O My Darling: A Novel [Hardcover]

Amity Gaige (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 2005

O My Darling tells the story of a devoted young couple whose marriage begins to implode when they move into their first house. The external lives of Clark, a high school guidance counselor, and Charlotte, a bookkeeper, are utterly ordinary, but their interior lives are as bold and complex as abstract paintings colored by imagined possibilities, childhood joys and, more darkly, by deeply buried fears. When Clark rescues a young boy from drowning, a chain of events—some comic, some harrowing—is set in motion, revealing the fault lines of the couple's marriage and individual psyches.

Amity Gaige is a consummate stylist. Her every sentence contains a tiny world—marrying striking images to deep, soulful ideas in perfectly concise fashion. Her cool, slightly off-kilter sensibility expressed in spare, lucid prose will remind readers of Paula Fox (Desperate Characters), while her pure, hyper-real vision of suburban America places her among the most talented of the generation of writers dubbed "the children of Cheever."

"Given its level of sophistication and off-center wit, it's a bit startling to realize that O My Darling is Amity Gaige's first novel. The characters, beautifully drawn, are as unsentimental toward one another as their author is toward them and yet, wonderfully, this novel with its many ambushes of lyrical moments, is deeply felt."
-Stuart Dybek, author of I Sailed with Magellanand The Coast of Chicago

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Crystalline insights into the nature of love and flashes of narrative brilliance buoy a plot-deficient first novel about the strains of a young marriage. Clark and Charlotte have just moved into their first house, which is still inhabited by ghosts of other marriages. Isolated in their suburb, Charlotte nervously jokes, "[W]e live in a little diorama or something. Help, help! Let us out!" Clark is mourning the freedom of imagination that seems to have perished with his mother's recent suicide. Dead-on dialogue (" 'You're alive!' she cried. 'You jackass!' ") and moments of suburban absurdity (a public joyride on a lawn mower; the curious arrival of a nude travel magazine in the mailbox) impart the acute delight more often found in short stories. While the horror-story elements (disembodied voices; visible spirits) don't add up to much and the themes of apology and forgiveness don't fully edify, gorgeous snippets on love and marriage ("Marriage is the only punishment great enough to fit the crime of love") compensate. Gaige's precise wordplay, sharp dialogue and bite-sized themes might be better served in story form, but her novel often sparkles and delights. (May)
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From Booklist

Clark and Charlotte each bring baggage to their spur-of-the-moment marriage. Clark's mother suffered from mental illness, and his father eventually left her for his longtime mistress. Charlotte was adopted at age two, and as she moved into adulthood, she and her adoptive parents gradually drifted apart, as if they "had never technically belonged to one another." Still, all seems to go well until Clark's mother commits suicide. After the funeral, Clark takes a job as a high-school guidance counselor in a nearby town; then, after he and Charlotte move to their "dream" house, their lives suddenly take a downward spiral. Clark sees shadows (or ghosts?) and soon finds himself nearly immobilized by a vague feeling of discontent. Charlotte feels as if she has been dropped into alien territory. It's "like we live in a little diorama," she tells a neighbor. Gaige's debut, while short on plot, does provide an introspective, sometimes humorous look at how aspects from one's past can suddenly reemerge and pilot one's life in totally unexpected directions. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Other Press (May 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590511743
• ISBN-13: 978-1590511749
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,335,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy Ever After....Gad To Be Married, June 15, 2005

By 

Brian A. Hickey (warwick, ri) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: O My Darling: A Novel (Hardcover)

I found O My Darling, Amity Gaige's first novel hard to finish: I would read a few paragraphs then call my friend Gerry and read him a half dozen gems. How long could you keep this sentence to yourself: "After being dead for awhile i guess you just have to accept it." Finally I bought Gerry his own copy so i could finish it. But this isn's some hip, clever novel custom made for a TV movie, rather it is a serious, generous novel,a gift to those who love well crafted fiction and care about writers who take their time to write well (in this case 7 years). Ms Gaige is able to extract so many complex emotions seemly out of thin air and without resorting to contrived plots or unbelievable events. She takes a simple game of 'quess the birthday gift' and gives us a condensed version of the first few years of Clark and Charolette's marriage. Perfectly stitched, so as not to show the seams or ragged edges of say formulated-outlined plotted writing, we leaned that Clark's mother committed suicide, Charolette was an ophan and they both have cruel, resentful streaks. Maybe not seemingly the stuff of a sucessful marriage but still this young couple has the willingness to wake each morning and face the new day together. With just one novel Amity Gaige shows herself to be one of the best of this new generation of writers trying to make sense of the world that was left to them. It is as if Clark and Charolette are trying to say....'what do you expect from us, look at the world we inherited...ophans,suicides,alcohol,affairs,stealing,bulling"and is it any wonder Charolette doesnt wish to have children? But this is not fiction noir or gritty realism, Clark and Charolette play childish games and baby talk as only true trusting intimates can do so unashamed.They live life like you or I do, impulse buy, question this concept of love, embellish the truth and put down roots nonetheless. On artistic merit alone, O My Darling should establish Amity Gaige as a major new writer. Stylistically she has brief chapters which glide on pure, poetic sentences. Thankfully she avoids mentioning Walmart or 7-11 or other branded products. Subjectwise, she shows the magical mundaneness of married life; the buisness end of marriage. No it is not the happy ever after of fairy tales yet through all the ups and downs of marrriage still it makes you glad..for better or worst, to be married. Please cast your vote for great fiction and buy this book.

4.0 out of 5 stars original and beautifully written, July 13, 2008

By 

J. A. Logsdon - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: O My Darling: A Novel (Paperback)

This novel is about the first few years of the marriage of a young couple on the surface. Gaige presents all of the layers and complexities of relationship and family history that we bring to the table. O My Darling is funny, sad, and inspiring. The only drawback is its tendency to meander at times and lack cohesiveness, bordering on distracting the reader from the terrific writing. But it is an excellent read by a talented writer.

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly wonderful, humanistic portrayal of love, October 13, 2007

By 

Bryon Chang (San Gabriel, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: O My Darling: A Novel (Paperback)

To be frank, I read this book because my professor forced my class to do so. I reluctantly purchased Amity Gaige's, "O My Darling", and slow read it. To my surprise, this was a fair quick and interesting read.

Gaige brings us into the world of a newlywed couple, Clark and Charlotte Adair, and their constant troubles with each other, as well as themselves. As soon as the first chapter, it's clear that neither character is without flaw. "O My Darling" shows us the many downs in marriage, as well as it's best.

Rather than glamorizing "love", Gaige paints a very real picture of love that the reader is either unwilling to believe and simply ignorant to. Because the word love has been mutated and diminished by Hollywood, teenagers, etc., it was nice reading a book where the two protagonists aren't head over heels in love with each other to the point where it makes you want to vomit in disgust. Because "love" is not entirely full of "ups", Gaige displays all of the "downs" that couples can and should expect after tying the knot.

I won't spoil the whole book, but I highly recommend Amity Gaige's, "O My Darling", to any and everyone, especially those foolhardy and ignorant teenagers who seem to throw the word "love" to everyone they date.