“Fine, she’d said.
Fine. Then on a whim: If you find a job, I’ll go.” So sets off
the events that take Charlotte and her family from the comforts of England to
the sunny promises of Australia. Her husband Henry does find a job and soon
Charlotte is tending to two small children in a strange land. Although she
takes small delights in the smell of freshly line dried laundry, she misses her
work as a painter. When a friend sees promise in a portrait she paints of
Henry, she begins imagining a different life. Away.
Meanwhile, Henry, the son of an Indian mother and English
father, faces prejudice at work as he is overlooked for a teaching position and
relegated to a smaller office. Seeking to console Charlotte, he applies for a
position in England. Before he can tell her, he is called to India to say
goodbye to his dying mother. Charlotte is then left with the perfect
opportunity to say her own goodbyes.
Bishop’s depicts the conflicts of marriage, the
dissatisfaction of motherhood, and the impossibility of returning home. With
her lyrical descriptions, she transports the reader to England, Australia, and
India with poetic ease.
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