What is it about the viewpoint of a young girl that draws me into a novel? As a middle-aged man, my experience is so different than that of the young, female protagonist that I can’t help but wonder what her experience is.
This was very clear in my recent reading of Peter Rock’s My Abandonment. This was one of those titles recommended by GQ that I mentioned a few weeks back. (Yes, advertising works.) I suspect the word “haunting” in the description sold me, and I didn’t realize a young girl would guide me through the strange world that awaited.
I won’t be giving any spoilers, but this was a girl’s coming of age story with no sex, no romance, and that inherently ambiguous relationship between a girl and her father. The writing is spare, and beautiful, like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. How a middle-aged man captures the voice of a young girl is a source of wonder.
The story is strange, yes, but naturalistic. Nothing in the short novel would really be impossible. Carolyn lives with her father in the woods. They reject society’s ways. Society doesn’t accept that, of course.
Carolyn’s measure of a man is her father alone. He is her best friend and only true companion. The idea, even if inherently creepy, is a metaphor for those who know this relationship well. Fathers and daughters share a special bond. A bond with limits.
My Abandonment is one of those books that builds the tension to such a point that you have to put the book down. At least I did. Then I couldn’t wait until I would have a chance to come back to it. It’s a book you can’t put down and yet have to, in order to get your bearings.
As a writer I wonder how you craft a story that readers can follow along. It is impossible as the author to know if your readers are following you. It’s safe to say I’ve never been a young girl. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder about her experience. Hope for her. Wish for her. Want her to be all right. Yes, this is a haunting book.
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