The Son [Paperback]

Gina Berriault (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998

Vivian Carpentier, confined by her role as an upper class woman in the 1940s, gleans meaning only from erotic love. Troubled by the elusiveness of men, yet convinced that they run the world, she can barely conceal her desperation to entice. Struggling with motherhood and the failure of marriage, she takes jobs to bridge intervals between lovers. She sings in a hotel bar, sells dresses, and nurses her fathers friend through his last illness, hoping to atone for a self-centered life. The constant in Vivians life is her son, David. Having seen her worst and best moments, he provides her with consolation and a reason for living, In those days of her lovers absence, she grew fascinated with her sons beauty with the hard blue of his eyes, with all the particulars of his face, the pliability of his lips. The Son is the haunting story of a woman who desires something more, as if something more had been promised her that was not yet given. Vivian Carpentier, convinced that men run the world, finds meaning only in erotic love. Troubled by the elusiveness of men, she is barely able to conceal her desperation to entice, her need to be wanted. The only constant in Vivians life is her son, David. She envies his future and wills to possess it. Having seen her worst and best moments, David provides her with consolation and a reason for living. Broaching an ancient taboo deeply embedded in the human psyche, The Son is the haunting story of a woman who sleeps with the bedside lamp lit, waiting for the illumination of self.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint; 1st Counterpoint pbk. ed edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887178759
• ISBN-13: 978-1887178754
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,142,141 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 ground breaking book, December 1, 1999

By 

Marnie Mueller (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Son (Paperback)

This is a stunning, ground breaking book. As a reader and a writer, I feel indebted to Counterpoint Press for reissuing it. My sadness is that not enough people know about it. All writers-in-training should read The Son to learn how dangerously deep one must go to write true literature. My other sadness is that Gina Berriault is not alive to hear my praise.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "She wanted an embrace against her own cruelty.", May 28, 2009

By 

Kerry Hubers (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Son (Paperback)

Vivian is a shallow, naïve, and narcissistic protagonist. She is not a character one loves, but she is poignantly real. She begins the novel as a privileged young lady who, against her parents' better judgment, marries an equally narcissistic aspiring actor, Paul. She quickly becomes pregnant. "The child was to make the marriage last forever, though she had no doubt that it would anyway. But the pregnancy lasted longer than the marriage." Paul is soon gone and Vivian is left with her son, the son of the title, David.

As the title of the novel suggests, David plays a central role in the narrative. Though Vivian drifts from husband to husband, lover to lover, these relationships are ancillary to her relationship with David. Vivian, though, is so attuned to her own emotional needs and her own desires that she has difficulty generating any awareness of others' needs, even her son. Indeed, David's needs threaten Vivian because she knows that, ultimately, she cannot fulfill them. David will become a man independent of her.

Ms. Berriault expresses this better than I can in describing Vivian watching David during a quail hunt. In the scene, David's youthful appearance and awkwardness "roused in her a desire for him to remain as he was, the only one and the closest one, the dearest, incontestably more dear than any man who was to become her lover and who was now a stranger." Of course, the tension in the book revolves around the inevitable. David will grow up; as Vivian fears, he will "leave her forever." Only the manner and timing are in doubt.

The climax is a disturbing scene. Vivian's desperation for male affection, for a man to need her and for her son to need her also, create a tension that becomes overbearing. Tragedy is the only realistic end. Vivian's needs are too great to be satiated by anyone, least of all by her son. In a scene leading toward the tragedy, mother and son are walking in the mountains: "She glanced over at him as he leaned against a tree two yards away from her. Gazing at her, he looked stricken and pale in the sun, like someone waiting to be sacrificed."

The morally squeamish will definitely be uncomfortable given the details of Vivian's life. Likewise, those looking for a likeable character, someone with whom they can identify will be disappointed. Vivian is an unintentional monster. Her emotionally demanding nature threatens to devour all. And yet, Gina Berriault does not leave the reader without the escape of occasional dark humor, like the house tour scene where Vivian inspects her own photograph as if she is an outsider in her own house. But even the humor is powered by Vivian and her tragic lust for men, particularly, to need her.

Gina Berriault is an incredible author. This book is a fine work of craftsmanship and of art, too. The novel illuminates a truth about a certain type of person and truths about us all. Ms. Berriault deserves a much wider audience. While this is not her best work, THE SON is a far better novel than most writers will ever produce.

0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book made me sick, September 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Son (Paperback)

I have to say I wasn't entirely enthralled with this book throughout most of it (I definitely could not relate to the main character), and I was even less impressed as I came to the last 20 pages. I didn't finish it. Who knows - I could have missed something at the end that turns this book around; however, it wasn't worth my time to find out. It literally made me sick. I was excited to read "Women in their Beds," with all of its critical acclaim, but now I'm afraid to.