The English Teacher

Here's another winner from Lily King, author of The Pleasing Hour. Her second book doesnt disappoint. At first I thought it would be about the difficulties of merging two families in second marriages--which to an extent, it is. Vida marries Tom, but she seems terribly uncertain about it, while he couldn't be more sure he's done the right thing. Vida teaches English at a private school, and her seniors are learning Thomas Hardy, specifically Tess of the d'Urbervilles. All of Hardy's books are dark, but Tess is the one that will really send one reaching for the antidepressants. The students get angry when Vida seems to take an unsympathetic attitude toward Tess. As the story goes on, Vida's life is revealed as paralleling that of Tess in many ways. Vida can't deal with what really happened, and is happening to her, and this causes tremendous problems for her teenage son Peter, who is demanding to know who his father is. At the end, everything comes to a head, but unlike Thomas Hardy's books, the story ends on a hopeful note. The only criticism I have is that the book could have been longer and gone into more depth about some of the other characters.

The English Teacher by Lily King presents us with a simply written novel of deeply moving significance. The protagonist, Vida, is a high school english teacher more in tuned to the characters from the novels she teachers than to her students or family. As the novel opens, Vida has just married Tom. It is clear that this is not a marriage built on high romance, at least not where Vida is concerned. She has considerable trouble adjusting to this new life she has created for herself. Vida is not the only person having trouble adjusting, either. Tom has his own children and Vida has a son, Peter. They all struggle to accept this brand new family. However, this is not the Brady Bunch retold in the form of a novel. Each character here has her or his own issues to work through by the last page. Vida clearly is burdened; she possesses a powerful secret. Her ambivilence to everyone around her is deeply disturbing to family and friends. As they struggle to find the "real" Vida beneath the alcohol haze she has submerged herself into, she comes to terms with who she is. There is another character who, although deceased, plays an important role in the book. Mary, Tom's first and late wife, is omnipresent in the lives of the characters, even for Vida and Peter, who never met her. Mary's picture hangs in Tom's house (in the bathroom, of all places)and her presence is felt by all. All of this makes for a novel filled with allusions to Victorian novels and discussions of innermost feelings. It is a book to be read and re-read. Do not miss this book!

Reading The English Teacher was one of the highlights of my summer. Lily King writes beautifully and with amazing insight into the psychology of her characters,in particular,Vida,who must face the truth of her past because her avoidance and denial no longer work. Vida, a single mother with a teenage son, marries a recent widower with three children. I was intrigued by the relationships, reactions and emotions of these characters and felt connected to them throughout the novel. The backdrop of the Iranian Hostage Crisis was a powerful metaphor, and the references to Tess of the D'Urbervilles make me want to reread that book next.

Lily King is not a sentimental writer. Nor is she a particularly modern one. Her style is rooted in the love and power of language. Her gifts for dialogue and visual and interior description are powerful. This is a beautifully written book about grief and pain and yearning. It is also about the challenges of families that loss puts together, and how they develop strands of love and respect.

This book really moved me. Lily King has created, in Vida and her teenage son Peter, two of the most memorable and compelling characters of all time. She writes with grace and truthfulness about the awkward intimacy created when two families combine. When Vida, a fierce introvert with a dark secret, marries Tom, a well-intentioned widower with three children, she is forced to choose between living inside the intellectual fortress she's built as a prep-school English teacher and the complicated emotional business of being connected to others--especially her long-neglected son. The story is surprising, elegantly rendered, and propelled by Vida's unwilling and unforgettable catapult toward redemption. A beautiful novel.