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A review by lattelibrarian
Careers for Women by Joanna Scott
4.0
"She threatened to expose your dirty deed, and you adored her for it. You didn't feel so lonely now that you had Pauline at the center of your fantasies. She wasn't even out of her twenties. She was like a wild animal you were gently trying to domesticate. You gave her everything she asked for, plus some, in hopes that she would soften toward you."
When Maggie lands herself a secretarial job, her boss gives her an assignment: be a friend to Pauline. When Maggie obliges, she learns just what being a friend means. When Pauline goes missing and leaves behind a disabled daughter in the 1950s, Maggie takes it upon herself to look after the young girl and figure out just what happened to her friend and colleague. As the Twin Towers rise in both construction and fame, everything else seems to crumble around Pauline and the narrative she's constructed. She goes away to gamble on horses in the summer--but none of the hotels have record of her. The detectives think that she's abandoned her daughter in hopes for a better life as a single mother--but this is blatantly lazy detective work. And so Maggie begs the question: What happened to Pauline?
Told through short vignettes, we follow Maggie, Sonia, Pauline, and the Whitaker family through the rise and fall of the Twin Towers, of a young woman's life, of an aluminum factory and a town polluted by it. This industrial world where regulation is scant takes no prisoners. While there is absolutely a finger to point, and someone to point it at, Careers for Women constructs a societal reflection in which an amalgamation of factors contribute to Pauline's disappearance. Is it the aluminum which has polluted a town and its minds? Is it the boss who propositions Pauline for a job that can afford her much more money than a secretarial position? Could it be the stress of a home life, a crumbling relationship, the need to get back at a class of women who are suddenly understanding that they can indeed reject the place given to them?
The delight of reading this is the way in which Scott, through Maggie, narrates this book. The usage of "you", both accusatory and descriptive, posits us as the reader as someone who played a hand in Pauline's destruction. The way in which the mystery and resolution slowly unfolds, the vignettes used to piece together the story as Maggie figures out all the pieces.
This is an unexpected mystery, and one that's written in a non-normative style. It's a slow burn, but one that will ignite you and won't let go once it does.
When Maggie lands herself a secretarial job, her boss gives her an assignment: be a friend to Pauline. When Maggie obliges, she learns just what being a friend means. When Pauline goes missing and leaves behind a disabled daughter in the 1950s, Maggie takes it upon herself to look after the young girl and figure out just what happened to her friend and colleague. As the Twin Towers rise in both construction and fame, everything else seems to crumble around Pauline and the narrative she's constructed. She goes away to gamble on horses in the summer--but none of the hotels have record of her. The detectives think that she's abandoned her daughter in hopes for a better life as a single mother--but this is blatantly lazy detective work. And so Maggie begs the question: What happened to Pauline?
Told through short vignettes, we follow Maggie, Sonia, Pauline, and the Whitaker family through the rise and fall of the Twin Towers, of a young woman's life, of an aluminum factory and a town polluted by it. This industrial world where regulation is scant takes no prisoners. While there is absolutely a finger to point, and someone to point it at, Careers for Women constructs a societal reflection in which an amalgamation of factors contribute to Pauline's disappearance. Is it the aluminum which has polluted a town and its minds? Is it the boss who propositions Pauline for a job that can afford her much more money than a secretarial position? Could it be the stress of a home life, a crumbling relationship, the need to get back at a class of women who are suddenly understanding that they can indeed reject the place given to them?
The delight of reading this is the way in which Scott, through Maggie, narrates this book. The usage of "you", both accusatory and descriptive, posits us as the reader as someone who played a hand in Pauline's destruction. The way in which the mystery and resolution slowly unfolds, the vignettes used to piece together the story as Maggie figures out all the pieces.
This is an unexpected mystery, and one that's written in a non-normative style. It's a slow burn, but one that will ignite you and won't let go once it does.