My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advanced copy of this novel about women dealing with rememberance, quilt, children lost and found, and the shadow of war on their lives.

What sometimes amazes me is all the history that my Mother has lived through. The birth of Rock 'n Roll, the March on Washington, watching people attacked by police protesting for their rights, or protesting an unjust war, the resignation of a president and the multiple indictments on another. When people talk about how America used to be, she mentions these events and lots more, gaining rights as a women, and watching the get stripped away again, the constant fear of nuclear war, and of course Vietnam. A war which she lost people she knew, and possibly her husband, my father, until he was given a last minute reprieve. The shadow of that conflict still covers many people, and their relationships, with others. Absolution is a novel by the gifted writer Alice McDermott which tells of two women before Vietnam was even known to American, and the effect on one of them even today.

1963 in Saigon and a young woman, Tricia has come to Saigon with her husband, trained as an engineer but working with Naval Intelligence, as a newlywed. Tricia left a job as a teacher, and a city New York City that she loved to be with her husband, in a place that she was unfamiliar with. Charlene is the queen bee of the American expat community. The perfect hostess, Charlene is a mean girl in many ways, with a wish to help all the people of Vietnam, though her idea of help is probably different than most. She takes Tricia under her wing, and begins to motivate and mold Tricia in ways that Tricia is not sure that she wants. Until tragedy strike, and Tricia is suddenly lost in ways she never thought she would be. 60 years later Charlene's daughter has tracked Tricia down and Tricia shares her stories about life before and during Vietnam and how things never really felt the same after.

A book that is hard to categorize, but one that slowly reveals itself as it is read. Alice McDermott can create characters that seem so real, so strong that in many ways one feels that one is reading a memoir, and not a novel. Both characters seem so much of their era, the last of the Eisenhower era in Charlene, clashing with the woman who knows they are giving up alot to be their husbands helpmates, but don't understand why, or how to get out of it. The story is told in a mix of flashbacks and straight narration, with Tricia discussing New York in such a way that one wishes to travel in time. Also the way McDermott writes about Vietnam is fascinating, a more mature look than say Graham Greene's The Quiet American. The writing is of course very good, with a different kind of plot, and one that goes in places one does not expect.

Recommended for fans of McDermott of course, but this would be a good place to start new readers on McDermott's works also. Especially for readers who are starting to tire of World War II set stories, a new setting might interest them, and the beautiful writing and skill that McDermott has will make them want to read more.

Set in Saigon, this is a novel about the women on the periphery of the Vietnam War and how in helping we can do considerable harm. Alice McDermott writes about the human heart like no other. For years she has been giving us brilliant, deeply felt, elegant novels. Absolution is her masterpiece. Settle in, you’re safely in the hands of a master.

Wow. This book took my breath away - set in Saigon during the Vietnam War, the novel focuses on two women and their relationship as “wives” of men working in the country in a non-military capacity. The author’s ability to make me FEEL the time period on every page along with feeling the tension and complexity of life in the role of wife and guest in a foreign country in war was astounding. I felt the heat and humidity. I could hear the multiple languages or Vietnamese and French and English. I held my breath as the story took me in uncomfortable places and morally-ambiguous and morally-appalling situations. There’s so much to unpack In this that I want to reread (which I NEVER do) and meet with friends to discuss. This is a spectacular novel. Stop what you’re doing and go read it.

I have long been a fan of Alice McDermott. Absolution is a masterpiece. What more can I say? This is a novel the world needs, now, and ever. I loved these characters as they endeavored to heal a broken world by doing all the good they can in the limited ways they could.

Patricia was a young wife when she and her husband arrived in Saigon in 1963. She appears conventional and her values are traditional; she wants to be a good helpmate to her husband and longs to be a mother. But she has been drawn to more radical women.

Her friend in youth was impelled by her slave-owning roots to become involved in Civil Rights activism in the South. Her new friend Charlene, a wife and mother living in Saigon, brashly breaks the rules to raise money for charitable acts, taking gifts to civilians in the hospital and making new clothes for those in the leper colony. They are helped by Dominic, a young soldier with a wife and child. He shares his great love by volunteering at the hospital.

In old age, Patricia is contacted by Charlene’s daughter. Patricia shares her story, and learns the story of her old friend and her continuing acts of radical love, and also of Dominic whose goodness persisted until the end and whose story moved me to tears.

