The Act of Disappearing
Gower’s intriguing novel delves into the duality of mental illness in two emotionally compelling stories, one from the 1940s-60s and one present-day. The premise is based on a photograph of a trestle bridge, showing a tiny background figure of a woman jumping, suspended in mid-air above a river, swaddled baby in arms.
In present-day New York, Jules suffers from paranoia and a nervous disposition. She has just published a not-very-successful book about her mother’s lifelong depression when she meets renowned photographer, Jonathan Aster, who gives her ‘The Fairchild Photograph.’ Insisting the story will tell itself, Aster offers nothing more. Jules heads to Gray Station, Kentucky, armed with nothing but a date, where Edith Fairchild jumped to her death on July 4, 1964.
Throughout her life Edith is in and out of hospital, given shock treatment and psychotropic drugs and returned home to cope with her world. Her baby Kathryn receives sporadic care from her mother, who locks herself in a room for weeks on end, but in lucid moments shows infinite love for her daughter. Kathryn grows up labelled by small-town residents as the daughter of the crazy Fairchild woman. When an unexpected pregnancy occurs and Edith gives birth to a son, fifteen-year-old Kathryn leaves school to care for him. Too young for such immense responsibility, Kathryn’s teenage angst is beautifully portrayed in Gower’s poignant account.
Gradually the pieces of the puzzle begin to make sense to Jules, unfolding a tragic story, which Gower handles with tender compassion. Both timeframes have equal merit― Jules’ 21st-century mental health problems inextricably interwoven through her search for a woman whose illness and treatment are indelibly tied to the 1950s. This intergenerational story of motherhood and the bonds of maternal love is a riveting read.
