Anne Lamott says there is really one way to tell a story: Take a character in a good place, force that same character into a bad place, then show the gradual (heartening) return to the good place.
Or, if you're writing a tragedy: Take a character, chase her up a tree, then throw rocks at her. And throw more rocks.
I'm not sure if "Happy Valley" is a Lamott story or a tragedy (I suspect it's in the Lamott camp), but I'm eager to find out. We learn quickly that the "Happy Valley" hero, Catherine, once had a pretty good life. Catherine had a marriage, a child, a job. Things shifted. A man raped and impregnated Catherine's child, who then gave birth and hanged herself. Catherine assumed custody of her grandson; Catherine's husband couldn't take the heat, and he abandoned the marriage. Tough Catherine couldn't really "move on," especially when she learned of the rapist's completion of his prison sentence.
So Catherine is teetering, and around her, we have a banal "Macbeth" couple orchestrating a "kidnap" plot (just to score some private-school tuition money for a child). We have a powerful politician who is caught in a DUI scenario. And we have office politics: Do you offer tough love or kindness to the flailing rookie cop? Do you listen to your oily boss, or do you refuse to bend the law?
This is a melodrama, and it seems to have "offspring" in the form of "Mare of Easttown." (Like Catherine, Mare is a grandmother through complicated twists of fate. Like Catherine, Mare has murders to worry about.) I love to see an entire community, a big shipload of secrets, and a heroic central character in an impossible situation.
It's weirdly comforting to spend my evenings in this troubled English village--and my fingers are crossed for Catherine.
Comments
Post a Comment