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The Camden Public Library welcomes Maine author Patricia O’Donnell for a book event featuring two of her novels, A Symmetry of Husbands and The Vigilance of Stars. This event is in-person only and will take place on Thursday, December 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the Picker Room.
A psychologically rich literary novel with elements of suspense, probes the jealousy and betrayal that hide in a life-long friendship. It takes its title from a poem read by Douglas Adams at the funeral of his wife Megan, who has died from complications of MS. He also reads, “Grief wrongs us so. I stand, and wait, and cry/For the absurd forgiveness, not knowing why.” Abigail, Megan’s friend and caretaker on Boston’s North Shore, has an idea why Douglas might ask for Megan’s forgiveness. It’s the reason Abigail herself might also ask forgiveness of both Megan and of Abigail’s husband, James; neither Megan nor James knew about the affair between Douglas and Abigail.
“Patricia O’Donnell writes unfailingly about the rawness of human relationships with this investigation of contradiction, grief, hope, and memory. With her sparse prose, stark honesty, and grit, O’Donnell lays bare the complexities of love, infidelity, and friendship. A Symmetry of Husbands is a poetic unfolding of love in all its expressions.” Amy Newswald, author of I Know You Love Me, Too
Chosen by Lily King to be one of two books read by participants in the Maine Humanities Council’s “Read ME” summer program.
Four stories twine together in this novel set in both contemporary and 1950’s Maine. Kiya, a Portland hair stylist in her early 20’s, becomes unexpectedly pregnant and determined to keep the baby as she struggles to recover from her brother’s suicide. Peter, the baby’s father, wants to break away from Kiya and find love—somewhere else. Maddie, Peter’s mother, fights her own loneliness as she cares for Alex, incapacitated in a nursing home. Evie, Maddie’s mother, appears as a young woman in the 1950’s, searching to heal herself both emotionally and physically.
The characters’ lives spiral together, moving with inexorable force toward an ending that takes place on an uninhabited island in Maine where the stars stand watch over lives both old and new.
“A literary treat” that will resonate with readers long after the telling.” (Maine Sunday Telegram)
Patricia O’Donnell grew up in a small town in Iowa. Her BA and MA are from the University of Northern Iowa, and her MFA in Fiction is from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She and her husband Michael Burke raised their three children–Emma, Brendan, and Harper–in Wilton, Maine, a small town which curves around the southern end of Wilson Lake.
Patricia is Professor Emerita of Creative Writing at the University of Maine at Farmington, where she taught fiction writing and directed the BFA Program in Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Agni Review, The North American Review, Prairie Schooner, and other journals and anthologies. Her novel, Necessary Places, was published by Cadent Publishing (now part of Tilbury House). Her memoir, Waiting to Begin, was published by Bottom Dog Press. Her collection of short fiction, Gods for Sale, won the Serena McDonald Kennedy Fiction Award.
In addition to teaching at UMF, Patricia has taught classes in creative writing at Colby College, the Franklin County Jail, the Maine Women’s Correctional Center, and at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa.