It is obvious that Lombardo can tell a story. She is able to create characters that are well drawn out and complex. She is able to keep them consistent over time. But she is also able to draw out a tale longer than it should be.
The story centers around the main character, Julia. She is a mother, a wife, and a daughter. She is not very likable. We hear interior dialog of her throughout, always stating that she was playing at how she thought people should act, and felt abnormal for the way she was unable to act toward people. The story we hear is weaved together by flashbacks and at times can be confusing as to where you are. This becomes more of a distraction to me, as I just want to hear the tale move forward, having context at once to understand what is happening, not having it piecemealed out.
Julia’s son, a teaching assistant at a nearby college, informs his parents (Julia and Mark) and sister Alma that he is getting married to a former student that he had impregnated. This leads Julia to swirl into the past, wallowing in her self-loathing for failing everyone.
Julia was brought up by a mother that was manipulative and distant. Julia doesn’t feel worth loving; this lack of worthlessness was ingrained by her mother, who knew that would be the meanest thing to do to Julia.
We see that Julia longs for a relationship she sees as motherly, leading her to Helen. Julia falls hard, finally getting the relationship she wanted with her mother. All this comes apart at the seams, as this becomes a well-worn path of destruction.
It is through the planning of the wedding that Julia begins to see how others viewed her – such as Francine, Mark’s best friend’s wife, and an intern at the library that was in awe of her. Her perception was not the way she felt she presented herself to others. Perception is reality, and Julia couldn’t reconcile this.
I didn’t care for this self-centered woman that blamed everything on her mother and hid from life thinking she was the only one that had it hard. She never accepted that she played a part in the break with her mother, or entertained the thought that her mother taught her the path toward pushing others out before they hurt you. Julia floated through life, trying not to be her mother, but yet going down the path of destruction she illuminated. If Julia, and her mother, would only be honest with themselves and open to hearing from others instead of shutting them out, then maybe they could have had less lonely.
