Teddy
Set in 1969 Rome with earlier flashbacks, Teddy is the story of Theodora Huntley Carlyle, a sometimes feckless, often terrified young woman from a Texas family of privilege and political ambition. First married in her early 30s to David, a basic, albeit often mysterious American on diplomatic assignment in Rome, Teddy struggles to fit into a life for which her finishing-school, private-college upbringing should have made her well suited. The glamour of consular social circles in Rome, populated by notable glitterati from cinema, art and politics, leaves her fundamentally lonely, and in fear of a youthful past of which she has been programmed to feel deeply shameful.
This debut novel is nothing short of stunning. The style is varied in pace, yet every paragraph leaves the reader hungry for the next; descriptions are economical yet vividly compelling. Symbolism is occasionally telegraphed, yet this just adds to Teddy as a character study—a young woman painfully aware of her own metaphor, isolated by a deeply personal aesthetic empathy, and on a lifelong journey from self-consciousness to self-awareness.
The narrative resounds with historical authenticity, drawing on accurate cultural touches as well as often disturbing aspects of the lives of American power families. It also holds a mirror to current events—still unresolved issues such as reproductive rights, sexual power imbalance, and the corruption of privilege, demonstrating the often-startling contrasts, and even more startling similarities, between the basic dangers of living female in American society in both eras. Not to be missed.
