A Wife of Noble Character

June 20, 2016
Inspired by The House of Mirth, Puig’s debut repositions Wharton’s Gilded Age classic in modern-day Houston. There, orphaned Vivienne Cally, although the most beautiful of her set, is largely dependent on the generosity of her frenemies to maintain the appearance and lifestyle necessary to snag a wealthy husband. But Vivienne is now in her 30s, her friends are marrying off, and she’s starting to harbor doubts—prompted largely by her friendship with the idealistic architecture student Preston Duffin—about whether she even wants to continue participating in the kind of society that values conspicuous displays of wealth above substance. Narrated alternately from Vivienne and Preston’s points of view, the novel offers numerous insights into the process of arriving at adulthood, the realization that the choices made in one’s 30s have real consequences and may largely define the rest of one’s life. Fans of Wharton’s original will likely most appreciate the ways in which Puig updates her heroine’s inner conflicts to remain relevant in a present-day setting where college-educated women’s fates are (at least in theory) no longer bound to their marriage prospects. Others may find the social satire thin, frequently interrupted by lengthy debates about personal integrity as well as by so-called scandals that ultimately fail to scandalize.

June 1, 2016
How will it turn out for modern-day Texan Vivienne Cally, modeled on the tragic heroine of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, after she loses both her income and her overprivileged circle of friends?Maintaining the lifestyle of an oil heiress, popular, buoyant, beautiful Vivienne hangs out with a wealthy crowd in an upscale Houston neighborhood and shares many of her friends' preoccupations, especially money and marriage. But though she carries the name of Cally Petroleum, Vivienne doesn't actually possess a fortune, so a lot hangs on her expectations of Bucky Lawland, her traditional, grotesquely selfish, wealthy boyfriend, deemed by everyone to be "a catch." The appearance of sincere but much-less-moneyed trainee architect Preston Duffin tilts the reader's expectations toward the territory of commercial fiction, yet Puig's intention in her debut is larger, drawing comparisons between the crushing social norms of early-20th-century New York and the narrow horizons of an insulated, contemporary Texan elite. Like Lily Bart, the doomed heroine of Wharton's novel, Vivienne's trajectory heads downward after she offends Bucky by urging her own sexual preferences over his, lurches from one misunderstanding to another with Preston, and quits what had seemed like a good job. Puig's serious ambitions for her novel--considerations of place, independence, the role of the wife in marriage--conflict with its shape throughout, never more so than when, after a taste of reality, she propels Vivienne back toward dream-come-true opportunities and romance. The result is an uneasy, archly expressed hybrid: a conventional love story with issues. Inconsistent in tone and orientation, this novel bears comparison with its own heroine, "lovely and curious and a bit confused."

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April 15, 2016

Vivienne Cally is a stunning 31-year-old woman whose circle of friends includes members of prominent Houston families. Living among wealthy peers makes it difficult for Vivienne to exist on the modest wages she earns and the meager allowance from her emotionally distant aunt. Family and friends expect her to marry a rich and respectable man, even though she often finds her choices repellent. She is popular and welcome, but high society events are expensive, and Vivienne scrambles to keep up appearances. Since childhood, she has known Preston Duffin, a struggling architect who is generally accepted among this crowd but has no desire to join them. He is, however, fascinated with Vivienne, and their relationship both simmers with attraction and fades with discouragement. A divergent path to Paris and Switzerland leads back to Texas where Vivienne faces some of life's hardest lessons as she learns the importance of satisfying work, solid friendships, and genuine love. VERDICT Filled with keen social commentary, this debut novel is an inspired reimagining of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. More than a century later, the theme still echoes that in women's relationships, there is too high a cost to not staying true to oneself.--Gloria Drake, Oswego P.L. Dist., IL

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