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Book Reviewed by:
Jacob Lenz-Avila
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Absolution by Alice McDermott is an examination of moral relativity through characters who have the qualities of both victims and oppressors, saviors and interlopers: American military wives living in Saigon in the early '60s, when "the war, Vietnam itself, was nothing at all like it would become."
The protagonist Tricia is a somewhat naive, somewhat progressive 23-year-old kindergarten teacher married to an engineer, Peter. The newlyweds are Catholics, which makes them relative outsiders, though their faith is shared by both the American and Vietnamese presidents in this historic moment. Tricia wears her hair in a bouffant, consults the Betty Crocker cookbook before she goes shopping, and truly aspires to be "a helpmeet to [her] husband… a jewel in his crown"—a metaphor that highlights the parallel between patriarchy and colonialism.
She finds a purpose for herself in ...
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