AUGUST IS A WICKED MONTH

by Edna O'Brien ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 1965

Edna O'Brien is not only an exceptionally talented writer, but along with Penelope Mortimer and Doris Lessing, directs a sharpened intelligence on the ambiguous problems of the young woman who is just as unhappy in the actuality of being free as the mystique of being trapped This novel, which is not part of her Country Girl -- Lonely Girl trilogy (the third of which is yet to appear in this country), has none of their raffish humor although the physical circumstances of the life of her heroine, Ellen, are roughly parallel. Ellen has left Ireland for London; abandoned her R.C. faith for marriage; and given up her marriage with only a few happy months to remember and Mark , a youngster of eight . Now a year later, after one night with a man and because of him she goes to the Riviera on a ""juant into iniquity."" The jaunt is one long purgatorial experience, first with the personnel at the hotel (an orchestra violinist who takes dirty pictures and wants to learn dirty English words--and a bus boy) and then with some degenerate derelicts, English and American, oversexed and unsexed. With the news that her boy has been killed, she stays on in a state of anesthetic anguish, then is consoled, abandoned and contaminated by a man who had previously attracted and humiliated her.....""The deep exacting algebra of love"" doesn't really add up to much except inalterable loneliness. And even though the conditions to which Miss O'Brien subjects her heroine are drastic enough to invite doubt, still the final effects are unmistakable---they're as painful as an exposed nerve.

Pub Date: May 26, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1965

Categories: FICTION