Resumo de A Winter Marriage

A Winter Marriage is the story of careworn and disillusioned people trying to find renewal or comfort in a socially, physically and historically harsh environment, not always successfully. Hannie Bennett, the heroine (or perhaps sometimes antiheroine) of the story is in her fifties and is clearly fallible and damaged goods. She has been married four times and is surrounded by vague intonations of mystery, scandal and opportunism. She has recently left Kenya after her fourth husband died. He was wealthy, but left her nothing, which feeds rumors and gossip of disgrace and betrayal. Her son Joss has remained in Kenya, but will presumably be sent for when and if Hannie is settled. And she is desperate to be settled, if just to know where the next meal will come from for her and her son.

Hannie appears mercenary and manipulative when she sets her sights on Ned Renvyle, 20 years her senior and never married. Ned is a retired traveler, adventurer and writer, and he has recently settled on a hobby farm in rural Ireland where he putters, dabbles at his writing, and occasionally gives lectures about his travels and writings. Hannie is still physically attractive for a woman her age. This and her air of mystery, disinterest and independence draw Ned in. A part of Ned realizes and accepts that Hannie's interest in him is probably opportunistic - a convenient harbor for her floundering self and incorrigible adolescent son. But Ned is lonely and bored, and his naïve and optimistic nature prompts him to hope their relationship may prosper and she will learn to value if not love him. And she will provide companionship and sociability.

They marry and though the relationship does not prosper as Ned hopes, it seems to fill at least some of their needs - sex, companionship, status, financial stability - though often in an uneasy and precarious way. Hannie resents the isolation of the rural farm, the prudery and inquisitiveness of the neighbors, and Ned's stinginess. Ned is bemused and sometimes distressed by Hannie's moodiness and reluctance to play the supportive wife role. He is also unnerved and somewhat alarmed by the rude and shock-provoking behavior and attitude of Hannie's adolescent son, Joss, when he joins the family in Ireland.

Hannie, in asserting or trying to hold onto her independence is often contrary and unsociable. She drinks too much, lies to Ned, sexually betrays him, and sometimes even steals from him. She is secretive about her past, particularly when it comes to the sordid history of her son, Joss. Ned is long-suffering, though passively aggressive and punishing in his own way at times. Add to this mix, Hannie's relationship with Danno, another damaged, mysterious and hermit-like character in the neighborhood who has a history of some conflict with Ned; Joss being expelled from the boarding school he is attending for unacceptable and alarming behavior; Niamh, a beautiful young artist, trying to find her self, who rents a cottage on Ned's property; Mrs. Cody, Ned's housekeeper who becomes Hannie's confidant and sometimes unwelcome conscience. And finally awful tragedy that strains the already tenuous ties.

What interested and held me in this occasionally dreary novel was it's dichotomous and ambiguous characters. It is a character-driven novel. Hannie, Ned, Danno, Joss, Niamh, and Mrs. Cody are frail and emotionally injured, but at the same time resilient and relentless. Concomitant with the pathos is humor - if you don't laugh you will cry, and I found myself laughing surprising often. The characters struggle and stumble through tragedy, betrayal, and disillusionment, and they survive, not as one would expect in a Hollywood story, but as real people, with wounds and frailties, and also a certain strength and survival instinct. A Winter Marriage is an engaging novel of real people in a real bleak, though sometimes almost heroic world. A not always pleasant, but ultimately enthralling read.

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