Every Past Thing
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
In 1899, the streets of New York were as unsettled as the heart and mind of Mary Jane Elmer. The ideas of the transcendentalists were still in the air, and thoughts of a second revolution were rising. Emma Goldman spoke to ever-growing numbers of the disenfranchised in Union Square and scandalized the city fathers. Police used horses, clubs and bullets to disperse the crowds. Women were redefining their roles for the coming century. And, near the middle of life, solitary in her marriage to an intractable and distant artist, and still grieving the death of their daughter ten years earlier, Mary struggles to shape a future she can endure.
Derived from the lives of real people, this beautiful novel is a whirlwind of history, art, familial tremors, and personal desire. But beyond its elegance, beyond its historical authenticity, Every Past Thing is an intimate and moving family portrait—and its every brushstroke is marked with longing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A woman solicits a reunion with her former lover at the end of the 19th century in Thompson's debut novel, embarking on an overwrought reappraisal of her tragic past. At a notorious East Village anarchist watering hole (and also the last known address of her former secret beau, Jimmy Roberts), Mary Jane records in her notebook the events that have led her and her husband, the painter Edwin Romanzo Elmer, to New York City: the death of their only child, Effie; their estrangement and reunion with Edwin's imposing and wealthy brother, Samuel; and their family and social circle's tension-fraught relationships. Mary's days of secret escape are contrasted against Edwin's private turmoil as he struggles to secure a place at the National Academy of Design, while his thoughts are distracted by his wife's suspicious absences. Though the novel covers the course of a week, flashbacks expand the story's breadth and scope. Portentous prose may make a tough go of the novel's first half, but narrative urgency grows, albeit slowly, as connections between the characters are revealed. Readers fond of late 19th- century literature will appreciate this florid trip back in time.
