"Desperate Characters" by Paula Fox

With exceptional imagery, similar to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Paper”, or Cynthia Ozick’s “The Pagan Rabbi”, Paula Fox weaves a powerful drama, this one in search of questions as to the values of the modern family, the struggle for personal identity.

At the center of the book we find a middle-aged woman who, in an act of kindness, suffers a wound inflicted by a street cat. Over the course of several days, she questions not only the need for treatment, but also her marriage, her devotion to her husband and the outcome of her personal choices.

The book, although short, is packed with exceptional observations and requires numerous readings and analysis. The author masterfully paints the ever transitioning complexities of modern society, the transformation of values (both within the family, as well as within society as a whole), the degradation of dreams, friendships, the faith in the modern and the faith in one’s self.

I encourage your to tickle your intellectual senses and devote a good portion of your free time to understanding the message of “Desperate Characters”.

- by Simon Cleveland