My Passionate Mother
A Novel
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
The most frugal fishermen on the island of Pequod couldn’t resist throwing money at the bewitching young girl who sang and danced in the streets for change, and when Finn and Joe befriended the penniless Claire, little did they realize they would forever be enthralled. Gentle, goodhearted Finn fell deeply in love with her, though she was obsessed by his best friend, Joe, a moody writer who repressed his own desire in order to protect Finn from being hurt.
There seemed no choice but for the three to enter into an arrangement. Finn offered Claire stability and family, while Joe would be her soul mate and lover, and they all would remain loyal. But Joe knew their love triangle was too hot for the island to handle, so he left for Boston to save them all from the furor of love run amok.
In this strange world of love and lust, Finn and Claire’s daughter, Joely, is a soundboard for her mother’s guilt, her romantic obsession. She listens to stories she is too young to understand and yearns for a mother who will simply let her be a child. Yet each month she goes with Claire to the dock to wait for Joe, and her adolescent heart leaps excitedly at the sight of the dark-haired, handsome man who is her mother’s raging passion—and her own, as well.
From acclaimed author Judy Feiffer comes her finest book to date, a beautiful and unconventional love story played out on a tiny seafaring island off the North Atlantic coast. Feiffer depicts the simple, endearing moments of childhood friendship and the subsequent ill-fated but inevitable loss of innocence. My Passionate Mother is a sensual, disturbing portrayal of four people possessed by love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Feiffer's slight fourth novel (after 1986's Flame), an intriguing premise of interlocking love triangles succumbs to moist prose, underdeveloped characters and soap-opera dialogue. On the small Massachusetts island of Pequod, Joely Hurley awaits the arrival of the man she loves, Joe Hurley. Joe is the cousin of Joely's father, Finn Hurley; he was also the lover of Joely's mother, Claire. Finn and Joe were childhood best friends, and both fell for the hauntingly beautiful Claire. While she loved Finn as a friend, Claire was in love with Joe, but Joe wouldn't stand in the way of Finn's heart's desire. The standoff lasts until Finn suggests that he and Claire marry; after the wedding, Claire can take Joe as her not-so-secret lover. Everyone agrees this is the best they can do, so Finn and Claire settle down, running the island newspaper and raising daughter Joely. True to his word, Finn looks the other way when Claire runs off to be with Joe. But, unsurprisingly, happiness proves elusive for the trio. ("It's true, I'm greedy for love. And I could blame it on an unhappy childhood, but it's something more, something primal," Claire confesses to Joely. "One Claire wants domesticity, a husband and child, and the other Claire rages with passion. Oh, Joely, can you ever understand?") Since much of the action takes place before Joely was born, what begins as her personal recollection then alternates between first-person and third-person omniscient POV. Claire is a drama queen, Joely is a pale imitation of her, and Finn and Joe are, for the most part, unfortunate bystanders in Claire's emotional circus. An uplifting ending can't help this one float.
