The Mirror (Ballantine Reader's Circle) - Softcover

Freed, Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345426894 ISBN 13: 9780345426895

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1999

Synopsis

In 1920, Agnes La Grange leaves a poor life in England for Durban, South Africa, to make her future.  In the house of the Jewish family where she first works as a maid, the wife is dying--which doesn't keep the husband from sneaking to Agnes's room to make love while watching in a mirror he's given her.  His unrestrained passion for her (old and a head shorter he may be) leads her to say, "I have never felt so strongly the power of being alive."  And that's in truth the only power Agnes ever wants or values.  During her pregnancy, the "old Jew," as she calls him bluntly but without judgment, puts her up in the Railway Hotel--an establishment of which, after the birth of her daughter Leah, she becomes owner and new proprietress by finessing the old man into putting up the money.  From then on, Agnes is on her way.  "The newspaperman" will be a weak and soon-divorced husband, followed by such lovers as Agnes finds attractive--"the banker," "the hunter," and "the trader."  Agnes doesn't even read the papers, but her beauty, life, and business sense draw others to her, seeing her through the Depression and WWII as she's cheated but recovers, buys more property, sees Leah become a famous singer--although not before Leah does just what Agnes did in seducing a husband (readers will find out whose), leaving Agnes a gorgeous child to raise as a second daughter.  Forget improprieties: As Agnes says, "this wasn't a story . . . this was a life."
From the Hardcover edition.

About this title

Review

Move over, Moll Flanders. Make room for Agnes La Grange, the cunning, ambitious, sexually liberated heroine of Lynn Freed's third novel. In 1920, Agnes, a lower-class English woman, is 17. She emigrates to Durban, South Africa, to work as a housekeeper in the home of the "old Jew," who presents her with a mirror. Completely unsurprised by his sexual advances, she watches their reflections in the mirror and falls in love with the power of her beauty.

Without remorse, Agnes capitalizes on her beauty, rising from housekeeper to hotel owner. Even pregnancy fails to deter her ambition. Along the way, she acquires more property, a husband, several lovers, a subsequent divorce, and the trappings of refinement.

In Agnes, Freed gives us a refreshingly candid portrait. Although not entirely likable, Agnes is ruthlessly honest about the hypocrisy of social norms. The reader eagerly follows her development from young to old woman in this rich creation of both character and period.

From the Publisher

"The Mirror is an elegant and unusual novel, pitch-perfect from first word to last, beautifully crafted, and stunningly honest in its illumination of what women really want. Like Marguerite Duras' The Lover and Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, it shines unexpected light into corners we all experience, but seldom discuss."
--Andrea Barrett, author of National Book Award-winner Ship Fever

"A woman in full possession of her powers is a thrilling sight, and the powerful woman at the center of The Mirror conducts her life on her own unequivocal terms. The results are surprising and erotic, rendered in brisk, mordant prose by a writer with no interest in half measures."
--Amy Hempel

"In prose as precise and alluring as a spray of diamonds, The Mirror traces a remarkable woman's saga. It's a sexy, compelling, highly original retelling of Pygmalion, only in Lynn Freed's extraordinary novel, the narrator is both clay and sculptor, muse and visionary, a true heroine of her own making."
--Jill Ciment, author of Half A Life and The Law of Falling Bodies

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0345426894
• ISBN 13: 9780345426895
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256