Joan Foster fakes her own death by drowning in Lake Ontario to escape a messy entanglement of secret identities. Living in Italy under an assumed name, she reflects on her past as a closeted writer of costume gothics and her former life as a morbidly obese child bullied by a critical mother. The narrative tracks her transformation into a thin woman who creates a fictional public persona as a serious poet while hiding her trashy novels from her radical leftist husband and her blackmailer.
Readers of feminist satire and psychological fiction find value in the book’s cynical dissection of female identity and social performance. It appeals to those interested in how popular culture and romantic tropes shape personal expectations and ruin private lives. A reader finishes the book with an understanding of how one woman uses deceit and Gothic cliches as survival mechanisms against the boredom and constraints of her actual environment.
Inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Mindful Reader. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1976
- Language
- EN
