I Am Mary Dunne [Hardcover]

Brian Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 1968 | ISBN-10: 0670389668 | ISBN-13: 978-0670389667 | Edition: 1st

A beautiful woman in her early 30s, Mary Lavery, is now hapily married to a much feted British playwright and living in New York. But before this there have been other lives, two previous husbands and a passionate Catholic girlhood.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Once again one of the lacerating lifestyles (failed men - frustrated women) which have figured in almost all of Brian Moore's novels, his last excepted. Actually this is closest to An Answer from Limbo, perhaps because its modern New York setting lends itself to a certain facility (sleek, just this side of slick), leaving behind the untamed austerity of Ireland and the platitudinous provincialism of Canada. Wherever, ineffectuality, impotence, failure, prodded by the devil in the flesh, are the welts he raises under the hairshirt of everyday existence. This Spends twenty four hours, or less, in the youngish (thirty) life of Mary Dunne from the morning at the hairdresser's when she doesn't remember her name. She's had so many first and last names (Mary, Maria, Martha) courtesy of those who loved her and three marriages. She's also haunted by her "Down Tilts" and her "Mad Twin" and "the dooms, the glooms in which I see myself in unknown hotel rooms with nameless men" - her father died in one with some woman-and she has an undefined if undeluded sense of guilt toward Hat, her second husband. On it goes as Mary, given to jagged self-recognitions, feinting with who she is, is finally forced to confront what she's done, deliberately and by default. . . . Lacking the literary caliber of his first (The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne) and last (The Emperor of Ice Cream) perhaps best books, still this will commit your unconditional sympathetic interest and it does so with superlative ease. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

'An extraordinary piece of feminine characterisation.' - Sunday Times

'I can think of no other living male novelist who writes about women with such sympathy and understanding.' - Times Literary Supplement

'As complex and satisfying as anything Moore has yet done.' - Observer

'One of the truest and most awesome books read.' - Scotsman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 217 pages
• Publisher: The Viking Press; 1st edition (June 19, 1968)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670389668
• ISBN-13: 978-0670389667
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 20 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,465,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are you Mary Dunne, too? Internal and chilling., September 2, 1999

By 

Margaret Fiore - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am Mary Dunne (Paperback)

Is this what the psychiatrists mean when they speak of character dissociation? Throughout a day spent in the emotionally vulnerable state of premenstrual stress, the protagonist continually runs up against reminders of the most trying times of her life, with disastrous emotional echoes.

An amazing book. The story of Mary Dunne's life is told in the space of just one day's meetings and memories. And over and over she asks herself the same question throughout the book that you must ask: Is she losing her mind? Or is this just a bad and shaky moment, exacerbated by hormonal changes?

Any woman that has ever suffered through a day with the glibly labelled PMS will recognize Mary's Mad Twin. And among those, many of us must also identify with her fearful sense of lost identity, and fears of the wide open edges of mental dysfunction.

Frightening, internal, true-to-life - this is not a book to read in an off-balance moment. But it is an amazing internal portrait of a woman. It would be an amazing portrait even if it was written by a woman; how much more so when written by a man! Yet Moore seems to effortlessly empathize completely and realistically. He has once again created a wholly believable and poignant character whom we must follow through the toils of her personal hell.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Book, August 24, 2001

By 

Cookie Crawford (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am Mary Dunne (Paperback)

On a whim, I purchased a frayed copy of this book in a thrift shop because it was published the year I was born, and I wanted to get a peek into the culture of that time. I certainly didn't expect to aquire one of the most affecting novels I've ever read. Moore, who also wrote the wrenching JUDITH HEARNE - - filmed as THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE with Maggie Smith in 1987 - - has an elegant and inviting voice that immediately draws you into the persona of his heroine. (The book is told in the first person.) The writer displays subtle but complete authority as a storyteller, alternating humor with pathos, and reading this poignant and eerie character study is (to use a cliche) a treat....one that I would highly recommend.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ahead of its time, May 22, 2010

By 

Divascribe (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: I Am Mary Dunne (Paperback)

This book, written in the late 1960s by a man, plumbs the depths of a woman's identity crisis. I remember reading it many years ago and being blown away by its insights. Rereading it, I was still impressed that a man could get into a woman's head so well. Affairs, vicious gossip, PMS, Catholic guilt, multiple marriages -- this book has it all, but it's no lightweight "chick lit" novel. I recommend it to anyone who wants to really think about how people relate to each other.