We Are Not Ourselves

Starred review from April 21, 2014
In his powerful and significant debut novel, Thomas masterfully evokes one woman’s life in the context of a brilliantly observed Irish working-class milieu. Eileen Tumulty was born in the early ’40s, the only child and dutiful caretaker of alcoholic parents. As a young woman, she hopes to leave her family’s dingy apartment in Woodside, Queens, and move up the social ladder. Eileen falls in love with and marries Ed Leary, a quiet neuroscientist whom she sees as the means to an upper-middle-class future. But Ed is dedicated to pure scientific research, and he turns down lucrative job offers from pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions. The couple’s apartment in Jackson Heights is a step up from Eileen’s parents’ apartment, but she wants a home in tony Westchester County. Later, Eileen pursues an arduous career as a nursing administrator to secure a future for their son, Connell. But once she gets her gracious but dilapidated fixer-upper in Bronxville, in southern Westchester, Ed is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, and the family slowly endures “the encroaching of a fathomless darkness.” Thomas works on a large canvas to create a memorable depiction of Eileen’s vibrant spirit, the intimacy of her love for Ed, and the desperate stoicism she exhibits as reality narrows her dreams. Her life, observed over a span of six decades, comes close to a definitive portrait of American social dynamics in the 20th century. Thomas’s emotional truthfulness combines with the novel’s texture and scope to create an unforgettable narrative.

The arc of Eileen Leary's life contains more disappointed hopes than realized dreams. Despite the tragedy she experiences, Eileen and those closest to her are unsympathetic, even unattractive, characters, and the flat affect of the Mare Winningham's narration exacerbates that impression. More of a pause here, more intonation there would have drawn out textual subtleties. But too often the lack of one or the other, or both, errs so far as to lose the listener in dialogue exchanges and scene changes. None of the characters in this novel are idealized, and that is perhaps its key point, but what that character vantage has to offer gets muted. K.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine