The Confusion of Languages

April 15, 2017
In her debut novel, Fallon (You Know When the Men Are Gone, 2011) takes the Army wives who were the subject of her previous short story collection and moves them overseas, where political unrest is fomenting in the wake of the Arab Spring.Cass Hugo and her husband, Dan, have been at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan for two years when Dan signs them up to sponsor a new family: Margaret and Crick Brickshaw and their baby, Mather. Cass is a portrait of bitterness; her lack of success conceiving a child has not only strained her marriage, but convinced her that she's disqualified from making friends with the other embassy wives. So though Cass resents the sponsorship and seems to dislike Margaret, she's determined to be the new woman's friend, at least partly because she thinks the sometimes disconcertingly naive Margaret needs her experienced guidance. But as they get to know each other, what emerges between them is a philosophical divide about their roles as foreigners and their responsibilities as military spouses. Where Cass follows the embassy's rules of conduct to the letter and is happiest replicating American experiences, Margaret behaves more instinctively, engaging with the culture and people around her as she sees fit. The fissures in their friendship widen, and Cass is trying to make amends when Margaret goes missing. As Cass watches Mather and waits for news, she finds Margaret's journal and discovers not only the extent of their differences, but her own possible role in her friend's disappearance. For all that these women appear designed for a morality play, they are honest and well-formed characters, and Fallon strenuously avoids pat answers to the central question of how a woman should behave in a foreign land. Page-turning and rich in detail, this is a solid, insightful debut.

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Starred review from May 15, 2017
Shortly after the Arab Spring, Cassie Hughes and her husband, Dan, a foreign-affairs officer stationed at the U.S. embassy in Amman, are sponsors to newcomers Margaret and Crick Brickshaw. Margaret may have a sexier husband, a better apartment, and, most particularly, a child, but one advantage Cassie has is her expertise on being a military wife in Jordan, and she is happy to show Margaret the ropes. Margaret is less rule abiding, however, and her desire to explore beyond the constraints of embassy life poses a threat. One evening, after the two women are involved in a minor traffic accident, Margaret goes to the police station to file a report while Cassie stays behind in the Brickshaws' apartment. She comes across Margaret's journal, which she reads as the hours tick by and her friend doesn't return; the layering of Cassie's narrative and Margaret's journal entries provides dual perspectives on the same events. Margaret's disappearance adds an element of suspense to an incisive examination of friendship and betrayal and a skillful mingling of cultural and domestic themes. Military wives are also the subject of Fallon's prizewinning short story collection, You Know When the Men Are Gone (2012).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)