What do you think?
Rate this book
Conscience
Decades ago in Brooklyn, three girls demonstrated against the Vietnam War, and each followed a distinct path into adulthood. Helen became a violent revolutionary. Val wrote a controversial book, Bright Morning of Pain, which was essentially a novelization of Helen’s all-too-short but vibrant life. And Olive became an editor and writer, now comfortably settled with her husband, Griff, in modern-day New Haven.
When Olive is asked to write an essay about Val’s book, a work that attracts and repulses her in equal measure, doing so brings back to the forefront Olive and Griff’s tangled histories and their complicated reflections on that tumultuous time in their young lives. Things only become more fraught when Griff borrows Olive’s treasured first edition of the novel—and loses it. Then Griff’s quirky and audacious new colleague, Jean Argos, finds the book and begins reading it, setting off a series of events that will introduce new conflicts, tragedies, and friendships into the precarious balance of Olive and Griff’s once stable home.
Conscience, the dazzling new novel from award-winning author Alice Mattison, paints the nuanced relationships between the palpable personalities of Olive, Griff, and Jean with her signature wit and precision. And as Mattison explores the ways in which women make a difference—for good or ill—in the world, she elegantly weaves together the past and the present, and the political and the personal.
When Olive is asked to write an essay about Val’s book, a work that attracts and repulses her in equal measure, doing so brings back to the forefront Olive and Griff’s tangled histories and their complicated reflections on that tumultuous time in their young lives. Things only become more fraught when Griff borrows Olive’s treasured first edition of the novel—and loses it. Then Griff’s quirky and audacious new colleague, Jean Argos, finds the book and begins reading it, setting off a series of events that will introduce new conflicts, tragedies, and friendships into the precarious balance of Olive and Griff’s once stable home.
Conscience, the dazzling new novel from award-winning author Alice Mattison, paints the nuanced relationships between the palpable personalities of Olive, Griff, and Jean with her signature wit and precision. And as Mattison explores the ways in which women make a difference—for good or ill—in the world, she elegantly weaves together the past and the present, and the political and the personal.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published August 7, 2018
9 people are currently reading
338 people want to read
About the author
Alice Mattison
29 books66 followersAlice Mattison's new novel, WHEN WE ARGUED ALL NIGHT, will be published by Harper Perennial as a paperback original on June 12, 2012. She's the author of 5 other novels, most recently NOTHING IS QUITE FORGOTTEN IN BROOKLYN, 4 collections of stories, and a book of poems. Many of her stories have appeared in The New Yorker and other magazines. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York and has lived for a long time in New Haven, Connecticut. She teaches fiction writing in the Bennington Writing Seminars, the low-residency MFA program at Bennington College in Vermont.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
August 1, 2018
As titles go, “Conscience” is a burdensome one. It sounds blandly moralistic, but Alice Mattison’s new novel wrestles with the irreducibly complex demands of having a conscience in an age of political depravity. Given the moral idiocy that’s infected Washington, her theme couldn’t feel more pertinent. But this novel also looks back to the crisis of a previous era and reflects on how time recalibrates our decisions.
The story comes to us in chapters narrated in confessional tones by three people. The central one is Olive, a white writer and editor in New Haven, Conn. “Paying close attention to my own history,” she tells us, “leads to trouble, confusion, and anxiety,” and then she proceeds to pay close attention to her own history with all the trouble, confusion and anxiety she predicted. Her reminiscence is sparked by an assignment to write an appreciation of a novel from the Vietnam War era. Olive knew both the author and the woman at the center of that novel; they were all friends together in school. They were once, briefly. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
The story comes to us in chapters narrated in confessional tones by three people. The central one is Olive, a white writer and editor in New Haven, Conn. “Paying close attention to my own history,” she tells us, “leads to trouble, confusion, and anxiety,” and then she proceeds to pay close attention to her own history with all the trouble, confusion and anxiety she predicted. Her reminiscence is sparked by an assignment to write an appreciation of a novel from the Vietnam War era. Olive knew both the author and the woman at the center of that novel; they were all friends together in school. They were once, briefly. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
September 1, 2018
The story, confessional in nature, is narrated by Olive, a white writer who specializes in biography and edits books about knitting and embroidery; Griff, Olive's African-American husband, a high school principal and chairman of the board of a shelter; and Jean, who runs that shelter providing services to the homeless. It unfolds in present day, but is as much about the past. Olive is writing an essay that is intended to "appreciate" a novel written decades ago about the Vietnam era. This novel, written by a sometime-friend of Olive's, named Val, is about Helen, Olive's best friend from childhood on. Helen, an active, highly sensitive, Vietnam war protestor became famous and infamous, briefly, for violent actions she took. The Vietnam War novel is the catalyst that compels Olive and Griff to individually reminisce about that time, their growing-up years, their families, their involvement in the protests, their meeting, their relationship, and their marriage. Who gets to curate history and what responsibility do we have, if any, to our loved ones' myths? The mundane here becomes other than mundane, and these huge issues are made very personal. In the current political climate, this novel harkens back to a time when exercising one's conscience was a national emergency, as it has become again.
October 19, 2018
I had mixed responses to this novel, the first of Alice Mattison's that I've read. I was pulled in deep by the novel's focus on the differences and relationships between people who see the world in coherent moral terms and those who more-or-less reactively lurch around in response to less abstract circumstances, needs, and feelings. I thought Mattison keenly observed how the latter both admire and are repelled by the former. In fact, there were countless keenly observed moments ... among my favorites: "Being preoccupied by the [Vietnam] war was something like having such a bad cold that you didn't care what happened in your life."
On the other hand, the even-keeled to the point of passivity, nearly affectless manner of the principle narrator, Olive Grossman, and the flat prose in which her voice is rendered quickly grew monotonous to me. And her feckless way of thinking, planning, and feeling -- while credible -- and also interestingly (but less credibly) offset by her tendency to land on right and good decisions by letting circumstances (and stronger personalities than her own) guide her choices -- also put me off by the novel's end. (An example of her own take on this tendency: "Probably I'm the only one who's still against the idea when we finally end the meeting, and I've just made it happen.")
I'll be thinking about Conscience for a while, it's a novel that was well worth reading. I would give it three and a half stars if Goodreads permitted.
On the other hand, the even-keeled to the point of passivity, nearly affectless manner of the principle narrator, Olive Grossman, and the flat prose in which her voice is rendered quickly grew monotonous to me. And her feckless way of thinking, planning, and feeling -- while credible -- and also interestingly (but less credibly) offset by her tendency to land on right and good decisions by letting circumstances (and stronger personalities than her own) guide her choices -- also put me off by the novel's end. (An example of her own take on this tendency: "Probably I'm the only one who's still against the idea when we finally end the meeting, and I've just made it happen.")
I'll be thinking about Conscience for a while, it's a novel that was well worth reading. I would give it three and a half stars if Goodreads permitted.
December 10, 2020
Got critical kudos for shifting chapters between three characters' first person, and covering two time periods, but I didn't find the characters' dilemmas, or the characters themselves, engaging. Still, I did read the whole thing, so....
December 30, 2019
Just a lot of people working through their angst.
July 20, 2019
What a slog. I didn't connect with any of the mostly flat characters.
August 6, 2018
How far can a person of good conscience go in fighting a wrong? That’s the question that has haunted Olive Grossman – one of three narrators of Conscience, the new novel by the award-winning author Alice Mattison – for nearly half a century, ever since she and her high school friend, Helen Weinstein, began protesting the Vietnam War.
By college, Helen had become far more radical than Olive, seduced toward violent protest while Olive moved toward a PhD (in English literature, of all ivory-tower majors!) and motherhood.
“When I first met Helen, her morality stunned me, and when I didn’t agree with her – long before she was violent – I suspected she was right because she had always been right,” Olive thinks, decades later. “Maybe there should have been a moment when I faced our differences and proclaimed that Helen was no longer my friend.”
But that is not the only eponymous question in this rich, complex novel. Olive’s husband, Griff – principal of an alternative high school, and a descendent of a line of black ministers in New Haven – wrestles with his guilt for shooting a policeman to protect protestors in upstate New York in the Sixties. Griff is also the chairman of the board of a small, nonprofit social services agency, and that agency’s director, Jean Argos, forces Olive and Griff to consider how far she should go in fulfilling the agency’s mission. Hire ex-felons? Let homeless people have an hour alone in a private room, even though they may use it to shoot up heroin?
Olive, Griff and Jean alternate narrating this book, which runs from the Sixties to the current day in two narrative strands. What ties the strands together is a novel by Val Benevento, a charismatic high school friend of Olive’s and Helen’s – a novel that is an altered version of Helen’s life, with Val playing the role of Best Friend. Thus, Conscience gives its readers one more dilemma: How far can a writer like Val go in using someone else’s story to further her art?
Strangely, however, the author skims over another important issue of society and ethics: Olive and Griff’s interracial marriage. The couple seem to face almost zero hostility from family or strangers.
People who lived through the Sixties might read this book with some rueful nostalgia. Those who don’t remember the Sixties should definitely read Conscience as we confront today racism, militarism, an authoritarian president and bitter divisions worse than even most of the protestors of the Vietnam era might have imagined.
