Hood (Magill Book Reviews)

Pen O’Grady is mourning the recent death of neurotic young Cara Wall, with whom she had been intimate for fourteen years. They shared a bedroom in the home of Cara’s father, an absent-minded, introverted librarian who seemed oblivious of their torrid lesbian relationship.

Sophisticated, thoroughly Americanized Kate Wall returns for the funeral. Her reappearance in Dublin revives Pen’s romantic schoolgirl yearnings for Cara’s older sister. Grief-stricken Mr. Wall is like a helpless child. Kate can hardly wait to get through the obligatory ceremonies and return to yuppie life in Boston. Pen is forced to assume responsibilities for housekeeping and funeral arrangements.

The Catholic Church still pervades the lives of Dubliners. Mr. Wall, for example, regularly attends mass although he no longer believes the church’s teachings. The same is true of Pen. Many Irish men and women are participating in church rituals while transgressing in various ways, including using contraceptives and engaging in free homosexual and heterosexual intercourse.

The novel, full of flashbacks to a happier past, is as much about Pen’s “coming out” as about her grief. She feels emotionally dead. She cannot cry at the funeral nor at the clandestine wake held by lesbian friends. She realizes she needs to share her grief but cannot do so as long as she lies about her sexual orientation and her passionate love affair with Cara. During the week she confides in a sympathetic male colleague at the Catholic school where they teach. Then she reveals the truth to Kate.

Once Cara starts confessing, she realizes the affair was not such a deep, dark secret after all. Even the apparently oblivious Mr. Wall knew what was going on in his daughter’s bedroom. At the end of this pivotal week, Pen resolves to “come out” to her own mother. Only then is the troubled young lesbian able to release all her pent-up tears.

Emma Donoghue, still in her twenties, is an Irish lesbian living in England, completing a Ph.D. dissertation on eighteenth century women novelists. HOOD is her second novel. She writes about lesbian love with sensitivity and extreme candor.

Sources for Further Study

Booklist. XCII, March 1, 1996, p. 1120.

Boston Globe. March 17, 1996, p. B43.

The Guardian. March 14, 1996, II, p. 4.

Kirkus Reviews. LXIV, January 15, 1996, p. 85.

The New York Times Book Review. CI, March 24, 1996, p. 12.

Publishers Weekly. CCXLIII, January 22, 1996, p. 59.

San Francisco Chronicle. May 19, 1996, p. REV6.

The Times Literary Supplement. April 21, 1995, p. 22.