The Other Side (Contemporary American Fiction) [Paperback]

Mary Gordon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Contemporary American Fiction | Publication Date: November 1, 1990

Gordon's strength and skill as a storyteller have never been more evident than in this extraordinary novel of passage and change, of immigration and displacement, and of the struggles os families to find a common ground among generations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gordon's talents as a mesmerizing storyteller and a chronicler of the human heart come together in a brutally honest and tenderly compassionate novel about a family who transcend their particularities to represent the saga of Irish immigrants and their descendants in America--"the Other Side." Married for 66 years, Ellen and Vincent MacNamara have parented three children (one died in WW II), raised two of their five grandchildren and passed from penury into the middle class. Now Ellen lies dying, emerging briefly from her semi-comatose state to scream and fight against the shackling of her soul in a moribund body; in one such rage, she knocked Vincent down, breaking his hip. Vincent is returning home after convalescence to honor his promise to stay with Ellen until she dies. Most of their family still live within a several-block radius in Queens, N.Y., and they have gathered for Vincent's return. In spare, astringent prose and beautifully controlled kaleidoscopic episodes, Gordon delineates the four generations of this family, exposing their personalities by virtue of her ironic eye. The offspring of the marriage between high-principled, indomitable Ellen, whose "love for vengeance would mark her life," and gentle, steady Vincent have carried a heritage of stony anger and heartache. They illustrate a tragedy common to many families: that two people connected in passionate union may produce children they cannot love. More fundamentally, the MacNamaras represent the Irish: "unhappiness was bred into the bone, a message in the blood . . . they had to thwart joy in their lives." Gordon shows how difficult it is for anyone "to make a life," to persevere in a personal quest for happiness while attempting to not hurt others. In the end, she has illumined "this impossible endeavor" with rare candor and understanding. 75,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild featured alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Acute observer of the particular anguish of women brought up Catholic in this country, Gordon here takes on several generations of an Irish American family and their experiences on both sides of the Atlantic. The story unfolds on a single day at the home of Vincent and Ellen McNamara, whose family has gathered for Vincent's return from a nursing home--his wife Ellen, disabled by a stroke, having injured him by pushing him to the floor in a fit of confusion. Using this gathering to explore family history, beginning with Ellen's and Vincent's separate and very different departures from Ireland, Gordon lays bare a legacy of lovelessness and defeat passed from parent to child to grandchild. So many people are implicated in this defeat that it is hard to keep track of everyone--and, indeed, to believe that not one of them could have risen above it. Gordon is as ever a fine prose stylist, her characterizations deft and her detailing of human antagonisms and flaws merciless and exact, but it can begin to wear. Here is a family so relentlessly alienated that some readers may be alienated as well.
- Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); 7th edition (November 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140144080
• ISBN-13: 978-0140144086
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 7.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,870,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Painful Truth, May 3, 2003

By 

Robert D. Lasseter (Valdosta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Other Side (Hardcover)

The best test of a novel is does it stay with you or does it disappear like so much morning mist. It has been several years since I read this book, but I find myself thinking of it often. My wife and I have discussed the ending a number of times often in sharp disagreement. However, as we have grown older and gained more life experience, the story has become truer, if not less painful, and a favorite of both of ours. It is Mary Gordon's best work which is high praise.

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Did Not Enjoy the Book at All, June 30, 2000

By 

"testerberger" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Other Side (Contemporary American Fiction) (Paperback)

Sometimes when I can't get into a book at first, I hang in there thinking that I'll get hooked in soon. Usually that happens, but unfortunately, it did not in this case. The book centers on an Irish family in the early - mid 1900's, three generations, their motivations, the love they did/didn't receive from their parents, their sagas. Yet, I could not connect with any of the characters, and could barely recall who was who and what had happened from one reading to the next. I loved Mary Gordon's book, Spending. When I read a book and enjoy it, I will read and study other books by the same author. I was very disappointed in this book.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How A Nasty Old Hag Ruined Everyone's Life and Then Died, February 18, 2006

By 

Lily Bart "lilybits" (The House of Mirth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Other Side (Hardcover)

Everything in this book depends on whether or not you can stomach the protagonist, Ellen Macnamara. Ellen is an Irish girl who comes to America around 1890, marries, starts a large family. She is also cruel, selfish, consumed with rage and prone to enormous self pity. In other words, Mary Gordon is crafting a self portrait and daring the reader not to respond.

Problem is, aside from the hateful, overbearing nature of the main character, there are a lot of details that just don't ring true. Mary Gordon loves to whine about how tough the Irish had it, (toiling away in those cotton fields, being lynched, you know) yet she's so insufferably genteel that she can't bear to actually show Ellen in grinding poverty. So Ellen works as a "seamstress" and finds employment with a very wealthy Irish family. Problem is, even there, Mary can't seem to hit the right note of persecution. The lady of the house asks Ellen to help her with some sewing, and says something like, "here, sit down and help me with this sewing, and while you do it, tell me something about your life." Supposed to be cruel and overbearing, but comes across as gracious and rather sweet. And this was as bad as it got for Ellen? No wonder she's mean all the time! Uh, I am not convinced. I never bought her as poor, angry, or in any way representative of the huddled masses.

Later on, Ellen gets work in a "sweatshop" (though she never seems to sweat) and makes friends with a -- gasp! -- Jewish girl. No Italians or Poles for Barnard Mary -- oh no. Well, okay, so the Jewish girl and the Irish girl meet, at the sweatshop, and it's love at first sight. Problem is, the two hold elegant conversations in Barnard English, chatting about Jane Austen and so on. Something tells me that two working girls in New York in 1910 would have less than perfect diction. Ellen should have a brogue you could cut and the Jewish girl should have an accent all her own. But it doesn't happen. Mary wants to cry about the immigrant experience . . . but she doesn't want to experience it.

Through the years, the unreality grows. Ellen becomes a feared and respected matriarch, ruling over a miserable clan she tyrannizes with her razor sharp tongue. Supposedly. But when the police come to the door to reprimand her for keeping chickens in the yard, she crushes the young patrolman with a feeble crack like "I remember when you and my Johnny used to climb apple trees together." Wow! Move over, Don Rickles. Ellen just never comes to life as a tyrant, a rebel, or anything else Mary Gordon wants her to be.

Not only does Mary Gordon never make Ellen real, she never deals with any of the more unpleasant sides of the Irish character. Racism, anti-semitism, violence against outsiders, none of these things are even hinted at. Mary wants it both ways -- the Irish are victims, out of place in America, yet somehow they rise to wealth and respectability without ever getting their hands dirty.

Back in 1989, Mary actually lowered herself to appearing on the TODAY show to promote this dog, and I remember her saying that she wasn't interested in the "mini-series" version of the immigrant experience. But it's not clear why this book is any better. It's not more insightful, there is no self-criticism, and the characters aren't especially charismatic.

But at least Ellen speaks correct, Barnard English.