Barbie dolls, The Kennedys in the White House, Librium for housewives, men treating their wives like children, ignoring the poverty of Viet Nam, American’s anti-communism idealization justifying our involvement in Viet Nam, vividly renders the era. A more innocent time, in terms of ignorance and acceptance of the status quo. Patricia sees the burns on children, unaware they are napalm burns. Her husband believes that Buddhist protesters self-immolating were Communist infiltrators.

Charlene is a memorable character, angry and rebellious, beautiful and sophisticated, a woman Patricia is warned about. Her plans for doing good are not always well thought out and not always successful. But she insists on acting, on doing something, anything, for the great sin is to ignore the pain of the world.

In a year when I have read so many stunningly good books, this one rates at the top of my list of favorites. For its story telling and characters and for its insight and message and emotional and intellectual impact.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

Award winning author McDermott focuses her incredible talent on historical fiction with this book, and she chooses an era that doesn't get nearly enough attention, which is the Vietnam War, particularly in the early years. Tricia and Charlene are living in Vietnam, married to men whose careers have put them in service to their country. We see first hand what it must be like, and we follow both womens' intriguing efforts to influence their husbands' decision making, and by extension, policy. This is perfect for book clubs, and will attract readers well beyond just those who seek out historical fiction.

Alice McDermott has always been one of my favorite authors each of her books drew me in from first to last place.Absolution is so beautifully written from the opening scene I was totally involved the characters came alive these young women living in Saigon helpmeets to their husbands who are stationed there during the Vietnam war.This is a book I will be recommending and I expect it will win awards .One of those special books whose characters stay with you long after you read the last words.#netgalley #fsg

Alice McDermott has provided a stunning evocation of what it meant to be an "American wife" in Vietnam in 1963 when women were "helpmeets" to their husbands, expected to be focused on family to the exclusion of much else. McDermott probes what this means when the society in which one is thrust is foreign, in political turmoil, and filled with veiled references to events and ideas happening just under the surface. Told through a framing device as a long conversation between two pivotal characters the book offers a languid wry mediation on a generation only on the cusp of learning to question authority and the patriarchy. Highly recommend for fans of literary fiction. Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for e-ARC

This quiet story is about a young married woman who travels with her husband to Viet Nam in the early 1960's. The young couple are in newlywed bliss, hoping to start a family. Since wives didn't work, Tricia found herself befriended by a military wife who takes on various charities. Tricia is easy influenced, until she isn't. When in the US, her time was spent taking care of her appearance, the home and meals for her husband. In Viet Nam, servants did all the work which left them with time to fill. The friendship between Tricia and Charlene is complex and nuanced. The story is captivating and I didn't care where it took me, I was going. The story was told by Tricia in her senior years as letters to Charlene's daughter. There is so much to unpack in this gorgeous book. Without question, it is the best book I have read this year. Just who seeks and who receives, absolution?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar Strauss and Giroux for this extraordinary read. I will be recommending this book nonstop.

This may be my favorite Alice McDermott novel yet. Compelling, exquisitely conjured, with careful, precise language and McDermott's gentle yet searing wisdom, Absolution tells the story of American women in Saigon during the Vietnam War. The primary protagonist is shy, a woman of her time, a "helpmeet" to her husband, but is so intelligent and perceptive and keenly aware of her limitations though not yet conscious of her power. This is what I consider a "sideways" look at a war we've read so much about, but from an overlooked perspective. It's a deeply probing inquiry into altruism and good intentions and the ease with which we can look away from what troubles us and the fallout of meeting it straight on. I loved this book and pre-ordered it as soon as i finished my e-galley. I will read it again and highly recommend it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this advance readers copy, in exchange for an honest review. Absolution is the story of two American wives, Tricia and Charlene, who accompany their husbands to their postings in Vietnam during the war. The two form a cautious “friendship” (although even that word is a stretch) that is founded in their efforts to “do good” for the native people of Vietnam; the story then shifts into the perspective of Charlene’s daughter and we see the after effects of this formative year.

From the first sentence of this book, I could tell that this book would transport the reader, not necessarily to Vietnam in the 60s (although we certainly got a bit of that too) but, directly into the mind and perspective of our two lead characters. McDermott captured, from the very beginning, all of the complexities and unnerving feelings in Tricia and Charlene’s relationship. You could feel the tension from the beginning and it was very easy to get swept away in the feelings of guilt, the complex feelings surrounding the pair’s charitable efforts, and even in the literal heat of Vietnam. There were a few points where I was questioning where the book was going because I don’t think that it’s particularly action packed or overly plot driven. But, upon reflection now after finishing the book, I think the book was very character centric— showing the reader how Tricia was brought up, how she came to Vietnam with her husband, and the events that shaped her, before and during the present story, which helped her mentally get on board with Charlene’s plans. In essence, again, very character driven.

I have not read many books from this perspective or in this time period and it was interesting to see how significantly Americans affected life on the ground for civilian Vietnamese people. I think this book really packed a punch to demonstrate both this point and also to highlight how the American wives of those stationed in Vietnam were profoundly altered by their time spent there, despite not having a real role outside of a homemaker.

Overall, I would recommend this book to historical fiction and women’s fiction fans. The writing was great in this one and I blew through it very quickly. I think it would also make a great book club read, as there are many symbolic and loaded moments in the book that I think would stimulate some great discussion!

On this week’s episode of the BookCase podcast, Ann Patchett says that this book will win this year’s Pulitzer. While I think Patchett’s new book “Tom Lake” might also be in the running for this year’s Pulitzer, I agree. Absolution is a truly remarkable novel about the life of women.

I was disappointed when I first started reading "Absolution." Who are these women, how could they believe what they did about marriage? The Viet Nam setting was uncomfortable for me a child of the 1960s whose entire life has been impacted by that stupid, unnecessary war. So I stopped reading it for a few days, not sure I could finish. Then I tried again, and became absorbed to the point that the ending nearly made me cry.

After hearing Patchett mention this book, I went back and re-read the first fifty pages. There I discovered the word “helpmeet” that on first reading, my brain had turned into “helpmate.” As this is an uncorrected proof I thought it was a typo until Googled “helpmeet” and found this definition: “A helpful partner, particularly a spouse.” Only with amazing writing can a story turn on one word. Now, I understand the main character and feel who she is.

For those born after the Viet Nam war, "Absolution" provides a concise history of the early days of the war and how the aftermath impacted families for the rest of their lives. For those of us who lived during it, we are reminded of the people who thought they were doing the right thing.

Absolution is a literary masterpiece.

I just finished Absolution last night, and wow. I am left wondering how McDermott fits so much heart into such small packages. It is gorgeously written and moving, understanding, filled with compassion and love — from the beginning cost-of-a-run to the heart-wrenching ending that leaves us thinking about the cost of the “good” we do sometimes. I feel this is the best of McDermott’s books except maybe Charming Billy. And it feels perhaps more important. It says so much about belonging and not (to people we love, and to place too, and to the roles we are put in).

So yes, amazing. It is the best book I have read in ages.

Read closely. There are some wonderful nuggets here.

“Absolution” is a portrait of Saigon at the dawn of the Vietnam War, told from the perspective of Tricia, a shy, observant wife of an American engineer who is pulled into the “cabal” of a forceful do-gooder corporate wife, Charlene.

Told 60 years later as a series of long letters between Tricia and Charlene’s daughter, the story takes us to corners of the city and into cultures we seldom see. Charlene’s compulsion to provide comfort and small sparks of joy to orphans, lepers, and hospital patients push Tricia to the edge of her fears and, in clarity of looking back, to find her own strength.

This is a quiet, beautiful, brilliant book. I highly recommend it and will be recommending it to my book group. My thanks to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC. This book will be published November 7, 2023.

Absolution is simply brilliant. It is a look back... and a look now... memories shared through letters. And those letters are just the perfect way to tell a story!

It was a time that women had a different place...and McDermott shows that in a way that feels true... real. We follow a very shy Tricia and her husband to Saigon in 1963... they are devout Catholics, and so when Tricia crosses paths with the dynamic Charlene and her do good "cabal," it feels inevitable that Tricia will be sucked in.

I think McDermott shows perfectly how some time and distance can make the past clearer. The letters are moving and telling. Did they do good... or not?

I loved the book from the beginning to the end and I highly recommend it!

My thanks to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC. This book will be published November 7, 2023.

The book takes place in the early 1960s in Saigon. It follows two women from the US in Saigon due to their husband's career. I particularly liked the book when it focused on the happenings in Saigon. I found the back story less compelling.

I have never read an Alice McDermott book, but I throughly loved this one. In fact, it is the only ARC I have read and thought I NEED TO BUY THIS. To say that I absolutely loved this book is an understatement.

I loved the story line, specifically the opportunity to see a POV from a woman's perspective during the Vietnam war, as this is often overlooked. The narrative itself was powerful and I felt completely immersed in the past, along with 'all the feels' that comes with it.

Virtuoso work from this widely appreciated writer. Her texture, ease and fluidity are remarkable and make the reading experience immersive. Content-wise, I was less enthralled. The position of middle-class wives in the 50s and 60s is much documented, indeed inspired second wave feminism, so it’s hardly a revelation to have such a detailed description of what spouses did while the husbands engineered a country’s fate. The Catholicism and fertility issues didn’t intrigue me greatly either. Clearly I’m not the right reader for this author’s work and territory. But I can admire her skill and professionalism, and do.

Alice McDermott, Absolution, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Absolution is the first of Alice McDermott’s novels I have read. It certainly will not be the last. Absolution is an enticingly written book, with its subtle descriptions of complex relationships and superbly drawn characters that draw the reader into American life and its impact in Vietnam in, as it was at the time, Saigon. The introduction of the role of Barbie dolls as definers of a relationships between Charlene and her daughter, Rainey; Charlene and Patricia; obsession with charitable fundraising at the expense of a Vietnamese servant; as an element in an almost disastrous mission, and then – a powerful and emotional link with the past when two characters meet again, in England years after they have left Vietnam, is a wonderful comment on the complexity of American involvement in that country.

The story is written in the first person by Patricia and Rainey. Patricia is a new arrival in Vietnam in 1963. She is newly married to Peter. Although she sensitive to the imperfections of Charlene, she is not immune to the strength of her personality which overcomes any resistance to her unspoken but nevertheless mesmerising claims to be righteous. Rainey is the recipient of the first letter, written by Patricia. Rainey reciprocates, then the narrative returns to Patricia, ending with Rainey’s observations. The letters say so much more than their surface observations. Those about society at the time, and in particular women’s role, Patricia’s past, Rainey’s life after the family leave Vietnam and Charlene’s behaviour and character are joined by subtle clues about the links between her and Patricia that remain previously unknown to Patricia and have to be winnowed out of the interchanges.

Charlene and Patricia are engaging characters, while their flaws are exposed, they remain women whose wish to do good remains valid even as questions need to be asked about whether this is indeed what they are doing. Patricia is breathtakingly honest about her prevarications; Charlene has a wicked sense of humour that pervades the last stunning observation made about her by Rainey. This ending to the novel seems abrupt – but is it? I believe it needs to be judged by each reader, because the impact of this novel is one that will stay with you and requires personal witness. For me, Charlene’s humour, arrogance, sincere desire to do good in the way she knows, her bulldozing and controlling features are warmed by her recognition that solutions to the horrors of being in an invaded country may be diametrically opposed are carried in the last sentence.

This is a novel that bears reading and rereading. It speaks of joyous, terrible, grindingly unfair conditions, and shining lights of empathy. Absolution is a thoroughly engaging novel and I appreciate having had the opportunity to read more about this period in Vietnam, as well as joining Patricia and Charlene and the other unforgettable characters introduced by this fine writer.

I loved "Absolution"--from the first page, Alice McDermott plunged me into Saigon in 1962 and she kept me riveted throughout with rich characters, beautiful language and an attention to all the little details that make a story feel real. I loved the structure of first having Patsy/Tricia tell the story of her relationship with fellow American "trailing spouse" Charlene in flashbacks in a letter to Charlene's daughter Rainey, and then letting Rainey pick up the story in a reply to Patsy halfway through. I loved the characters of both Patsy and Rainey, and shared both of their ambivalence toward Charlene, a complex character in her own right but also a stand=in of sorts for US involvement in Vietnam. Events in both narratives made me actually gasp aloud, and the story ends in a way I didn't see coming but in retrospect should have predicted, as McDermott mined the novel with all the foreshadowing I needed.. Alice McDermott never disappoints, and this is no exception: I am recommending "Absolution" to my book group--it's exactly the kind of beautifully written yet multilayered story that leads to great discussions and one that will stay with me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review. Highly recommended.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy Alice McDermott novels and this one really delivers. Most of it set in 1960's Vietnam, it provides a unique perspective of American wives of military men in Vietnam. It's laced with a theme of motherhood but also takes a piercing look at the relationship between husbands and wives. Educational, thoughtful and engaging this would be an ideal bookclub choice.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.