Absolution, McDermott - B

         Patricia Riordan Kelly is a born and bred New York Irish Catholic, a recent grad of Marymount and the new wife of  Peter Kelly. They are in Saigon in the early sixties where Peter, an engineer for Esso, is working for the CIA. Patricia recalls their time there in a long letter to the daughter of the woman who befriended her when they were young wives in Vietnam. It is a fascinating exploration of what it was like before everything changed for women. The expectation was to marry young and be a handmaiden to your husband's career. In this instance, Patricia had numerous miscarriages and no live births, the novel plumbs the depths of misery that she went through. And, it is a brilliant review of being Irish Catholic in that era. As an Irishwoman born in Brooklyn in the early 1950's, and educated in the parochial school system in Nassau, the author completely nails it.