Description
Haunting portrayal of a woman's complex relationships with her family and her mental breakdown"-Feminist Bookstore News. A woman becomes more and more enmeshed in a complex web of bizarre interactions between her loving but over-protective husband, her jealous mother-in-law, and the traumas of her past. When her mother comes to stay, the rejection Jenny experienced at the hands of her strict and religious parents and competitive, world-famous brother, returns to haunt her, provoking mental breakdown and a suicide attempt. She is the mirror of all who surround her: family, friends, therapist, and the reader. Like so many of the tortured characters in her brother's great films, she too discovers that redemption can come from those around us who are willing, and able, to reach out in what might otherwise be an all-too harsh and brutal world. "Bergman's prose carefully circles, rather than describes, the unspeakable, resulting in an austere work of art softened by a uniquely modern wisdom." Publisher Weekly