The Lives of Edie Pritchard

May 4, 2020
Set mostly in eastern Montana, Watson’s vibrant character study (after As Good as Gone) reads like a trio of scintillating novellas, each set 20 years apart. In the late 1960s, young bank teller Edie Linderman is married to Dean, a domineering sporting goods clerk. Their wobbly marriage is beset with maybes and ifs. Maybe she should have married Dean’s more ambitious twin brother, Roy, a flirtatious furniture salesman. If she hadn’t gone with Roy to buy a pick-up, maybe he wouldn’t have had the crippling accident, the murky circumstances of which ignited Dean’s jealousy, and maybe she wouldn’t have left town with a one-way bus ticket west and married smarmy insurance agent Gary Dunn, as she does in the second part of the novel, set in 1987. Edie and Dean have a daughter who, by 18, wearies of her dull life. Edie leaves Gary, hoping to develop a better relationship with her rebellious teenager. In 2007, now 64, Edie relies on her life experiences to rescue her self-absorbed adolescent granddaughter who becomes embroiled with yet another set of battling brothers. Like in the best works of Richard Ford and Elizabeth Strout, Watson shows off a keen eye for regional details, a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, and an affinity for sharp characterization. This triptych is richly rewarding. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit.

Edie Pritchard--beautiful and smart--has always been pursued by men, and more than once has disappeared from her old life to avoid them. Eventually, after running from her second marriage, Edie sees that her teenage granddaughter is falling into the same trap. Narrator Holly Palance employs the same smooth, gentle cadence for the narrative that she does for most of the characters' voices--a choice this listener usually enjoys, but one that seems unsuited to this dark story. Her pleasant cadence is easy on the ears but belies Edie's angst-ridden life. Palance subtly distinguishes the twin brothers-- introspective Deane, Edie's first husband, and smarmy Roy, who always loved her. Overall, the narration is well paced, but a bit too cheerful for its serious theme. N.M.C. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine