Duchess of Nothing: A Novel [Paperback]

Heather McGowan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2007

After leaving her husband and her suffocating marriage for the romance and promise of Rome, the narrator of Duchess of Nothing has her freedom but is still trapped by the routine of life and haunted by her past. Charming, manic, and acutely aware of her own precarious grasp on the world around her, the narrator speaks with a kind of absurd logic that makes the book impossible to put down.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. McGowan's maverick follow-up to her debut, Schooling (2001), stars a 30-ish divorced American woman who, it is implied, has the lithe frame, iconic features and sophisticated trashiness of Holly Golightly. Too smart for her own good and lacking Holly's ambition or drive, the nameless narrator is living in Rome with young, faceless lover Edmund—and caring for Edmund's seven-year-old half-brother. Edmund is described mostly in terms of the beauty of his back, about which the narrator is careful to instruct "Edmund's brother" (aka "the boy") lest he get duped into loving an unworthy object (as she has). The boy's "education" (she forbids him to go to school) is in fact her preoccupation, allowing McGowan to give the woman's autodidactic rants (on love) free rein. When Edmund abruptly leaves the odd menage, the woman and the boy run out of money, get increasingly desperate and contemplate ways of finding Edmund that won't make them lose face. The woman's absolute devotion to tiny matters of style and comportment, and her resolute obliviousness to the ridiculously mannered, bafflingly anachronistic figure she cuts, is a lode McGowan mines with relish as she slowly chips away at the woman's love for the boy. Weeks after finishing this singular, pointedly frustrating novel, readers will find that nameless woman's mind still moving restlessly within them. (Mar. 28)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

An unnamed woman of indeterminate age is abandoned by her lover in Rome, and left to care for his seven-year-old brother. This premise, suggestive of some modern-day Henry James novel, is full of potential, but McGowan's minimalist execution is disappointing. She presents the reader with only the faintest gradations of plot, setting, and character development, the better to focus attention on the narrator's voice. These musings, aiming for offbeat charm, seem mannered ("It was intolerable of my parents not to have organized a sibling") and mundane ("My feet please me enormously today"). And the blankness of the narrator (she used to work in a bank, had a cat, and "read fat novels while I drank hot liquids") reduces the interest of her emerging relationship with her young charge, which is by turns narcissistic, sadistic, and loving.
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (March 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596910674
• ISBN-13: 978-1596910676
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,135,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Darkly Entertaining, January 2, 2009

By 

littlewing (Newnan, GA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Duchess of Nothing: A Novel (Paperback)

I came to Amazon to order a copy of this book for a friend of mine and was so dismayed by the reviews, I felt compelled to write one myself. First, a brief synopsis if you haven't read it elsewhere: The story is narrarated by a woman who is living in Rome with a man named Edmund and his 7yr old half brother who was recently deposited there by their father. The woman is never named and the boy only referred to as "Edmund's brother". Soon, Edmund himself leaves and the story follows the narrator and her relationship to the boy to whom she becomes a dubious caretaker. The book is not exactly plot-driven, rather the story moved forward through the ruminations of the unnamed woman who sees herself as a sort of reluctant but necessary educator. The boy is bright and endearing...my inner child therapist was very worried about his inevitable abandonment and co-dependency issues. The facinating part of the book for me was narrator's constant fluctuation between confidence and feelings of failure. Was the "potential" with which she was labeled in her youth misspent or mistaken altogether? Her musings and tirades were often funny and even profound, if competely out of touch with reality and I felt sympathy for her flounderings and liked her immensely. The general pace of the book is slow which I thought was cool because, in a sense, it underscored the lazy and ambiguous lifestyle of the narrarator. Most of the action is all in her head and she never really commits to anything. However, for the final quarter of the book I found this to be a bit overdone and think it could have benefited from a bit more editing. I can see that if read from a completely literal point of view, the narrator would indeed seem like a narcissistic, self absorbed, petty, snobby, deluded and generally terrible human being and it would be difficult to overcome the sense of horror in reading along while a small child is being left in her care. I think if the story were told from boy's perspective, you'd have a tale similar to Augusten Burroughs "Running with Scissors" although you'd enjoy it with less guilt since it didn't actually happen. As it is, while the mom in me cringed, the languishing milk-boiler was stirred.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, May 12, 2006

By 

Lance "Lance" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Duchess of Nothing: A Novel (Paperback)

I loved this novel. The voice of the narrarator was intoxicating, quite funny, and mercilessly dark. I laughed out loud a few times, but nervously. I found myself even liking the woman who was speaking and then shortly thereafter being appalled that I thought she might actually be likable or even sane. Complications like these that set up a conflict in the reader make for a reading experience that is a genuinely complex and prickly one. I think the closest comparison I can make to reading The Duchess of Nothing would be to reading the best of Thomas Bernhard's novels that are similarly inspired obsessive monologues bordering on insanity (the good kind). Both of Heather McGowan's novels (*Schooling* --her first-- also brilliant and troubling) will sit next to all of Mr. Bernhard's on my shelves. Highly recommended.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother, November 14, 2008

By 

S. Struhall (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Duchess of Nothing: A Novel (Paperback)

One of the worst books I have ever read. Read a glowing review. BAH.
Main character not likeable. Nothing good about this book. Did not finish.