Book #120: The Widower's Tale: A Novel

Title: The Widower's Tale: A Novel
Author: Julia Glass

I loved Julia Glass's novel The Three Junes and also enjoyed The Whole World Over, so I expected to like The Widower's Tale. It didn't disappoint. It's true that Percy, the 70-year-old protagonist of the novel is crotchety and fussy and incredibly set in his ways when the story opens (and the narrator reads Percy's parts with a British accent, even though he's originally from New Jersey and has spent most of his life in the Boston area-- perhaps the retired Harvard librarian is channeling Madonna?). Gradually, as we see Percy through the eyes of the other people in his life (his grandson, Robert, his daughters, and Sarah, his first girlfriend since the death of his wife 30 years earlier), we start to like him. Actually, I think we start to like Percy more not only because we get past the prickly exterior but because Percy changes over the course of the story. He begins to realize that people (yes, even himself) can be forgiven for their mistakes and sins and can even find the capacity to love again.  I liked the way that the story was not just about Percy, but also about Robert, Sarah, Percy's daughters Trudy and Clover, Clover's work colleague Ira, and even the Guatemalan gardener who works on the house next door.

One of the downfalls of the book is that it tends to reveal what I assume are Glass's own prejudices. When Sarah is diagnosed with breast cancer, Glass spends many pages talking about the problems of the uninsured. Entire chapters are devoted to the plight of the gardener's immigration status, vigilante environmentalists, and the discrimination Ira encounters in his job as a gay preschool teacher take over other chapters. At times parts of the book (mainly those dealing with the residents of Matlock and the parents of the preschool teachers) felt like satire, but I'm not sure that they were.

Despite the many perspectives and the tirades, Glass does a great job of wrapping up the story-- not too tidily, but entirely satisfyingly.