A DANGEROUS WOMAN

by Mary McGarry Morris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1990

The author of National Book Award nominee Vanished (1988) is back with the painfully focused story of Martha Horgan--imprisoned in a tiny Vermont town by her blinkered neighbors, her unflinching honesty, and the madness that leads finally to murder. Attacked as a teen-ager by a gang of schoolboys, fired from her job at the cleaner's after she sees manager Birdy Dusser's boyfriend Getso dipping into the register (he blames the thefts on her), traumatized by her pathetic inability to attract love or even belief, Martha retreats to the house of her penny-pinching aunt Frances Beecham, who'd rather concentrate on her extended affair with Steve Bell, who's still mired in a hopeless marriage. When Frances advertises for a handyman, alcoholic, self-doubting would-be writer Colin Mackey signs on, and author Morris lets Frances, Mack, and Martha simmer while she slowly turns up the heat: Mack guiltily seduces Martha; Martha keeps trying frantically to get in touch with Birdy to tell her the truth about the pilfering Getso; Frances finds herself attracted to Mack. Never seeing how her refusal to lie is maddening herself and repulsing the few people--clubwoman Julia Prine, shy mortician Wesley Mount--who try to help her, Martha, tossed out of Frances's house, flees to sanctuary with reclusive old Mr. Weilman--but, maddened by taunts from neighborhood children who think of her as monstrous ""Marthorgan,"" never succeeds in her frenzied quest to be left alone by a normal community whose madness echoes her own. Spellbinding reading, and a searching portrait of its pathetic, unlovable heroine: a powerful book indeed.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1990

ISBN: 0140272119

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1990

Categories: FICTION