I had read Michelle Huneven's earlier books Round Rock and Jamesland and remembered liking them but this was pre-blog so can not verify why. But I know I liked them. This compelled me to rush out and buy her new book Blame in hardcover. All of her books deal with AA and getting sober. This is a story of a woman,Patsy, a college professor who goes to jail after a drunken black out after which she wakes up to be told she killed a mother and a daughter while driving drunk.
For something so raw and horrendous Huneven surprisingly writes from a distance from the main character and the whole book is at arms length. I'm not saying it was bad just that it felt a bit as if she were coddling her characters. Patsy gets out of prison and (as most convicts do) goes right back to her tenured teaching job, the husband of the victims forgives her and she marries a very wealthy older man who buys her a Morgan horse. Maybe AA is all about not beating yourself up ...but that doesn't mean Huneven can't beat Patsy up just a little. I guess I don't mind her writing about AA but I don't want the story told through a lense of their philosophy.
No comments:
Post a Comment