Every Past Thing [Hardcover]

Pamela Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2007

In 1899, the streets of New York were as unsettled as the heart and mind of Mary Jane Elmer. the ideas of the transcendentalist were still in the air, and thoughts of a second revolution were rising. Emma Goldman spoke to ever-growing numbers of the disenfranchised in Union Square and scandalized the city fathers. Police used horses, clubs, and bullets to disperse the crowds. Women were redefining their roles for the coming century. And, near the middle of life, solitary in her marriage to an intractable and distant artist, and still grieving the death of their daughter ten years earlier, Mary struggles to shape a future she can endure. Derived from the lives of real people, this beautiful novel ia a whirlwind of history, art, familial tremors, and personal desire. But beyond its elegance, beyond its historical authenticity, Every Past Thing is an intimate and moving family portrait-and its every brushstroke is marked with longing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A woman solicits a reunion with her former lover at the end of the 19th century in Thompson's debut novel, embarking on an overwrought reappraisal of her tragic past. At a notorious East Village anarchist watering hole (and also the last known address of her former secret beau, Jimmy Roberts), Mary Jane records in her notebook the events that have led her and her husband, the painter Edwin Romanzo Elmer, to New York City: the death of their only child, Effie; their estrangement and reunion with Edwin's imposing and wealthy brother, Samuel; and their family and social circle's tension-fraught relationships. Mary's days of secret escape are contrasted against Edwin's private turmoil as he struggles to secure a place at the National Academy of Design, while his thoughts are distracted by his wife's suspicious absences. Though the novel covers the course of a week, flashbacks expand the story's breadth and scope. Portentous prose may make a tough go of the novel's first half, but narrative urgency grows, albeit slowly, as connections between the characters are revealed. Readers fond of late 19th- century literature will appreciate this florid trip back in time. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

In late-nineteenth-century New York, Mary Jane Elmer, the wife of painter Edwin Romanzo Elmer (a real artist whose most famous painting serves as the cover illustration), is struggling to make sense of her life. Although the couple's 10-year-old daughter died years before, Mary is still grief stricken and unable to find comfort in her relationship with her husband, a reticent man who finds the fullest release for his own emotions through his painting. Mary haunts a bar famous as an anarchist hangout, searching for an old lover while confiding her deepest thoughts and the history of her complicated relationship with her wealthy brother-in-law to a private journal. Both the evocative ideas of the transcendentalists and the fiery speeches of Emma Goldman deeply influence Mary's exploration of her own desires. First-novelist Thompson employs a near-stream-of-consciousness narrative style that is, at times, impenetrable. But patient readers will be rewarded; by novel's end, Mary's journey to face the compromises and deceptions she has made to protect herself takes on the utmost urgency. A novel to be savored. Wilkinson, Joanne

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Unbridled Books; 1 edition (September 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932961399
• ISBN-13: 978-1932961393
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,546,527 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Past Thing, August 29, 2007

By 

A Careful Reader (Missouri USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Every Past Thing (Hardcover)

Following the loss of her 10-year-old daughter, Mary Jane Elmer finds herself with "a pen and a book, whose pages are mostly empty." She wonders what she will write, considering as theme "January 1890, The book of no Effie." Instead she titles her new journal page "Every Past Thing Becomes Strange."
In the pages that follow, Mary Jane explores the strangeness of past things, seeking to clarify not only her changed personal relationships but also her own identity: she is simultaneously "Mary" within her lost past, and "Jane" in her uncertain future. Relocating to New York City, (Mary) Jane becomes involved with the tumultuous intellectual climate of the late 19th century, living a secret life among anarchists and feminists. Reimagining her past with a secret lost love, she is able to recreate what might have been and find a world where she can breathe again.
Most unforgettable about Every Past Thing are the gentle, poetic turns of phrase (Mary is described as "tiny, clad in a dark wrap. A pinch to her shoulder blades, as if they were folded wings, delicate, poised for flight. Fragile. . . "). Unlike her despondent husband Edwin, she "likes all the city's shades of gray. . . . She even likes the dirtiness of the rain. And the ballast of strangers: People are alive, all around." Through Pamela Thompson's nuanced, poetic language we watch this brave, extraordinary woman coming back to life in a world redefining itself.
There is a moving grace and poignancy in Thompson's first few pages, an earlier journal entry in which Mary relives her daughter's dying moments. She describes the beloved's face: "What Economy created her--only two shades, cream and brown: her skin utterly pale, with no bloom or agitation or bite; her brown eyes the same golden as their lashes, the same as her two brows kicking up as if to touch the center." She reconsiders the morning of Effie's death: "that morning, in the presence of the terrible orange light, no voices came. All sounds below muffled. Imagined--at most. Yet they had been, once, all of my existence. I understood then how small my own part in this Life."
What remains with me most after finishing this remarkable book is how we carry on. That what we lose can be relived and reshaped to carry its own seeds of joy. Thompson's head note from Emerson asks us, "Why should we grope about in the dry bones of the past?. . . The sun shines today also." Surely this novel provides a lesson we all need to learn. Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Past Thing, October 25, 2007

By 

Therese Soukar (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Every Past Thing (Hardcover)

Ten years after the death of their daughter Effie, the painter, Edwin Romanzo Elmer, and his wife, Mary Jane Elmer, are in New York where Edwin attends The National Academy of Design. In his absence, Mary supplements their income by working at the whip-snap machine and spends the rest of her time writing in her diary. Thompson invokes the past elegantly, making the loss of Effie hauntingly real. But Effie isn't Mary's only loss. Jimmy Roberts, a younger man who had once boarded at their bed-and-breakfast and with whom Mary corresponded after he left for New York to study medicine, is the subject of many diary entries. In New York, Mary hopes to bump into him at Schwab's, a saloon he had mentioned in his letters and the place of choice for the political anarchists of the time.
In the painting that inspired the novel, Effie is seen in the foreground, surrounded by her cat and her beloved sheep. Behind her, the expanse of sky and green hills. Edwin and Mary sit framed by young trees. the house that Edwin built towers behind them and seems to cut the picture in two, separating them from Effie. With great beauty and grace Thompson has captured the fractured lives of these characters and their loneliness as they grieve for their daughter. Thompson cares about her characters and it is contagious.
Rarely have I been this moved by a novel and so taken by the beautiful writing. A highly recommended read!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really Good !, October 29, 2007

By 

Jean Brandt "faceinbook" (Richfield, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Every Past Thing (Hardcover)

The jacket blurb on this book, compares Thompson with the likes of Emily Barton and Marilynne Robinson. I would have to say I may have added Joyce Carol Oates to the mix.
Thompson's novel is based on real life characters. The painter Edwin Romanzo Elmer, his wife Mary and his brother Samuel are the three main characters of this book. The story takes place over one week of their lives in the year of 1899.
Ten years after the death of their only child Edwin and Mary journey to New York. Edwin to take painting classes while Mary is left to wander the streets of the city.
Like Oates, Thompson is very good at "getting into" the heads of her characters. Again much like Oates' novels, this is a book to be read and savored. The story is not a fast read, it is a very emotional book.
I admire an author who attempts to bring to life individuals who have lived in the past. Thompson creates a living and breathing couple. They are both troubled and have grown distant from each other, due mainly because of the death of their daughter. Yet, as one reads the story of this couple and their marriage, it is revealed that much more lies behind their distance than a single death.
Good book !!