Father Melancholy's Daughter

Having read all of Gail Godwin's novels, I would rank this and Evensong as her best effort in capturing the essence of a half dozen characters - characters we come to care about and identify with, flawed though they may be. The novel is a celebration of brokenness and of nurture within the community of Christian believers in Godwin's ficticious town. Unlike one's experience with formula fiction (and Christian formula fiction in particular) the reader is surprised by who ends up wearing the white hats at book's end. Godwin's message (thesis) is inclusive and moving in its reality: we are all fellow strugglers in a world most often ruled by random events.

A wonderful narrative story, told from the point of view of Margaret, who is the precocious and intellectual daughter of an Episcopalian minister. The story is intertwined with issues of a deeper spiritual nature, but there's nothing "preachy" about it -- just the true soul-searching of a young woman sifting through the stories of her past and the beliefs she was raised with to find her own place in the world.This story hinges on the scene where young Margaret childishly tries to "punish" her mother for having to share her mother's affections with her mother's eccentric artist friend who blows into town and changes all their lives. Tragically, it is the last time Margaret sees her mother. It may sound melancholy at first, but there is much more to this story than the tragedy of a girl who loses her mother in childhood. As all good stories often do, it ends with some surprises, and leaves just the right amount of burning questions unanswered. Look for the sequel, and find Margaret grown up and still struggling with the echoes of her past in "Evensong."

I loved this book. I read it as a library book, but now will buy it! As I said in the title, she manages to cover it all, all the questions/quests of life, and does so in an authentic, Christian way--and in an engaging way! Rather a cross between John Updike, John Irving, and Susan Howatch! As a clergyman, I will recommend this for "my" congregation's book club. Amen!

I first read FMD ten years ago when I was a young mother. I found it hard to read then, with the abandonment of a child so intimately described, but was glad I pressed through to the wonderful end. Last month, I read Evensong and went back to read FMD and found it even more wonderful, the second time around. It is so seldom these days that such a kindly book comes along that handles tough themes with tenderness and grace. I especially liked the way G Godwin allowed Madelyn to return and reveal Margaret's mother to her. On my second reading, I was much less judgemental myself, much more understanding of Ruth. It made me examine my own relationship with my own daughters, and how long has it been since a novel has made me do that? Too long, I think.

I've just finished "Father Melancholy's Daughter, and it leaves me hungry to find and read everything else its talented author, Gail Godwin, has written. Margaret Gower is the product of an unusual single-parent household. Her mother, Ruth, left town with an old friend, Madelyn Farley, abondoning six-year-old Margaret and Margaret's father, an Episcopal priest prone to bouts of clinical depression. "Father Melancholy's Daughter" tell how Margaret has grown up as her father's daughter, his friend, and sometimes his protector, while the two of them wrestle with the question of why Ruth deserted them--questions that must go unanswered because of Ruth's death in an automobile accident some months after she leaves. Set in the small Episcopal parish of St. Cuthbert's in a small Southern town, Romulus, "Father Melancholy's Daughter" brilliantly captures both the outward details and the inner truth of the life of faith. I, a lifelong Episcopalian, found every detail to ring absolutely true, from Father Gower's concerns about liturgical revision to the sometimes petty bickerings of his vestry (the parish council in an Episcopal church). Margaret's quest to understand the failure of her parents' marriage, to come to terms with Madelyn Farley, and to find her own identity, takes place within the context of a quest to come to a mature Christian faith of her own. The characters, like real human beings, are complex and contradictory. As the story unfolds and new revelations about them are made, the reader must constantly expand his understanding of the Gower family, Madelyn Farley, and the parishioners of St. Cuthbert's. They became so real to me that I wished there were some way to introduce Fr. Gower to my own parish's rector and listen in on their conversation. Margaret's quest comes to a satisfying conclusion as she becomes her own person, incorporating the contributions of both her parents' and others' influences on her life to start living out "the grace of daily obligation". It's seldom that a novel not only entertains me but also feeds my spiritual life. "Father Melancholy's Daughter" did both.