MANY THINGS HAVE HAPPENED SINCE HE DIED AND HERE ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS

by Elizabeth Dewberry Vaughn ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 1990

A young first novelist's promising debut: a purported autobiography of a naive and desperate woman whose cultural values (southern and Christian) can't explain or resolve her predicaments. Following her father's death, the narrator marries, then drops out of college and takes a job while her husband starts dental school. But: behind his fundamentalist Christian veneer, husband Malone is an egocentric drug-user and wife-abuser; there are hints of childhood abuse in the narrator's past; Christian marriage counseling encourages wifely submission. In need of money and solace, the heroine begins to record on tape the recent events of her life--not entirely accurately, and with a great deal of confusion over chapter headings--hoping to sell her autobiography for at least $100,000 and go on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Her stream-of-consciousness account succeeds wonderfully in showing how an abused woman can be immobilized by cultural messages about the meaning of love, marriage, life. But the narrator's intelligence seems so low, her emotional instability so extreme, that it's hard to believe that she was a dean's list honors student and now manages to function as a legal secretary throughout the events described. And she is often unsympathetic: at crucial emotional moments, she veers off, displaying little beyond her desire for money and fame. Her personal limitations--which may be psychologically realistic--wouldn't matter so much if the rest of the characterization rang true. As is, her voice is a hard one to stay with. Intriguing but flawed.

Pub Date: March 21, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION