The Affairs of Others

The Affairs of Others (2013)

Amy Grace Loyd

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/08/book-review-the-affairs-of-others-uncovers-the-pain-and-folly-of-being-alone

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2013/08/30/book-review-the-affairs-others-amy-grace-loyd/hBuh8H4gyiQgbraSSHMjtJ/story.html

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20727394,00.html

Teetering between a B+ and A-

I went into this novel with high hopes. I liked the premise – telling a story of one character but really telling the story of many others through the main character. In this case, Celia Cassill, a young widow, is owner and landlady of a brownstone in Brooklyn with a handful of tenants who she actively keeps separate from her own life. Her need for privacy, especially regarding the death of her husband is paramount in her widowhood. And yet, somehow, she finds herself being drawn into the affairs of others – chiefly due to the arrival of a subletting new tenant named Hope.

Recall the famous poem by John Donne, No Man is an Island:

“No man is an island,

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thy friend's

Or of thine own were:

Any man's death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind,

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee. “

Donne’s point being, that humans, as social beings, cannot thrive, or even exist in isolation.

Throughout this story, we find that Celia was once young, happy and lighthearted when in the company of her beloved, but since his death she has lost these characteristics. New acquaintances even point out their surprise that she is in fact, still physically young, for her overly mature and withdrawn nature.

Celia exists on a day to day basis. She had bought the apartment after her husband’s death, involved herself in the restoration and selected her own tenants. After her husband’s illness, she requires complete control in her small corner of the world, which shows when George and Hope approach her to have the apartment sublet during his sabbatical. Most reluctantly, Celia agrees.

Cue the end of Celia’s physical and emotional separation from her tenants and the world at large.

The tidy, quiet, controlled life of the isolated window is slowly transformed into that of one who finds herself in the middle of the affairs of others – the disappearance of one tenant, the possible abusive relationship of another, and fracture of a marriage and resulting unplanned pregnancy of yet another. Instead of maintaining her distance on the sideline as has been her habitual way, Celia is embroiled within these concerns.

While Celia’s own internal monologue is full of prose and interesting flashes of memory, her acquaintances throughout the book are mere caricatures. Case in point, the ridiculous upstairs neighbour or the absent cleaning lady.

Loyd could do much better.