By college, Helen had become far more radical than Olive, seduced toward violent protest while Olive moved toward a PhD (in English literature, of all ivory-tower majors!) and motherhood.
“When I first met Helen, her morality stunned me, and when I didn’t agree with her – long before she was violent – I suspected she was right because she had always been right,” Olive thinks, decades later. “Maybe there should have been a moment when I faced our differences and proclaimed that Helen was no longer my friend.”
But that is not the only eponymous question in this rich, complex novel. Olive’s husband, Griff – principal of an alternative high school, and a descendent of a line of black ministers in New Haven – wrestles with his guilt for shooting a policeman to protect protestors in upstate New York in the Sixties. Griff is also the chairman of the board of a small, nonprofit social services agency, and that agency’s director, Jean Argos, forces Olive and Griff to consider how far she should go in fulfilling the agency’s mission. Hire ex-felons? Let homeless people have an hour alone in a private room, even though they may use it to shoot up heroin?
Olive, Griff and Jean alternate narrating this book, which runs from the Sixties to the current day in two narrative strands. What ties the strands together is a novel by Val Benevento, a charismatic high school friend of Olive’s and Helen’s – a novel that is an altered version of Helen’s life, with Val playing the role of Best Friend. Thus, Conscience gives its readers one more dilemma: How far can a writer like Val go in using someone else’s story to further her art?
Strangely, however, the author skims over another important issue of society and ethics: Olive and Griff’s interracial marriage. The couple seem to face almost zero hostility from family or strangers.
People who lived through the Sixties might read this book with some rueful nostalgia. Those who don’t remember the Sixties should definitely read Conscience as we confront today racism, militarism, an authoritarian president and bitter divisions worse than even most of the protestors of the Vietnam era might have imagined.
August 26, 2018
The plot was interesting enough, but I never became engaged enough with the characters to feel deeply about their relationships and dilemmas. They seemed mostly superficial and annoying to me.
January 9, 2019
This ruminative complex novel offers a portrait of the struggles and sacrifices of the people who protested the Vietnam war. How does society honor, forgive, or accept people who have done difficult things?
In the war years of the 1960s and early 1970s, protests were frequent and passionate. Three young women participated with varying levels of intensity. Decades later, Olive is asked to write an essay on the bestselling book written by her former classmate, Val, but their memories conflict regarding their friend, Helen. This presents a thoughtful reflection on who gets to curate history and what responsibility people have to tell the truth.
There are many layers to this novel that simply keep drawing the reader in; all are tied to social justice concerns. The 1960s brought to the national conversation issues of sexual freedom, the women's movement, interracial relationships, police abuse, political lies, and war atrocities. In current times, Mattison includes issues of homelessness, lack of government funding for social programs, and the need for personal space in a chaotic and demanding culture.
Amidst these major concerns, the author intertwines the ordinary details of domestic life — people talking, cooking, washing the dishes. This is perhaps the great strength of this novel, showing regular people living with difficult memories and facing continued struggles with personal conscience.
Had no particular expectations for this book and have not read this author before; it simply wowed me.
In the war years of the 1960s and early 1970s, protests were frequent and passionate. Three young women participated with varying levels of intensity. Decades later, Olive is asked to write an essay on the bestselling book written by her former classmate, Val, but their memories conflict regarding their friend, Helen. This presents a thoughtful reflection on who gets to curate history and what responsibility people have to tell the truth.
There are many layers to this novel that simply keep drawing the reader in; all are tied to social justice concerns. The 1960s brought to the national conversation issues of sexual freedom, the women's movement, interracial relationships, police abuse, political lies, and war atrocities. In current times, Mattison includes issues of homelessness, lack of government funding for social programs, and the need for personal space in a chaotic and demanding culture.
Amidst these major concerns, the author intertwines the ordinary details of domestic life — people talking, cooking, washing the dishes. This is perhaps the great strength of this novel, showing regular people living with difficult memories and facing continued struggles with personal conscience.
Had no particular expectations for this book and have not read this author before; it simply wowed me.
February 12, 2019
Actually I would give this a 4.5 if the scale included half-points. So it's very close to very high quality. "Conscience" is the story of a long-term marriage that happens to be interracial, and as such it is magnificent. Everything is understated, as it often is over the long haul, instead of histrionic. The couple faces away from each other into their work and their privacy, instead of having affairs or sniffing cocaine. "Conscience" is also about female friendship, and again, the vibes are complex rather than lurid. Finally, "Conscience" also takes the reader inside the nonprofit world that works to help the homeless. This book does a lot, alternating between sometime around now (though now that I think of it, the author didn't really place when "now" is) and back in the day of the increasingly frustrated anti-Vietnam War movement. There are imperfections, such as the NYT Review's observation that the actual politics of that earlier era are sorta missing. And the context is so focused on the individual that a broader view can be missing. But if you are middle aged and up, married and yearning for female friends, and as interested in our ordinary lives as much as the ways human beings exceed the limits--if any of this fits you, you may like this book very much.
