[R1G]≡ [PDF] I Am Mary Dunne Brian Moore 9780099102212 Books

I Am Mary Dunne Brian Moore 9780099102212 Books

Download As PDF : I Am Mary Dunne Brian Moore 9780099102212 Books

I Am Mary Dunne Brian Moore 9780099102212 Books

Brian Moore may be well-known among the literati. He is one of my favorite writers of serious fiction; however, I seldom see his name commented upon when I read about such writers. Maybe I am just out of the loop. After all, he had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times before his death in 1999.

A common denominator of his books that I have read is how he combines past and present of his characters in an almost dream-like narrative as they work through their “normal” lives. It is as if the characters live simultaneously in two worlds.

I AM MARY DUNNE, published in 1968, is a powerful example.

Moore impressively writes believably from the perspective of a woman. His use of details, which were contemporary when the books was written, but now have a feeling of historicity, provide even more insight into the main character and in so doing of the world that women had to navigate.

I was in eighth grade when the book was originally published. THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE was only a few years old and the “women’s liberation” movement was just getting started. That is, much of what we as a society accept these days was still in the future. For many women, hopes, aspirations, even self-identities were no doubt repressed. And, as most of us are aware, needs and emotions that are bottled up will eventually find release, often in negative, or even (self-)destructive ways.

For Mary Dunne, the release seems to be what once might have been called a nervous breakdown, which is symbolized by her name. What is her name? She had been married multiple times, each time changing her name. In each marriage she seems to have buried her own desires and made herself into a different woman for each man. This is shown in a series of internal monologues and flashbacks in her life.

At one point, for example, she thinks:

“What was my name that afternoon in the Plaza San Jacinto? I asked myself, but did not know. Was I now Phelan, no, couldn’t be that, I was divorced from Jimmy, I had to be Mary Dunne, but would I be called that or would I still be called Bell until I remarried and became Mary Lavery? …I couldn’t remember my name… I ran and then stopped… and it came back into my mind, l am Mary Dunne. I said it over and over. I am Mary Dunne, it’s all right, I am Mary Dunne. But somehow it was not true any more and in the bus that afternoon going back to the airport, to the plane which would take me to New York and to Terence, I remember thinking for the first time what I have thought many times since. I am no longer Mary Dunne, or Mary Phelan, or Mary Bell, or even Mary Lavery. I am a changeling who has changed too often and there are moments when I cannot find my way back.”

All this happens in the space of a fairly normal day: Phone calls, lunch, errands. We feel with her confusion of memories, false memories, guilt, doubts, and depression so bad that at times she does not even remember her current name.

Woman or man, haven’t we all had such days? When we have tried to lead lives false to us, trying to convince us of its truth, and we wonder who we are and how we came to be at a place where we are strangers to ourselves?

In the words of Mary Dunne, “And in that moment I wondered what sort of woman they must think me to be and then began to wonder myself.”


Tags : I Am Mary Dunne [Brian Moore] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.,Brian Moore,I Am Mary Dunne,Vintage,0099102218,BM-L1-R054C-03650,Fiction,General,Modern fiction

I Am Mary Dunne Brian Moore 9780099102212 Books Reviews

This book, written in the late 1960s by a man, plumbs the depths of a woman's identity crisis. I remember reading it many years ago and being blown away by its insights. Rereading it, I was still impressed that a man could get into a woman's head so well. Affairs, vicious gossip, PMS, Catholic guilt, multiple marriages -- this book has it all, but it's no lightweight "chick lit" novel. I recommend it to anyone who wants to really think about how people relate to each other.
On a whim, I purchased a frayed copy of this book in a thrift shop because it was published the year I was born, and I wanted to get a peek into the culture of that time. I certainly didn't expect to aquire one of the most affecting novels I've ever read. Moore, who also wrote the wrenching JUDITH HEARNE - - filmed as THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE with Maggie Smith in 1987 - - has an elegant and inviting voice that immediately draws you into the persona of his heroine. (The book is told in the first person.) The writer displays subtle but complete authority as a storyteller, alternating humor with pathos, and reading this poignant and eerie character study is (to use a cliche) a treat....one that I would highly recommend.
This is one of my favorite Brian Moore novels, though they're all wonderful. He was most honest when writing about women. Like Judith Herne, this is a blunt, empathic emotional self portrait.
Is this what the psychiatrists mean when they speak of character dissociation? Throughout a day spent in the emotionally vulnerable state of premenstrual stress, the protagonist continually runs up against reminders of the most trying times of her life, with disastrous emotional echoes.
An amazing book. The story of Mary Dunne's life is told in the space of just one day's meetings and memories. And over and over she asks herself the same question throughout the book that you must ask Is she losing her mind? Or is this just a bad and shaky moment, exacerbated by hormonal changes?
Any woman that has ever suffered through a day with the glibly labelled PMS will recognize Mary's Mad Twin. And among those, many of us must also identify with her fearful sense of lost identity, and fears of the wide open edges of mental dysfunction.
Frightening, internal, true-to-life - this is not a book to read in an off-balance moment. But it is an amazing internal portrait of a woman. It would be an amazing portrait even if it was written by a woman; how much more so when written by a man! Yet Moore seems to effortlessly empathize completely and realistically. He has once again created a wholly believable and poignant character whom we must follow through the toils of her personal hell.
Brian Moore may be well-known among the literati. He is one of my favorite writers of serious fiction; however, I seldom see his name commented upon when I read about such writers. Maybe I am just out of the loop. After all, he had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times before his death in 1999.

A common denominator of his books that I have read is how he combines past and present of his characters in an almost dream-like narrative as they work through their “normal” lives. It is as if the characters live simultaneously in two worlds.

I AM MARY DUNNE, published in 1968, is a powerful example.

Moore impressively writes believably from the perspective of a woman. His use of details, which were contemporary when the books was written, but now have a feeling of historicity, provide even more insight into the main character and in so doing of the world that women had to navigate.

I was in eighth grade when the book was originally published. THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE was only a few years old and the “women’s liberation” movement was just getting started. That is, much of what we as a society accept these days was still in the future. For many women, hopes, aspirations, even self-identities were no doubt repressed. And, as most of us are aware, needs and emotions that are bottled up will eventually find release, often in negative, or even (self-)destructive ways.

For Mary Dunne, the release seems to be what once might have been called a nervous breakdown, which is symbolized by her name. What is her name? She had been married multiple times, each time changing her name. In each marriage she seems to have buried her own desires and made herself into a different woman for each man. This is shown in a series of internal monologues and flashbacks in her life.

At one point, for example, she thinks

“What was my name that afternoon in the Plaza San Jacinto? I asked myself, but did not know. Was I now Phelan, no, couldn’t be that, I was divorced from Jimmy, I had to be Mary Dunne, but would I be called that or would I still be called Bell until I remarried and became Mary Lavery? …I couldn’t remember my name… I ran and then stopped… and it came back into my mind, l am Mary Dunne. I said it over and over. I am Mary Dunne, it’s all right, I am Mary Dunne. But somehow it was not true any more and in the bus that afternoon going back to the airport, to the plane which would take me to New York and to Terence, I remember thinking for the first time what I have thought many times since. I am no longer Mary Dunne, or Mary Phelan, or Mary Bell, or even Mary Lavery. I am a changeling who has changed too often and there are moments when I cannot find my way back.”

All this happens in the space of a fairly normal day Phone calls, lunch, errands. We feel with her confusion of memories, false memories, guilt, doubts, and depression so bad that at times she does not even remember her current name.

Woman or man, haven’t we all had such days? When we have tried to lead lives false to us, trying to convince us of its truth, and we wonder who we are and how we came to be at a place where we are strangers to ourselves?

In the words of Mary Dunne, “And in that moment I wondered what sort of woman they must think me to be and then began to wonder myself.”