Constance
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
The acclaimed Costa-shortlisted author of Trauma and Asylum brings us a masterful novel of psychological suspense and marriage in 1960s America
'A tour de force ... Unforgettable' New York Times
'An elegant psychological thriller' The Times
The aloof and enigmatic Constance Schuyler lives alone in Manhattan when she meets Sidney Klein, a professor of poetry twenty years her senior, at a literary party. A few weeks later, he proposes marriage and Constance accepts, moving into his dark, book-filled apartment.
But Constance is tortured by a bitter past. When her father makes a devastating revelation, Constance's fragile psyche suffers a profound shock. Her marriage, already tottering, threatens to collapse completely. Sidney can only watch and wait, doubting his own moral strength. Constance's consolation is the friendship of Sidney's boy Howard, a strange, delicate child, not unlike Constance herself...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his new novel (after Trauma), McGrath demonstrates the power of his craft with a thoroughly unlikable protagonist, hell bent on not only her own destruction but also that of everyone around her, escalating a pattern of familial dysfunction that she has the power to stop, yet chooses not to. Hidden motivations cause Constance Schuyler to interfere in her sister Iris's love life and marry Sidney Klein, an older man. As the newly wed Kleins learn a dark secret about Constance's father, Constance's destructive tendencies blossom into full-blown revenge. Parts of the novel are set in 1960s Manhattan, with the dark heart taking place upstate at Ravenswood, the rotting house where Constance and Iris grew up. The story, told in present tense, sometimes by Constance, sometimes by Sidney, reveals Constance as an unreliable, unlikable narrator, but a character more infuriating than tragic, and it's difficult to understand Sidney's motivations for wanting to save her; she doesn't seem worth saving. Despite McGrath's demonstrable skill, the reader will be left with mild irritation rather than catharsis.
