MEN AND ANGELS

by Mary Gordon ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1985

As in Final Payments (1978) and The Company of Women (1981), Gordon again explores the ""dense underworld"" of love, now turning to motherhood: ""She used to think it was, of all loves, the most innocent but now she knew it was wrong."" Anne Foster, 38--assistant director of a college art gallery in a Massachusetts town, wife of professor Michael, mother of Peter (9) and Sarah (6)--will arrive at some uncomfortable truths about motherhood during Michael's sabbatical absence, as her madonna-and-child cocoon of safety is repeatedly shattered. While Anne works, the children are cared for by young Laura Post--product of a brutal mother, employer exploitation, and a Christian commune (where Laura was taught silence, the wisdom of serpents, the smiling innocence of doves). Still, though Anne hates Laura's smiling acquiesence, the children seem to like her. So Anne can concentrate on the exhilarating ""weightlessness"" of her work--researching the life and work of painter Caroline Watson, a Cassatt-style artist (d. 1938) who sloughed off her doomed son, adored her daughter-in-law, gave everything to her art. But, while Anne becomes absorbed by Caroline's willful choices in her palettes and in her living, Laura attempts to deal with her own crippled need--determined to convince Anne that her husband and children mean nothing. And, unsettled by the smiling girl's lurking presence (Laura witnesses a newly-vulnerable Anne's inexplicable pass at a neighboring workman), Anne will ultimately confront her own hatreds and the utter mystery of parent/child connections. . . before the violent close. Another searching, disturbing achievement from a distinctive writer--no less imperfect than her earlier novels (the subordinate characters are again thematic pawns) but no less fresh or involving either.

Pub Date: April 8, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION