Chip Kidd This week in The New York Times Book Review, Liesl Schillinger reviews Claire Messud’s new novel, “The Woman Upstairs.†Ms. Schillinger writes:
Reading the title of Claire Messud’s latest novel, anyone of a literary turn of mind will immediately think of the madwoman in the attic, the 19th century’s best-known “woman upstairs.†In “Jane Eyre,†Bertha Mason was the first wife of the master of Thornfield Hall, who shut her away and, in so doing, opened the door to more than a hundred years of impassioned feminist criticism. This connection is entirely intentional, as Messud quickly makes plain. “We’re not the madwomen in the attic,†argues her “reliable,†“organized†protagonist, a teacher named Nora Eldridge, referring to unmarried women like herself, “numerous†in their 20s and 30s, “positively legion†in their 40s and 50s. “We’re the quiet woman at the end of the third-floor hallway, whose trash is always tidy, who smiles brightly in the stairwell.†Outwardly they may seem “benignant†(to use a Brontëan word), but inwardly, Nora declares, they seethe. “People don’t want to worry about he Woman Upstairs,†she reflects. “Not a soul registers that we are furious. We’re completely invisible.†In time, she will resolve to “use that invisibility, to make it burn.
On this week’s podcast, Ms. Messud discusses her novel; Julie Bosman has notes from the field; Ramona Ausubel talks about her new collection of short stories, “A Guide to Being Bornâ€; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.
