All She Needs is Love

The Romantic
Honestly, that Louise! I want to slap her, or at least give her a good shaking. Her mother's abrupt abandonment of her and her father when she was just nine years old has left her desperate for love and fearful of more loss. In truth Louise never felt her mother's love although she tried so hard to win it - she memorises A Thousand and One Side-Splitters, index and all, because her mother, so distant and cold, is mildly amused by the jokes. Her mother looked like Grace Kelly and found it hard to believe that plain little Louise was her child, although she did enjoy shopping for her and dressing her up in exquisite outfits. Her dad refuses to believe that his wife has gone for good; he suspects that she's been conned by "some two-bit wheeler-dealer" and that it is only a matter of time until she returns, effectively preventing Louise from grieving or at least resolving their complicated relationship and moving on. She tries to fill the hole left by her mother's absence by imprinting on Mrs. Richter, a middle-aged, oddly dressed German immigrant. When she fails to get Mrs. Richter's maternal attention through posturing as a pathetic, neglected semi-orphan, she targets her adopted son, Abel Richter, and through her friendship with him weasels entry into their different sort of family. Abel is a tragic choice, he is the world's worst alcoholic on an unwavering self-destructive course. We don't know how he came to be this way, perhaps his life before he was adopted by the Richters was unspeakably horrible, perhaps genetics played a part? He is an addict and he loves his bottle more than he loves Louise, he may even love the twisted-faced denizens of the sleazy bars he frequents more than he loves her. He doesn't think she needs his love because he sees her as strong; he's wrong. Louise's singleminded yearning is terribly off-putting and pathetic ("Get over it, sister," I want to say. "He's not worth it.") but Gowdy's quirky, witty and understated writing kept me hanging in. I especially like the little 60's and 70's Toronto details that pop up from time to time. I find myself wondering whether the deaths of both targets of her infatuation will allow her to make a fresh, unencumbered start or will she, instead, search for another doomed attachment?