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Summary
Summary
Martha Horgan is not like other women. She stares. She has violent crushes on people. She can't stop telling the truth. Martha craves love, independence, and companionship, but her relentless honesty makes her painfully vulnerable to those around her: Frances, her wealthy aunt and begrudging guardian; Birdy, who befriends her, then cruelly rejects her; and Colin Mackey, the seductive man who preys on her desires. Confused and bitter, distyrusting even those with her best interests at heart, Martha is propelled into a desperate attempt to gain control over her own life.
A novel of unnerving suspense and terrifying insight into the perversities of passion, A Dangerous Woman is as devastatingly honest as Martha herself.
Author Notes
Mary McGarry Morris (born February 10, 1943) is an American novelist, short story author and playwright. Her first book, Vanished, was published in 1988 after being written over a ten-year period. It was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Her 1991 novel, A Dangerous Woman, was named by Time Magazine as one of the Five Best Novels of the Year and as one of the best books of the year by American Library Association (ALA) Library Journal. As a result of A Dangerous Woman, Morris won the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award.
Her latest novel is entitled, The Last Secret. Morris was born in Meriden, Connecticut and currently resides in Andover, Massachusetts. She married Michael W. Morris and lives with him in Massachusetts. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Sexually humiliated as a teenager, ostracized by her community and recently fired from her job, high-strung Martha Horgan, 32, falls obsessively and tragically in love with a charming boozer. ``In this compelling, suspenseful narrative, Morris speaks to larger issues while limning an unforgettable portrait of a vulnerable woman,'' said PW. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The author of National Book Award nominee Vanished (1988) is back with the painfully focused story of Martha Horgan--imprisoned in a tiny Vermont town by her blinkered neighbors, her unflinching honesty, and the madness that leads finally to murder. Attacked as a teen-ager by a gang of schoolboys, fired from her job at the cleaner's after she sees manager Birdy Dusser's boyfriend Getso dipping into the register (he blames the thefts on her), traumatized by her pathetic inability to attract love or even belief, Martha retreats to the house of her penny-pinching aunt Frances Beecham, who'd rather concentrate on her extended affair with Steve Bell, who's still mired in a hopeless marriage. When Frances advertises for a handyman, alcoholic, self-doubting would-be writer Colin Mackey signs on, and author Morris lets Frances, Mack, and Martha simmer while she slowly turns up the heat: Mack guiltily seduces Martha; Martha keeps trying frantically to get in touch with Birdy to tell her the truth about the pilfering Getso; Frances finds herself attracted to Mack. Never seeing how her refusal to lie is maddening herself and repulsing the few people--clubwoman Julia Prine, shy mortician Wesley Mount--who try to help her, Martha, tossed out of Frances's house, flees to sanctuary with reclusive old Mr. Weilman--but, maddened by taunts from neighborhood children who think of her as monstrous ""Marthorgan,"" never succeeds in her frenzied quest to be left alone by a normal community whose madness echoes her own. Spellbinding reading, and a searching portrait of its pathetic, unlovable heroine: a powerful book indeed. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Martha Horgan, the emotionally disabled protagonist, was gang-raped as a teenager; now, 15 years later, her life is finally flowing smoothly. She has moved away from her cold, domineering aunt and has a job at the cleaners, a room in a boarding house, even a worshipful admirer in Wesley Mount, the town mortician. But someone has been stealing from the till and ``Marthorgan,'' as her taunters call her, gets canned. Back at her aunt's place she is seduced by the caretaker, a frustrated, manipulative writer, and then must suffer through his affair with her aunt. What makes Martha a dangerous woman is her unfailing honesty; she hasn't learned the world's way of lying, of hiding behind a social mask. At one point Birdy, her friend, tries on Martha's glasses to see if she really does view the world differently. Though the subject matter is somber, Morris tells a powerful tale. Her first novel ( The Waiting Room, LJ 5/15/89) was a National Book Award and a PEN/Faulkner nominee. Recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/90.-- Doris Lynch, Oakland P.L., Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.