Gloria

I finished reading Gloria a day or so after I got home from my vacation to Arizona. There honestly was no reason for it to take as long as it did for me to read. Life got in the way.

Gloria, to describe badly, is about white privileged people in the 50s. There is also a hefty portion of sexual awakenings and what have you.

So far this year, this is one of best books I have read. Maillard does an excellent job of bringing you into Gloria’s world and her twisting mindset as she figures out her life. The tone is continually serious throughout the book, because that is how the people closest to her describe her. There is a naiveté about her because of I would say the protected world she is raised in. Simply put, she is spoon fed. Her father is the VP for one of the top steel companies in the country and her mother comes from old money like a Vanderbilt. Gloria and her two younger brothers got to go to private schools and Gloria is going to Columbia for her PhD provided in full by her dad. They are country club members and have their own set of social protocol. I would have been totally surprised if there was not some sort of unawareness of other ways of living and more diverse people. So with that, I think it is so good to be able to see someone experiencing the highs and lows of a world beyond the swimming pool. Gloria is one of those people who you see picks up on the self-awareness fairly quickly, but is one hundred percent lacking in any sincere self-confidence to back up that self-awareness. She reminds me of me, where I want to make decisions for myself and be confident because they are my own, but I want to satisfy others, so I would continually question everyday; but hey, that is a part of growing up, yeah?

I should have put this toward the top of the review, but there are some sexual assault moments in Gloria, so I am throwing the caution out there now. I am disgusted by the emotional manipulation that so-and-so does, and it makes it even sadder for the fact that she felt that she could not go to anyone until the breaking point because, again, of the people pleasing and because the family dynamic of the home is not like what we know now. It reminds me of what I understand of my family’s issues in the 50s and 60s: no one talks about the hard stuff and we brush it under the rug like it never happened. Everything is about image before a person’s welfare, and there are hints of that still today. I will not start on that, though.

I do enjoy Part Three of Gloria though, not just because it is getting to the end, but you see things begin to click in her mind; the permission-givings that she needs from herself and the right people in her life are given and she sets off. Then I know that she will be ok and that she is going to make it out there in the big world on her own. She makes the wronged relationships that are required in her world right, and she may shoot someone with an archery set, but I will be damned if she cannot get on a plane and go to Columbia to get her PhD in Literature. Fuck yeah, Gloria, fuck yeah.

I would read this again, absolutely. I hope that if you decide to read Gloria that you enjoy it as well. You will be able to find it here.

Oh, and Happy Literacy Month. I know I said it at the end of the month, but what can ya do?

9/10