November 23, 2019
Three girls meet in college and become friends. After college, their lives intersect in a number of ways. Helen is a revolutionary, protesting the war in Vietnam. Val is a woman who, years later, writes a novel largely based on Helen's life. And Olive was a close friend of Helen's and also a writer who wrote an essay on Val's book. The book reflects the turmoil of the Vietnam era and the repercussions that lasted years for these characters.
May 28, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. The counter culture around the Vietnam War is a topic that has been written about extensively but this seemed fresh and unique. It explored female friendship, grief, marriage, morality and race but the writing was hard and unsentimental. There was just something refreshing that grabbed my attention and held it throughout the novel.
February 5, 2020
Narcissistic unliked characters with no story behind them to make it worth to slog through this book. The main character is so self centered you wait for something to justify her reason for her self importance. Which turns out to be that she is a friend of people that do things. They weep and cry throughout the book without doing anything but think that they are the cause for everything. Avoid!
August 24, 2018
This is a terrific read, grips you from start to finish. The author seamlessly moves from the '60's to the present, and among several interesting, complicated narrators. It's funny, it's serious and authentic, it's political and personal all at once. I was sorry to have it end.
August 29, 2018
Fantastic!
I’m a long-time fan of Mattison’s novels, but this one delivers at another level. Simultaneously a complex book of ideas and an old-fashioned good read, it’s also timely in this period of roiling politics.
I’m a long-time fan of Mattison’s novels, but this one delivers at another level. Simultaneously a complex book of ideas and an old-fashioned good read, it’s also timely in this period of roiling politics.
October 3, 2018
This is a lot of work. Difficult. Definitely worth it but u have to go through a lot of uneven spots. Then the author pulls u back in. A lot of hot topics but mostly very real real characters that I didn’t always understand. It’s the kind of book u put down one hundred times but keep picking up.
October 7, 2018
I like the conception of this book, and found the themes thought-provoking, but....I found the changing time periods and points of view and story lines unbalanced. Not poorly done at all, just not focused enough on the parts that I wanted to know more about.
May 16, 2019
An easy read and the characters were fine. I’m not rest sure what made me keep turning pages because I didn’t feel connected to anything or anyone. I guess the storytelling was good and it was different from what I’d normally read.
June 25, 2019
I don't know, the story is kinda odd, you never know why the characters behave the way they do, and certainly there was absolutely no reason to add Jean Argos what's her catch? How's everything she does even related to the main story? I didn't get it, sorry.
February 6, 2021
Three different first-person narrators, chronologies alternating between late 1960s and the present, moral ambiguities. Not entirely successful (some genuinely tedious scenes) but innovative and provocative, in part because the central characters are so flawed.
June 27, 2021
Interesting in its use of different character narratives for each chapter, but ultimately fell flat. The main character was unlikeable, which is fine, but was not compelling. I spent most of my time wondering why I should care about her.
September 21, 2018
This was unsatisfying. I knew I wasn’t enveloped in it, but I kept reading. The story is interesting, the foreshadowing a little overdone, the characters were missing something.
November 17, 2018
A novel of my generation, 45 years later. Truths and confusion. I thought that some of the plot twists from the present time detracted from the power of the story from the 60s.
June 17, 2019
The book is full of interesting idea about the Vietnam war and present homeless conditions, however the character are dull and not engaging.
January 4, 2025
The stories woven through this narrative are rich and devastating, the latter in only the best of ways. Highly recommend.
February 10, 2020
3.75
Although I liked the first couple of chapters, I found myself not wanting to continue reading. Stuck it out and about 1/2way through found I couldn't put it down.
Although I liked the first couple of chapters, I found myself not wanting to continue reading. Stuck it out and about 1/2way through found I couldn't put it down.
July 7, 2018
I enjoyed the premise of this book, but found it hard to follow at times. I was okay with it at the beginning, but as I read more, it was harder to follow.
I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.
I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.
Read
September 26, 2018I read a lot of this in one night but due to the small and annoying typeface the publisher or author chose, I gave up and returned it to the library. Nothing like being annoyed while you’re reading :(
November 16, 2018
As the Washington Post said twice, brilliant.
Read
December 14, 2018Alice Mattison writes about people I care about and feel familiar with. Her characters care about the things I do, so when I read her work, I fell as if I know the people in her novel. It feels like being home.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews