Call number
FIC HIG
Collection
Genres
Publication
Atlantic Monthly Press (1994), 317 pages
Description
Edith Howland's diary is her most precious possession, and as she is moving house she is making sure it's safe. A suburban housewife in fifties America, she is moving to Brunswick with her husband Brett and her beloved son, Cliffie, to start a new life for them all. She is optimistic, but she has high hopes most of all for her new venture with Brett, a local newspaper, the Brunswick Corner Bugle. Life seems full of promise, and indeed, to read her diary, filled with her most intimate feelings and revelations, you would never think otherwise. Strange then, that reality is so dangerously different?
User reviews
LibraryThing member gbill
The main character in this novel, a middle-aged woman named Edith who moves from New York to a small town in Pennsylvania with her husband and son, is hard not to love. She’s smart, up on the liberal politics of the day (circa mid 1950’s to the mid 1970’s over the course of the book), likes a
Quotes:
On happiness:
“Edith had constantly to bolster herself by remembering that she didn’t believe life had any purpose, anyway. To be happy, one had to work at whatever one had to work at, and without asking why, and without looking back for results.”
And:
“The joy of life is in the doing. Don’t judge too much what is done or expect praise or thanks.”
On meaninglessness:
“’Isn’t it safer, even wiser, to believe that life has no meaning at all?’
She’d felt better after getting that down on paper. Such an attitude wasn’t phony armor, she thought, it was a fact that life had no meaning. One simply went on and on, worked on, and did one’s best. The joy of life was in movement, in action itself.”
On politics; it was hard to not mentally replace Nixon with Trump and TV with the Internet:
“Why was he [Nixon] elected in the first place? Advertising, television. Do you expect brains, judgment from people who watch the crap on TV? Everybody in the United States watching on average four hours a day?”
On religion:
“The ‘sanctity’ of human life – surely, as long as there was someone else to change the bedpans. I’d like to see the Pope changing a bedpan, Edith thought, or even giving birth for the eighth time, maybe with a breech delivery. Eternal pregnancy for the Pope, eternal pangs! After all, that was what he wished on an awful lot of women.”
On socialism, this from 1954 in the novel. It really made me ponder the reaction of capitalists and the wealthy to workers movements since the mid-19th century, and aside from the evils of their totalitarian implementations in the 20th century, the aspect of that reaction that is simply trying to preserve wealth in the hands of the powerful, and how it relates to American politics in the beginning of this century:
“We have been brainwashed for decades (since 1917) to hate Communism. Reader’s Digest has never failed to print one article per issue about the inefficiency of anything socialized, such as medicine.”
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good drink, and is incredibly patient with the men in her life. Just as she’s someone who is easy to identify with, these men are incredibly flawed and maddening, and she gets it from three different generations. We see her son grow up with disturbing patterns of sociopathic behavior, her husband begin to have an affair with his young secretary, and her husband’s uncle move in to the house instead of an old folk’s home, expecting her to tend to him. Highsmith does a good job in avoiding making a saint out of her, and in building tension in the strain this puts her under. It’s hard to tell exactly where it’s going and I’d advise not knowing much more about the book if you’re going to read it. It’s got elements of real darkness and carries an emotional impact though.Quotes:
On happiness:
“Edith had constantly to bolster herself by remembering that she didn’t believe life had any purpose, anyway. To be happy, one had to work at whatever one had to work at, and without asking why, and without looking back for results.”
And:
“The joy of life is in the doing. Don’t judge too much what is done or expect praise or thanks.”
On meaninglessness:
“’Isn’t it safer, even wiser, to believe that life has no meaning at all?’
She’d felt better after getting that down on paper. Such an attitude wasn’t phony armor, she thought, it was a fact that life had no meaning. One simply went on and on, worked on, and did one’s best. The joy of life was in movement, in action itself.”
On politics; it was hard to not mentally replace Nixon with Trump and TV with the Internet:
“Why was he [Nixon] elected in the first place? Advertising, television. Do you expect brains, judgment from people who watch the crap on TV? Everybody in the United States watching on average four hours a day?”
On religion:
“The ‘sanctity’ of human life – surely, as long as there was someone else to change the bedpans. I’d like to see the Pope changing a bedpan, Edith thought, or even giving birth for the eighth time, maybe with a breech delivery. Eternal pregnancy for the Pope, eternal pangs! After all, that was what he wished on an awful lot of women.”
On socialism, this from 1954 in the novel. It really made me ponder the reaction of capitalists and the wealthy to workers movements since the mid-19th century, and aside from the evils of their totalitarian implementations in the 20th century, the aspect of that reaction that is simply trying to preserve wealth in the hands of the powerful, and how it relates to American politics in the beginning of this century:
“We have been brainwashed for decades (since 1917) to hate Communism. Reader’s Digest has never failed to print one article per issue about the inefficiency of anything socialized, such as medicine.”
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LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
I picked this up after I read the back of the book, which read: "And the denouement is more subtle, more intense, more terrifying than mere murder." Well, this was not true for me at all. This was a story about a week willed man and woman and the lazy boy they "raise". Well written, but fairly
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boring, and certainly, not a thing that was "terrifying"! Boo to Penguin Books for such a misleading description! Boo! Show Less
LibraryThing member BrokenTune
His mother was fighting a losing battle, Cliffie thought, because she was trying to fight the majority. The majority wasn’t even fighting back, it was just indifferent.
Oh, gadz, I wanted to hit most of the characters in this story. Repeatedly. With a shovel. Not only was this story of the
Edith is looking forward to the prospect of moving from New York to Brunswick Corner, a small town in Pennsylvania, where she hopes to settle with her husband and son into a calmer more wholesome life. But soon the suburban dream falls apart as the model family shows cracks:
Edith's son, Cliffie, is a despicable little horror (he tries to kill the cat a couple of times and that is just the start). Her husband turns out to be self-righteous, selfish coward. And Edith is left to bear the strain of all of it.
What makes the book truly miserable is the way that Edith's cracking up is dealt with by the people around her, and so her keeping a diary, where she records a fantasy of a perfect life she imagines, becomes the symbol of her madness, her rebellion, as well as of the way society hides what is perceived as the imperfect, the damaged.
This is one of the most political works I have read by Highsmith. It heavily features Edith's (not necessairly the author's) thoughts on the Kennedys, the Vietnam War, Nixon, Watergate, etc. as a backdrop to Edith's alienation with her suburban neighbours.
Even tho I found it compelling, Edith's Diary is not a book I would recommend easily. It just really too depressing and frustrating to pass on to a friend. However, for the Highsmith enthusiast, this shows another side of her writing where she explores the connection between societal norms and psychological derangement.
Oh, gadz, I wanted to hit most of the characters in this story. Repeatedly. With a shovel. Not only was this story of the
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suburban dream more of a nightmare, but Highsmith's detailed character description made the characters come to life more than I cared for.Edith is looking forward to the prospect of moving from New York to Brunswick Corner, a small town in Pennsylvania, where she hopes to settle with her husband and son into a calmer more wholesome life. But soon the suburban dream falls apart as the model family shows cracks:
Edith's son, Cliffie, is a despicable little horror (he tries to kill the cat a couple of times and that is just the start). Her husband turns out to be self-righteous, selfish coward. And Edith is left to bear the strain of all of it.
What makes the book truly miserable is the way that Edith's cracking up is dealt with by the people around her, and so her keeping a diary, where she records a fantasy of a perfect life she imagines, becomes the symbol of her madness, her rebellion, as well as of the way society hides what is perceived as the imperfect, the damaged.
This is one of the most political works I have read by Highsmith. It heavily features Edith's (not necessairly the author's) thoughts on the Kennedys, the Vietnam War, Nixon, Watergate, etc. as a backdrop to Edith's alienation with her suburban neighbours.
Even tho I found it compelling, Edith's Diary is not a book I would recommend easily. It just really too depressing and frustrating to pass on to a friend. However, for the Highsmith enthusiast, this shows another side of her writing where she explores the connection between societal norms and psychological derangement.
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LibraryThing member burritapal
This book made me miserable while I read it. The characters are so stupid. The husband is just this bleh person, the wife is also a bleh person, the son is just a total f****** bum. I'm surprised their family didn't disintegrate years before it did.
But here's some quotes:
P.97:
" 'I suppose it's a
Then Edith had remembered the New York research expeditions [supposedly for a book he was writing] since January. He had of course been seeing Carol those Saturday afternoons. And maybe it had been 3 months since she and Brett had made love? Edith hadn't the faintest idea or memory, because the act of making love didn't seem terribly important. Yet, she reminded herself, what else was Brett talking about now in regard to carol? As cliffie would have put it, he wanted to screw a younger woman while he still could, while a younger woman would still have him. And in the midst of her confusion or speechlessness, Edith had still been able to think, she remembered, that she wasn't the first woman in the world to whom such a thing had happened, who had had to listen to the same Earnest speech from an honest man who really meant what he was saying."
Brett's Uncle George, who he had invited to live with them when they bought a house in pennsylvania, gets left with Edith when Brett moves in with carol. Uncle George refuses to get up, has to be served with a tray for every meal, and eventually has to use a bedpan which Edith has to clean after every use.
P.138:
"... Cliffie leaned closer and whispered, 'wake up! Before it's too late!'
Then abruptly cliffie was tired of the game, disgusted and somehow ashamed of the old guy in bed, the pain in the ass who took up a room in the house and crapped in the white, blue-trimmed bedpan, the crap which his mother had to poke down the john. 'Christ!' cliffie whispered. 'I hope the hell you f*** off today! Why not? Why not?' Cliffie's eyes bulged, and he spit the words out. He would have loved to give George a good solid kick in the ribs before departing, his right foot even raised itself a little from the floor, but cliffie knew that would be going too far. Furthermore, he knew he'd better leave before his parents came up for Brett to say goodbye or some such muck, so cliffie went out and down the stairs."
Edith and her silly editorials in their little Mickey mouse newsrag, gets her in trouble with her friends and neighbors.
" ...'look at operation head-start, mainly for black kids, let's face it. It's been called a failure, but it was a wonderful idea at first, to start those kids out in school 2 years before kids usually go to school, start them reading.'
'Johnson said it was a failure?' Gert asked in a surprised tone.
Edith nodded. 'I read it somewhere. Well it wasn't the hoped-for success. There is one way to break this down backwardness of the blacks, and she put backwardness in quotes by the tone of her voice, 'that's to take them away from their parents when they're two or even one year old, and bring them up among middle-class whites -- you know, with books and music in the house and a stable home life. Then we'd see --'
'wha-at? Pretty drastic,' Gert said, now bringing a big blue plastic bowl of peach ice cream to the table.
'Yes,' Edith went on in a gentle voice, thinking a soft approach might sink in better, 'but it's the only way to break the vicious circle. No matter how good schools are, kids still spend more time out of school than in. If colored kids were brought up in white households, we'd see -- or prove -- that environmental and economic conditions are more important than heredity.' "
What kept me reading this to the end was a morbid fascination.
But here's some quotes:
P.97:
" 'I suppose it's a
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shock,' Brett said. 'But I just couldn't go on like this, pretending -- or seeing Carol on the sly. It's not my nature.'Then Edith had remembered the New York research expeditions [supposedly for a book he was writing] since January. He had of course been seeing Carol those Saturday afternoons. And maybe it had been 3 months since she and Brett had made love? Edith hadn't the faintest idea or memory, because the act of making love didn't seem terribly important. Yet, she reminded herself, what else was Brett talking about now in regard to carol? As cliffie would have put it, he wanted to screw a younger woman while he still could, while a younger woman would still have him. And in the midst of her confusion or speechlessness, Edith had still been able to think, she remembered, that she wasn't the first woman in the world to whom such a thing had happened, who had had to listen to the same Earnest speech from an honest man who really meant what he was saying."
Brett's Uncle George, who he had invited to live with them when they bought a house in pennsylvania, gets left with Edith when Brett moves in with carol. Uncle George refuses to get up, has to be served with a tray for every meal, and eventually has to use a bedpan which Edith has to clean after every use.
P.138:
"... Cliffie leaned closer and whispered, 'wake up! Before it's too late!'
Then abruptly cliffie was tired of the game, disgusted and somehow ashamed of the old guy in bed, the pain in the ass who took up a room in the house and crapped in the white, blue-trimmed bedpan, the crap which his mother had to poke down the john. 'Christ!' cliffie whispered. 'I hope the hell you f*** off today! Why not? Why not?' Cliffie's eyes bulged, and he spit the words out. He would have loved to give George a good solid kick in the ribs before departing, his right foot even raised itself a little from the floor, but cliffie knew that would be going too far. Furthermore, he knew he'd better leave before his parents came up for Brett to say goodbye or some such muck, so cliffie went out and down the stairs."
Edith and her silly editorials in their little Mickey mouse newsrag, gets her in trouble with her friends and neighbors.
" ...'look at operation head-start, mainly for black kids, let's face it. It's been called a failure, but it was a wonderful idea at first, to start those kids out in school 2 years before kids usually go to school, start them reading.'
'Johnson said it was a failure?' Gert asked in a surprised tone.
Edith nodded. 'I read it somewhere. Well it wasn't the hoped-for success. There is one way to break this down backwardness of the blacks, and she put backwardness in quotes by the tone of her voice, 'that's to take them away from their parents when they're two or even one year old, and bring them up among middle-class whites -- you know, with books and music in the house and a stable home life. Then we'd see --'
'wha-at? Pretty drastic,' Gert said, now bringing a big blue plastic bowl of peach ice cream to the table.
'Yes,' Edith went on in a gentle voice, thinking a soft approach might sink in better, 'but it's the only way to break the vicious circle. No matter how good schools are, kids still spend more time out of school than in. If colored kids were brought up in white households, we'd see -- or prove -- that environmental and economic conditions are more important than heredity.' "
What kept me reading this to the end was a morbid fascination.
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LibraryThing member Dabble58
I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t read Highsmith before now. I saw “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and it made me feel uneasy. This book does that as well and in spades.
Edith’s rapidly deteriorating life is simply far too relatable - the kid who just tries to pluck her wires, who has an evil
And Edith herself, a very unreliable narrator who takes refuge in her huge diary, changing her life story in it to one happier than her real one...
It’s a very sad story of a woman who, though bright and accomplished, is being squashed by unreasonable expectations and giving in, slowly, to fantasies of a better world. To add to her pressures, this is the time of the Kennedy assassinations, Nixon, Viet Nam... it’s no wonder she takes to writing small, violent fictions.
Help comes too late, too little. The ending is heartbreaking.
It isn’t a comfortable book. It is, however, stunningly good.
Edith’s rapidly deteriorating life is simply far too relatable - the kid who just tries to pluck her wires, who has an evil
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undercurrent to his every smile - the husband who falls in love with someone and abandons Edith, offering scant help and depositing his elderly uncle on her for care - the ‘kindly’ neighbours who may or may not be so.And Edith herself, a very unreliable narrator who takes refuge in her huge diary, changing her life story in it to one happier than her real one...
It’s a very sad story of a woman who, though bright and accomplished, is being squashed by unreasonable expectations and giving in, slowly, to fantasies of a better world. To add to her pressures, this is the time of the Kennedy assassinations, Nixon, Viet Nam... it’s no wonder she takes to writing small, violent fictions.
Help comes too late, too little. The ending is heartbreaking.
It isn’t a comfortable book. It is, however, stunningly good.
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LibraryThing member BibliophageOnCoffee
Reading this felt like a chore, so I stopped.
Pages
317
ISBN
0871132966 / 9780871132963