Good Reads / Community Library Notes
There Your Heart Lies
Mary Gordon
Review by Priscilla Comen
There Your Heart Lies
Mary Gordon
Review by Priscilla Comen
There Your Heart Lies by Mary Gordon is the story of Marian, the daughter of strict religious parents who believe their way is the only way. When her father learns her brother, Johnny, is gay, he has him put into an institution. When Johnny learns they are going to give him shock therapy to “cure” him, he hangs himself. Marian finds him, and cuts him down. At that moment she begins to hate her family and everything they believe in.
She goes with Johnny’s lover, Russell, to Spain to help in the hospital during the Spanish Civil War. Franco was supported by the Catholic church and by Hitler and Mussolini. The year was late 1930s.
Marian, at age 92, in 2009, dying of cancer, tells her grand-daughter, Amilia, the story of her life in Spain, her philosophy of religion, and the poverty of the people oppressed by the church. Working in the hospital in Spain, Marian meets and falls in love with a Spanish surgeon. They marry in a civil ceremony. Ramon dies of an infection acquired in the operating room, and, later, Marian gives birth to a son, Ignacio, who is taken away from her by her mother-in-law, who says Marian is not fit to be a mother.
When Marian slips and falls on the cobblestones, she is taken to a female doctor who is not on the side of Franco. She’s outspoken about her politics and enjoys talking to Marian. The doctor discovers that Marian’s mother-in-law has been giving her Phenobarbital in her morning drink for seven years. The doctor, Isobel, and her brother, Tomas, decide to get Marian out of there, a matter of saving her life.
Marian meets Theo, falls in love and marries him after he converts to Catholicism so Tomas, a priest, can do the ceremony.
The author skips forward to 2009 to Rhode Island, to her lovely old home where Marian continues to tell Amelia her life’s experiences. Will Amelia understand the complexities of Marian’s life? Will she try to find out more about her grandmother’s past? How will this knowledge help Amelia to grow, to change, to become herself? Find the answers on the new fiction shelf of the Mendocino Community Library.
She goes with Johnny’s lover, Russell, to Spain to help in the hospital during the Spanish Civil War. Franco was supported by the Catholic church and by Hitler and Mussolini. The year was late 1930s.
Marian, at age 92, in 2009, dying of cancer, tells her grand-daughter, Amilia, the story of her life in Spain, her philosophy of religion, and the poverty of the people oppressed by the church. Working in the hospital in Spain, Marian meets and falls in love with a Spanish surgeon. They marry in a civil ceremony. Ramon dies of an infection acquired in the operating room, and, later, Marian gives birth to a son, Ignacio, who is taken away from her by her mother-in-law, who says Marian is not fit to be a mother.
When Marian slips and falls on the cobblestones, she is taken to a female doctor who is not on the side of Franco. She’s outspoken about her politics and enjoys talking to Marian. The doctor discovers that Marian’s mother-in-law has been giving her Phenobarbital in her morning drink for seven years. The doctor, Isobel, and her brother, Tomas, decide to get Marian out of there, a matter of saving her life.
Marian meets Theo, falls in love and marries him after he converts to Catholicism so Tomas, a priest, can do the ceremony.
The author skips forward to 2009 to Rhode Island, to her lovely old home where Marian continues to tell Amelia her life’s experiences. Will Amelia understand the complexities of Marian’s life? Will she try to find out more about her grandmother’s past? How will this knowledge help Amelia to grow, to change, to become herself? Find the answers on the new fiction shelf of the Mendocino Community Library.