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Carol Goodman's third novel, THE DROWNING TREE, is an extraordinarily intellectual murder mystery packaged in the nineteenth century gothic tradition, cum historical novel, cum homage to the classics. It is imbued with the magical spirit found in Greek mythology and is a statement on how the past is really forever with us.
She alludes to ancient icons and mythic beings that is then contrasted on a contemporary canvas, painted in a rainbow of striated colors, that reflects the moods and personalities of the characters. Goodman brings universally panoramic themes to this book, which is as much an exploration of art forms, be it sculpture, painting, writing or glass blowing as it is a study of the human condition. She discusses the subtleness of creativity, the human need to belong, the evils of greed, the sadness that accompanies human anomalies and traumatic events such as madness, suicide and murder. Nevertheless, she is very erudite in the masterful way she ties those themes to the most time-honored traditions of literary endeavors: to take readers to a place where different kinds of love animates the characters who lead to their redemption.
At the heart of the novel is a stained-glass window whose subject is an enigmatic woman limned in the spirit of Tennyson's "Lady of Shallot." That poem is the story of unrequited love; the Lady is doomed to her room and her loom…where she can only weave one scene over and over, a backward landscape, which is reflected in the mirror she faces. When she finally decides to break this spell she is doomed to death. Goodman did not choose this famous story and its depictions in the art of the Pre-Raphaelites by chance. She uses it as an allegory for her whole novel and imbues the work with other famous, recognizable literary allusions and actual texts.
The story begins at a seminar facilitated by Christine Webb, an alumna of a small private college located in upstate New York. She is a well-known and highly respected art historian whose reputation as a brilliant researcher brings her to the fifteenth reunion of the class of 1987, which had elected to restore the Lady window as their class gift. "The window was designed by Augustus Penrose, founder of the Rose Glass Works and Penrose College, in 1922 for the twentieth anniversary of the founding and it depicts Augustus's beloved wife, Eugenie." Eugenie created The Women's Craft League for the wives and daughters of the men who worked in her husband's factory.
Christine tells her audience that the Lady in the Window is more than merely a celebration of the medieval craftswoman. What Christine always wondered was "why she is looking away from the window and why she has such a rapturous expression on her face. Her expression suggests some kind of revelation. Who is [the female] weaver supposed to be? Remember that Augustus rarely painted his beloved Eugenie just as Eugenie. As the Pre-Raphaelite painters he admired had before him, Augustus often chose to depict his model in the guise of a figure from literature." Christine continues: " 'He painted Eugenie as Daphne turning into a laurel as she flees from Apollo --- ' The Drowning Tree fades and is replaced with the more familiar image of the running girl sprouting leaves from her fingertips … Christine clicks through one picture after another, naming each mythological or literary figure as the image appears and fades. She goes so quickly that the faces begin to blur … until we are left with the impression of one face --- one woman appearing in many guises … glowing like the face in the stained glass window."
Juno McKay is the narrator and leading lady of THE DROWNING TREE; she is also the person responsible for getting Christine the grant that allowed her to research the Lady window, which led her to explore the Penrose family secrets. Naturally, this makes Christine Webb the catalyst for the events that unfold in this fascinating tale. Before she concludes her lecture, she solemnly makes her way through the history of the period in which the Lady window was created. In her lecture she has identified "the subject of the window as The Lady of Shallot [which meant she had to bring] up Eugenie's sister, Clare." But no one has any way of foreseeing the firestorm of violence this information will unleash, because what she learned could paint August Penrose, his work, his family and his heirs in an unflattering light. But in the context of academic freedom could that exposure of historical truths possibly lead to murder? Or was it really suicide? Was only one dead victim discovered in the wake of the reunion? Was that death a homicide? Who are the really insane people who populate this novel?
Madness is so pervasive in the lives of the characters that readers won't be surprised to learn that Briarwood, an insane asylum, stands tall on the highest hill on the Penrose property, uphill from the school. Clare was sent there soon after Augustus Penrose married her sister Eugenie. Clare had the tower room at the top of the structure and lived her life out in the confines of the mental institution. Her sister Eugenie never saw her again. Juno's husband was committed there thirteen years ago. Neil has spent all of his time at Briarwood in the same lonely tower in which Clare lived out her life. Juno never visited him.
Goodman shows great compassion in her treatment of the nineteenth century's "madwoman in the attic" and is as sensitive when telling the sad tale of Juno's husband's commitment. Another of the palpable symbols that runs through the novel is water in many of its forms from mist to rain and from bottled to baths and from frozen to baths. A river runs through the site and is the medium on and in where much of the action takes place. The body of water serves many purposes: a death trap, a romantic stream, a place to kayak, a landmark that was recreated hundreds of times by many Hudson Valley artists.
In Juno's senior year at Penrose College she became pregnant and married Neil. She was asked to leave school and did so very quietly. The couple was very much in love and very happy for some years. They had a daughter named Beatrice and both parents worked at their art. But after Neil was institutionalized Juno was forced to move in with her father, and things were very rough for a long time. But now, fifteen years later, Juno, Beatrice and Mr. McKay are getting along well. Beatrice is in school and spends most of her time on the river. The adults are busy with the glass business they run. Juno has channeled her artistic talents into the restoration and creation of stained art glass. The methods she uses are in the spirit of Tiffany and August Penrose.
Carol Goodman strikes each chord in THE DROWNING TREE with perfect pitch. The ambiance that informs the entire novel is achieved through her spirited discussion of the historical elements as well as the contemporary events. Her characters are so well limned and her pristine attention to detail raises this novel to lofty heights, the plot and the prose carefully honed. THE LAKE OF DEAD LANGUAGES and THE SEDUCTION OF WATER were a foreshadowing of Goodman's flexibility as a writer and offered just a glimpse of her enormous talent. With this new novel, she has given fans and new readers a remarkable book that will resonate with them for a long time.
--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
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