A review by booksrockcal
Absolution by Alice McDermott

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is an astonishingly good book. I don’t know why it did not garner more attention from the prize committees. It’s the story of two women who were embassy/intelligence/corporate wives in 1963 Saigon. The story centers around Patricia and Charlene- the former is new to Saigon and she is pulled into the world dominated by Charlene and her “cabal” of women who lunch together, attend cocktail parties, and undertake various projects to “help” the natives in Saigon. Peter and Tricia are idealistic Catholics like the President- they could be characters in McDermott’s other books. The story is told by Tricia in letters to Charlene’s daughter 60 years later- and then by Charlene’s daughter writing back  The attitudes they and those around them espouse toward the Vietnamese, policy, politics, class, and race leave the reader thinking long after the novel ends.