cover image Fatal Observations

Fatal Observations

Catherine Merriman. Trafalgar Square Publishing, $24.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-575-05376-2

It's 1984 and and Jane Hardy, 36, thinks her life is in order. Living alone in her North London apartment, she is generally satisfied with her job as college lecturer and can't complain about her relationship with Chris, an unremarkable yet stable romantic presence. Jane's assumptions about herself are slowly and subtly undermined, however, when an unusual couple- Harry, quiet, sensitive and muscular, and Ruth, a stylish, confident older lawyer who brings home the bacon-move into her building. Harry serves as a metaphor for what is lacking in Jane's life-freedom from decorum and unbridled sexuality. As the three lives intersect, the results are surprisingly chaste, with narrative tension arising not from the expected triangle but from Jane's emerging self-awareness and, eventually, from a violent scenario involving an abusive acquaintance whose ultimate act of rage moves Jane to acknowledge her own capacity for extreme emotion. Merriman (Leaving the Light On) tells her tale through an absorbing internal monologue that will have readers identifying with Jane even as she comes to experience her own dark rage. (Nov.)