to the way these beautiful people lived and why they lived and why they did the things they did.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read. Still feels fresh after my first reading, shortly after is was published. Like Anne Tyler, Gail Godwin creates an entire universe of memorable characters. Margaret Gower is a six-year old soul when her mother disappears with an old friend who sends her radar straight up. Her father, Walter Gower is the rector in Romulus, VA, and wonders if his wife might have felt for reasons other than wanting to be with her friend. The story carries through sixteen years, Margaret's childhood.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The inner life of a girl growing up the daughter of an Episcopal priest. The church and its rites and prayers are the comfortable background in the home of this little girl and her melancholy father. As she grows, she begins to feel different than others her age and wonders if she is normal. And so she appeals to all those, like her, who live on the margins in one way or another. By the end, I had grown quite fond of her and hated to say goodbye.

[Susan Liston]

This was okay for the first 100 pages, (despite the six year old who sounded 37, a pet peeve of mine) but then it started to bog down and at that point I read the entire blurb and read upcoming parts at random and realized I was not going to manage to plug through the rest. (I've read two other of her books, and they were okay, b not anything I loved, but she's a good writer, so I had hope for others.)

[Margie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just re-read this after 20 years or so, and wish I could give it 4 and a half stars. It's a deliberate book, and reads as if one is in the room with the characters; almost every seemingly inconsequential action is recorded. The second time around, the characters' motivations were far more clear to me. It's possible that I was far too young to grasp it in its entirety the first time.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely setting and lots of characters who are described in just enough detail. I was both sorry and relieved about the resolution of Margaret's romances; I liked that part, and her ultimate decision was interesting and thought-provoking, but hated that she ended up spending all that time with someone I really couldn't stand--I wasn't sure what I was supposed to think of her.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about depression, relationships, serving others, religion, personalities, God, Jesus, selfishness, finding purpose, love, searching for answers. It is hard to describe why I liked it so much. It just feels like I needed to read it.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a re-read, and Goodreads, you need a re-read tab!

Thanks to the priest at my Episcopal school for reminding me to revisit this. Some books are worth reading more than once, and this is one of them :)

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried really hard to stick with this book because so many people said it was her best and so poignant but it was just too slow for me. I made it a little past half way and gave up. Too many other books, too little time.

[Hannah Garden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had forgotten all about Gail Godwin until I saw this paperback on the dollar carts Tuesday night. What a little genius she is, so beautiful, so sweet.

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite books. Insightful, tender and intelligent, Gail Godwin's characters are human and fallible, and therefore loveable.

[Steve Lindahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Father Melancholy's Daughter decades ago, before there were sites to post reviews. All I remembered about the book was that I loved it, especially when combined with its sequel, Evensong. So I decided to read them both again.

Father Melancholy's Daughter is the story of an Episcopal priest, Walter Gower, whose wife, Ruth, leaves him and his daughter, Margaret, in search of a life with more excitement and creativity. She takes off with an old friend who is a professional set designer for stage productions. It was expected that Ruth would be gone for a short time, but that time keeps growing. Eventually an event occurs which makes the departure permanent.

Walter Gower suffers from periods of depression he refers to as “The Black Curtain.” These existed prior to his wife's departure, but that event didn't help. Margaret, who is just six-years-old when her mother leaves, must step in to take on parts of the role her mother filled. She needs to help her father deal with his issues and also with problems around his church. As the year's go by, they grow closer. Although Margaret goes through the normal events of adolescence, such as her first sexual experiences, her studies, her college choice, and her first love, she is tied to her father in ways that are unusual and demanding.

Gail Godwin writes with a level of detail which builds a complete world for her readers. I loved the way she showed the inner workings of a church. The people are real and talk more about literature, building issues and rituals than about God. These people also have their failings, including a tendency to laugh at some of their parishioners behind their backs. If I may adapt a quote from Matthew, the novel shows us that “wherever two or more are gathered in my name” there will be gossip and arguments as well as love and help.

I'm glad I went back and reread Father Melancholy's Daughter. I'm looking forward to Evensong.

[Karen Brownell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of themes in this book: a young girl being raised by her father, who is an Episcopalian priest, after her mother "runs away" to find a career; conflict/tension between the church and the local real estate developers; the girl grows up and questions what she will do with her life. And then there is the melancholy: the father's self-repraochful melancholy, his bitter melancholy, or his resigned melancholy; toward the end of the book he was in a resolved melancholy or maybe even a fulfilled melancholy. Or is this the daughter's feelings of melancholy?
This is not a sad or depressing book, it is a deep exploration into relationships and the development of this girl from a young child into a young adult, and one can only speculate as to how her adult life develops and where she will go. Sometimes the book was "slow" but then I would come across a couple of sentence gems like these: "I opened the Scotch after all. The first shot hit the bottom of my empty stomach, bounced up like an acrobat, and transformed itself into a multitude of golden energy messengers leaping upstream through my veins until my brain received the message that I was now up to the dreaded, postponed task of....." I don't want to spoil the story so I'll stop there.

[Beth Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't bad, but it really didn't go much of anywhere. It should have been called Father Melancholy AND his daughter, because it was as much about him as it was about her. Or almost. It was her life as it related to him and their devotion to each other. The mother is only physically present in the first part of the story, yet she continues to be an integral part of their lives. There are a lot of references to the rituals of the church, and several passages of scripture. But the main focus is on the relationships the daughter has developed and develops amidst misunderstandings and possible misconstrued feelings. The characters are developed well and you learn the nuances of those people and relationships, so maybe well done in that respect. But the story line is a little paltry and about half way through I wondered if there would be more to the story. Not a lot, but if you are able to absorb all the good feelings and warm fuzzies and philosophies that abound, it can be enjoyable - but hard to recommend. It just goes on too long . . .