Florence Gordon

Florence Gordon, written by Brian Morton is a story of family dynamics and relationships.  I looked back a few times while reading this book to make sure I was really reading a novel about so many female characters and their relationships really written by man.  It is interesting how easily Brian Morton seems to have been able to enter the minds of Florence, the feminist icon and matriarch of the family, Janine her fawning, insecure daughter in law and Emily, her granddaughter.

Florence Gordon has reached the pinnacle of her career and is beginning to face old age.  She has put aside personal relationships to further her life dream as a feminist leader.  She has a hard cantankerous shell, but is finding herself a bit lonely and unsure of the choices she has made over the years.  Her granddaughter has come to New York from Seattle for the summer.  They are coming together over the writing of Florence's memoir.  Emily is doing research for her grandmother and learning how passionate and successful she has been over the years.

All the members of this family have so much trouble communicating with each other.  Daniel cannot talk to his mother and really tell her how he feels.  He and his wife, Janine are having trouble talking to each other, as their marriage flounders.  Emily is going through the emotional roller coaster of young adulthood without anyone to confide in.  They are all frustrated, angry and scared and don't know how to reach out to each other.

Emily and her father, Daniel are walking to the train station where Emily travel onto Boston to meet up with an old boyfriend.  She wants to talk to her father and cannot start the conversation.  Daniel wants to connect with his daughter and walks her to the train and buys her ticket, but cannot start a conversation that will give her the space to talk to him.  She asks if he has any life lessons he wants to share, he replies that he cannot think of any he needs to teach her at this point.  Emily thinks, "When she came back she'd be someone different from who she was now.  And he would be someone different too.  He wouldn't be the father of the same girl he was the father of now.  he would be the father of a girl who was older and more worldly and sneakier and more cynical, and he wouldn't even know."

As a reader you are thinking just talk, just say what you are thinking, you can work this out.   Each of the characters is this novel are flawed.  Each of the characters need help and want to work together but just don't know who to reach out and ask for what they need.  It can be aggravating as an outsider looking in to see how dysfunctional this family is.  It is sad also that they are having so much trouble. It is a chance for the reader to look at themselves and see if they can learn to be more open with the people around them, so as not to fall into similar traps.