THE CONGRESSMAN'S DAUGHTER

by Craig Nova ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 1986

Very much in the moody, gray mode of Nova's previous book, The Good Son (1982), this is the story of Alexandra Pearson, the sole and grown daughter of a diffident but enormously rich New England politician, a man whose greatest interest apparently is to engage his daughter in quasi-mystical contests of skill. Uppermost, it's a match to see which one of them will be the first to catch a legendary trout on Pearson's property--a sport on which even Alexandra's eventual bequest will depend. But then the congressman dies, and despite the trout, Alexandra finds herself maneuvered into an affection-less marriage with a once-associate of her father's, a totally loathsome cad named Bryce. How Alexandra frees herself from the sadistic Bryce, with help from a lover she takes in the local village, provides the drumbeat to whatever else transpires. But, as told by a kindly retired male neighbor who knows everything about Alexandra (and is utterly not credible for even a moment), a weak pad it is, this beat. Nova is short on story and long on a gauzy, imprecise, melancholic tone. Events are told that are invariably wayward, miscellaneous, improbable--as if these ratified their unimpeachable reality. Like in The Good Son, a WASP myth--one of dynasty and tragedy--seems attempted. And once more, it fails, it being the largest pretension of all in a book full of them, in a writer who seems distressingly interested only in them. Much dark mannerism, then--with only the feeblest emotional validity behind it.

Pub Date: April 18, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION