I read a review of this novel somewhere, and it sounded interesting though depressing, which it most certainly was. I read it in spurts, as all the kids were here, so I can't say I gave it my full attention. Alice is a troubled teenager (she was abused by a priest), a needy depressed wife, married to an abusive husband, with a circle of friends, all with stories similar to hers. She tries to find her self, put the abusive childhood behind her, but finds it's almost impossible. She sees her marriage to the abusive, wealthy Paddy as a continuation of her victim/victimizer relationship withe the priest, decides, with the help of Paddy's lover, to kill him. Which the lover ends up doing, at Alice's urging, a strange scene to say the least. She ends telling her story to Mick Delany, a childhood chum, recently widowed and one gets the sense that this victim/victimizer relationship which she tries to flee is starting up again with Mick. Not your happy story. I did finish it, perhaps because I knew it was fairly short and at times, I found it interesting, especially the way the priest used his power, her fear, to seduce her, force her in to feeling she needed him, a sick relationship which ends up denying her any possibility of happiness. Ugh.
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