Customer Reviews

Perfidia

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was a bit slow-moving in places but it still grabbed me -- but I like Judith Rossner's style of writing. The ending was disappointing; it felt like there should be more. If you like Judith Rossner's other books, including Looking for Mr. Goodbar and Olivia, you'll like this one. If you're new to Ms. Rossner's work, I'd start with Olivia and if you like that one then give this one a try.

It took me a little while to grasp the direction of this novel but about half way through it suddenly grabbed me and I couldn't stop reading until I had finished the last page. I found the characters very believable, thoroughly examined, although I would have liked to have seen more sides from mother. I thought the ending to be poignant and simply, just about right. Madeline was a strong character in a realistic, believable sense. Happiness is not always found in career, love or stability. Most of the time it is found in discovering one's own independent self. That is the message I derived from this book.

This book was very well written but as the story continued it became increasingly more morbid and depressing. So much so that I would not pass it on to my daughters or friends to read. I kept reading in hopes that Madeline would turn her life around and find some happiness and sanity in a world where she had not known fulfillment of any kind. The story never did become uplifting and the reader is left feeling that Madeline relayed to us her thoughts, feelings and insights but refused to let us, the readers, know if she ever did have a happy life. Questions stirred in my mind....did she succeed in life...did she find happiness, love and contentment? I felt it totally unfair that she shared so much with us throughout the book simply to refuse to disclose what happened after she moved on.

In 1974, Anita Stern takes her five year old daughter, Madeline, and
leaves her college professor husband at Dartmouth to move to Santa Fe. The
pair soon moves in with Wilkie and Anita gives birth to a boy named Billy.
Over the ensuing decade, Madeline tries desperately to win back her
mother's love, but seems unable to compete with Anita's vast activities
including drugs, sex, and alcohol. In spite of being neglected and often
times abused, Madeline takes care of Billy and does well at school.
Anita's art gallery does reasonably well in the arty seventies.

When Madeline begins to date, Anita starts competing with her. She
wants to out-look, out-youth, and take awayall the young men in her
daughter's life, blaming her for everything that has going wrong in her
life. When Madeline decides to attend Dartmouth and Anita's gallery begins
to fail, all hell breaks lose between mother and daughter. When the air
clears, one is dead and the other has vanished.

Fans of Judith Rossner (LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR) will enjoy her
latest novel, PERFIDIA, a fictionalization of a renowned murder case. New
Mexico in the arty seventies is so brilliantly described that it comes
across as if the reader is visiting the place. However, the protagonists
have no redeeming value except perhaps Madeline., Madeline reminds readers
of Snow White (not that Madeline is pure) and Anitathe Wicked Witch, with
a touch of the cold and manipulative seven dwarfs. This first person
narrative (through the eyes of Madeline) starring a dysfunctional family is
Ms. Rossner's best novel in several years, but still not for everyone.

Harriet Klausner

I started off enjoying this book. It was well-written, although some of the sentence structure could be puzzling. By the ending, though, I was completely let-down, and I will not be keeping this book to re-read. After showing her strength through all the hard times, Madeleine seems to become wishy washy and a complete doofus. The ending seems tacked-on and ridiculous, and I don't buy it. Is the author trying to say that Madeleine becomes her mother in the end? I think this could have been a much better book with a lot more to offer the readers, if Madeleine had kept her strength and faced reality.