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Absolution: A Novel

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Format: Hardcover


Description

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Kirkus Reviews, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Oprah Daily, Real Simple, and Vogue A riveting account of women’s lives on the margins of the Vietnam War, from the renowned winner of the National Book Award. American women―American wives―have been mostly minor characters in the literature of the Vietnam War, but in Absolution they take center stage. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney on loan to navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. In Saigon in 1963, the two women form a wary alliance as they balance the era’s mandate to be “helpmeets” to their ambitious husbands with their own inchoate impulse to “do good” for the people of Vietnam. Sixty years later, Charlene’s daughter, spurred by an encounter with an aging Vietnam vet, reaches out to Tricia. Together, they look back at their time in Saigon, taking wry account of that pivotal year and of Charlene’s altruistic machinations, and discovering how their own lives as women on the periphery―of politics, of history, of war, of their husbands’ convictions―have been shaped and burdened by the same sort of unintended consequences that followed America’s tragic interference in Southeast Asia. A virtuosic new novel from Alice McDermott, one of our most observant, most affecting writers, about folly and grace, obligation, sacrifice, and, finally, the quest for absolution in a broken world. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux (October 31, 2023)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374610487


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 87


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 1.1 x 8.6 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #27,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #2,264 in American Literature (Books) #2,582 in Literary Fiction (Books) #3,234 in Historical Fiction (Books)


#2,264 in American Literature (Books):


#2,582 in Literary Fiction (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Don't Look Away
Absolution by Alice McDermott turns a female lens on America’s early intervention in Vietnam. The novel is told from dual retrospectives: Patricia, now an elderly widow, and Rainey, now a middle-aged daughter, both members of military-industrial families posted to Saigon in 1963. A third woman — Charlene — Patricia’s dynamic friend and Rainey’s domineering mother, draws them together. While the book reflects on American hubris, it looks more critically at the role of women on the cusp of the women’s liberation movement. Patricia, a shy newlywed, is defined by others — her husband, her friend, the Church — to the point of accepting the nicknames they assign her. Rainey is the obedient daughter, silently emulating her mother’s stoicism. Charlene’s friend and daughter are equally enamored of, and alarmed by, this whirlwind of a woman, whose “white savior” guilt drives her to help the poor and ailing Vietnamese. Like America itself, her altruism is feeble and often misguided, but she’s adamant that looking away is worse. As a fellow writer (see my Amazon author page www.amazon.com/author/asewovenwords, I admire McDermott’s fluid writing, deft characterizations, and immersive storytelling. The novel, like the war, presents no victors, only a quagmire that demands confession and defies absolution. Don’t look away from this superb book. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2024 by Ann S. Epstein
    • incomplete absolution
This book is written as correspondence between an old woman and the daughter of her strange friend. Ends abruptly and sadly. I appreciated the content about the Vietnam War from its beginning when JFK sent in "advisors" such as Peter, Patricia's husband, an engineer and lawyer. The events about the fear of the Viet Cong's danger when Patricia who has been named Trisha without permission, her strange "friend" Charlene, and servant Ly who has been named "Lily" by Charlene go with a CO and doctor to a Leprosy colony. I also appreciated the diatribe by Peter about the falsity of the claims that the Americans are dredging the ports for the Vietnamese instead are mapping the offshore oil sources for the big oil companies. It is clear that Patricia has been manipulated by Charlene over and over again. She is explaining this from her old folks home to the daughter of Charlene, Rainey, who has tracked her down. She is also manipulated by her husband Peter who has planned their return to the States. An insight that she has is that she lets herself be manipulated. It was unsatisfactory to me that we do not know as much about how she dealt with this insight. We are given her standing up to Charlene by returning the Vietnamese baby that Charlene has arranged for her to adopt (illegally) and take her back as her adopted daughter with her to the states. She does stand up to Peter for not letting her know they were returning to the states. However, as her life in the states are described, it is not clear how she has really gained autonomy. I also found it very touching that Dom, a man Charlete had befriended in Saigon, was met by Charlene's daughter Rainey and his final days are portrayed in touching detail. Rainey would not have known about Dom had Patricia not written about her. Also left unclear is the photo of the child with the port wine scar. It is implied that, even though Patricia returned her to her sister (sisters and brothers?) she was adopted by American parents and had the port wine scar removed, showing up as just a scar. There is a lot of betrayal in this book but I do not think there is much Absolution. There are hints of the need for absolution but not real absolution. (Note: there are discussions of catholicism, buddhism, and those who have rejected organized reliation and some discussion of the buddhist monks who emolated themselves in Vietnam during the war.) ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2023 by Elizabeth Sulzby
    • Beautiful writing but remote. Can't compare to McDermott's previous books.
Alice McDermott is one of my all time favorite writers. But this book, although clearly written by a master storyteller, feels more distant and less personally inhabited than her Long Island books. It feels remote, well researched but not lived in (unlike, for example, AFTER THIS, a true masterpiece - this one doesn't come close). The main character/narrator is a cipher; she's passive and reactive, and that's pretty much all she is; an observer, but never seems to stand up for herself or make her own choices. As the central character she began to bore me. This has never happened for me in a McDermott book. And the device to tell the story (set in the past) as if by letter (with irritating little parentheticals, as if to remind us that she's telling this to someone in the modern here and now) makes everything feel dry and unemotional. This device (two narrators) gives the whole thing a sort of cool distance, although there are some very sad scenes and some readers might shed a tear. Be prepared for some graphic horrors -- children orphaned and maimed by war, a miscarriage, told graphically. Near the end, the second narrator joins in, but her voice is exactly like the first and it's hard to distinguish between them. I don't really know why she's there, she adds nothing to the story. McDermott is exploring a world farther from her own, and I admire her for that. But I can't seem to invest my heart in it. I keep putting the book down and not wanting to pick it back up again. (EDIT: I finished it and stand by this review. I also got pretty tired of all the 'Barbie' doll references. There's a lot of time spent discussing doll dresses for charity. I understand what she was going for here, but to be frank it just grows tedious.) I think this book is for much older female readers, which her books usually are, but this more than most. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2023 by A Reader
    • Astonishing and touching
How refreshing to read a book that so accurately portrays the ambiguities of family and friendship, the inspiration and love that accrues over time between women who befriend and influence one another. And men, but truly this is a book about women. As someone who lived in SE Asia during this time frame, I found its images of Vietnam true and memory-invoking. I wanted to know these women, and by the end I felt that I did. Bravo to Alice McDermott for her ability to bring these wonderful characters to life. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2024 by Nancy Logan (Haigwood)

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