Years after her mother abandoned six-year-old Margaret Gower and her deeply religious father, the now-grown Margaret questions the past and looks forward to her future. By the author of A Mother and Two Daughters. Reprint. NYT.
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Book Description
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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Godwin brings empathy, understanding and a 19th-century sensibility to this novel of a young woman deeply attached to her father, a moody Episcopalian minister whose wife has abandoned him. This BOMC main selection received a PW boxed review.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Ambitious, wise...unforgettable...an engrossingly good read...a novel that explores timeless concerns of faith, love, and morality." -- -- Atlanta Journal and Constitution
"Brilliant...an elegant, intelligent, and necessary novel--the best book yet from Gail Godwin." -- -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Haunting...superb...the novel dazzles." -- -- Philadelphia Inquirer
"Remarkable...I don't know more than a few contemporary novels as full of grace as Gail Godwin's Father Melancholy's Daughter." -- -- USA Today --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"Brilliant...an elegant, intelligent, and necessary novel--the best book yet from Gail Godwin." -- -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Haunting...superb...the novel dazzles." -- -- Philadelphia Inquirer
"Remarkable...I don't know more than a few contemporary novels as full of grace as Gail Godwin's Father Melancholy's Daughter." -- -- USA Today --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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First Sentence
Although I did not know it then, my life of unpremeditated childhood ended on Wednesday, September 13, 1972. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Although I did not know it then, my life of unpremeditated childhood ended on Wednesday, September 13, 1972. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By "nrmcdowell"
Format:Paperback
Having read all of Gail Godwin's novels, I would rank this and Evensong as her best effort in capturing the essence of a half dozen characters - characters we come to care about and identify with, flawed though they may be. The novel is a celebration of brokenness and of nurture within the community of Christian believers in Godwin's ficticious town. Unlike one's experience with formula fiction (and Christian formula fiction in particular) the reader is surprised by who ends up wearing the white hats at book's end. Godwin's message (thesis) is inclusive and moving in its reality: we are all fellow strugglers in a world most often ruled by random events.
Format:Paperback
I read this book with a highlighter in one hand. There are so many thought-provoking places in this beautiful and well-written story. I am looking forward to reading the sequel, "Evensong."
Here are two great quotes:
"Not until we accept our shortcomings can we do God's will in the world. Each person has a specific shortcoming to accept and endure and try to work on. It's that person's task, it is my task. And however painful or shameful or just plain aggravating it is to me, or to you, that very shortcoming is a part of my destiny; it may even be inseparable from why I will have been valuable to the human community. Because, by bearing it, learning it from the roots up, letting it speak its message to me, offering it in my mind and my body in which to work itself out, I may be doing my part to heal what is split in the world."
"And now it is our turn to follow Him by seeking to know our own redemptive roles, seeking to find out what is my part, what is your part, your unique part, in the human drama we find ourselves enmeshed in. Don't let yourself be unduly put down by the jeers, but don't be taken in unduly by the laurels and waving of palm branches, either. Just ride your little donkey as best you can, focus daily on those places in your existence where intensity blazes up...and let God do the rest."
By Lena
Format:Paperback
Together with its sequeal, Evensong, this was one of my favorite reads. It had a depth and realism rarely found in fiction with a religious theme. The interplay between spiritual and psychological was fascinating to me.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book that will break your heart
This book made me feel like Gail Godwin had somehow been watching me--and many of the people I know and love best--all my life. Read more
Published on Aug 28 2001 by Patty Bradley
2.0 out of 5 stars
An unorganized and boring book M.S. period 1
This book took a while to get into and it was not in an organized manner. It did not evoke suspense because it gave away the entire story at the beginning of the book. Read more
Published on April 25 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful and thought-provoking narrative
A wonderful narrative story, told from the point of view of Margaret, who is the precocious and intellectual daughter of an Episcopalian minister. Read more
Published on Dec 21 2000 by Jennifer Shoup
4.0 out of 5 stars
Deep & Sophisticated Book
"Father Melancholy's Daughter" is not for everyone, but it is rewarding and it is thought provoking. It is also well-written and a believeable book. Read more
Published on Aug 20 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful, insightful sweep of the human/Christian journey!
I loved this book. I read it as a library book, but now will buy it! As I said in the title, she manages to cover it all, all the questions/quests of life, and does so in an... Read more
Published on April 10 2000
4.0 out of 5 stars
This Is a Wonderful Book
I enjoyed this book very much. It reads more like poetry than narrative, and the emotions as well as the world around the main character's life are beautifully penned. Read more
Published on Dec 3 1999 by "mnyblom"
1.0 out of 5 stars
This book was agonizing to read
Who is giving this book 4 1/2 stars? This book was PAINFUL! First of all, it is WAY too long for the amount (or lack) of a storyline it contains. Read more
Published on Oct 20 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful book that only gets better with age.
I first read FMD ten years ago when I was a young mother. I found it hard to read then, with the abandonment of a child so intimately described, but was glad I pressed through to... Read more
Published on Oct 19 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well-paced story, beautiful characters...
This story may sound melancholy at first, but there is much more to this story than the tragedy of a girl who loses her mother in childhood. Read more
Published on Oct 5 1999
4.0 out of 5 stars
bibliotherapy for preachers' kids.
Grimmer than Anne Tyler, but then this is for the inner survivor of the surreal environment of the clergy family, rather than Tyler's tendency to romanticize the family however... Read more
Published on Aug 18 1999
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