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5.0 out of 5 stars
Not At All Ordinary, Feb 23 2002
Joanna Trollope never goes for the easy way out. All of her books are full of people that are so real, so full of the layers of "humanhood," if you will, that we can't help but feel we know everybody in her books. This is, of course, her very great talent."A Village Affair" is, on the surface, the story of a marriage grown slightly stale after 3 children and the predictable daily chores that accompany parenthood. Alice and Martin are settled into a comfortable, upwardly mobile, slightly boring lifestyle. Neither is particularly happy, but neither will acknowledge this fact to themselves or each other.
When Alice's third child, Charlie, is born, Alice, the quintessential latter-day flower child, falls into a deep depression that she cannot shake. As she tries to regain her equilibrium, we are taken back to her earlier years as a university student whose wretched homelife spurs her to seek the life she imagines she wants. Alice's great flaw then, and later, when we meet her several years into her marriage, is that she has no notion of herself whatsoever, but only sees herself as reflected in the mirror of others' approval or disapproval. Thus, when Alice is a very young woman, the reflected glory of Cecily Jordan, a famous gardener/author, leads Alice to marry Cecily's son Martin, even though she is not in love with him. It is Cecily and her beautiful house that Alice loves--but she doesn't realize it for quite a while. After the marriage, Alice is happy as a young wife, artist (she paints quite well and has a small following to whom she sells her works), and quasi-hippie, her long braid and offbeat clothes advertising her "otherness" to her admiring circle of friends and neighbors. When her first child, Natasha, is born, Alice is able to keep going in this mold. Natasha is an easy baby, Alice is even more admired as the perfect wife and mother, and things are easy. But with the birth of James, a much more difficult little person, Alice begins to unravel. And finally, the birth of Charlie destroys any illustions she may have had of a happy and fulfilled marriage. Enter Clodagh, the youngest and very flamboyant daughter of the "big house" in the village. Clodagh has a secret...but Alice doesn't know it for quite a while. As Clodagh swiftly and surely takes over Alice's life and identity, the two begin a quite unorthodox relationship that shocks the village, destroys Alice's reputation, ruins her marriage, and makes her finally, at long last, take a look at herself as a woman and a human being. The ending is not predictable, the characters are not one-dimensional. There is great pain in this book...and great love. As happens many times with Trollope, I felt that Alice was my dearest friend, as close to me as a sister would be. I could see her in my mind's eye, see her clothes, her beautiful hair, her children--see her paintings, her house, and her garden. I understood completely where she was coming from, even when I despaired of her destructive actions. "A Village Affair" proves once again that life is not black and white--and that things are rarely what they seem. It is written with charm, humor, compassion and warmth, almost as if Trollope herself despairs of her naughty Alice, but wants her so much to be OK at the end, as does the reader. This book kept my interest until the very last sentence, and haunted me for days. It brings up as many questions as it answers, and offers no pat solutions. It is just, plain and simple, a story of ordinary, and very likeable, people.
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