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Ann Packer: "Some Bright Nowhere"

 Is it possible to invent a new plot in 2025? Ann Packer's late-career opus, "Some Bright Nowhere," has a startling setup. A couple has been reasonably happy for decades. The wife--Claire--is now dying of cancer. She asks her husband to move out; she wants to spend her final weeks with two female friends.


Is Claire a monster? It's not really a question that can be answered. Oprah has said this: "I was totally annoyed by her, and by her lack of empathy for her spouse." I agree. But people in the real world do annoying things. They are annoying and self-absorbed all the time. How surprising to take this particular case of self-absorption and mold it into a novel.

What results is sort of a divorce and sort of a non-divorce. Eliot continues to visit Claire in her house. He tries to be patient with her faux-doula friends. Sometimes, he eavesdrops on them. He attempts to defend his spouse when one child--Abby--raises loud and forceful objections to the new living arrangement. 

It's possible that Claire is just really tired of patriarchal structures. She resents that Eliot begins several of his sentences with a "don't you think" structure. "Don't you think this new Pulitzer winner is just smoke and mirrors?" Also, Claire recalls a moment when a neighbor observed Eliot's caretaking efforts and said, "You're doing an amazing job." That's a gendered statement. If a man does minimal caregiving tasks, he is "amazing." If a woman does the same, she is just being human.

Packer seems to have spent a lifetime closely observing people--and she has packed so many striking thoughts into this one book. Completely delightful.
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