Foreign Bodies
by Cynthia Ozick
Nomination: Women's Prize Finalist 2012
Date Read: March 30, 2021
Loosely based on The Ambassadors by Henry James, a novel I have never read, Ozick presents the Nachtigall clan. Marvin, the overbearing father, is ineffectively trying to exert his will over his adult children. His son, Julian, a ne’er-do-well wanderer has fled to Paris and shacked up with a Romanian expat named Lilly, who is ten years older than Julian. Marvin enlists his sister, Bea, to go to Paris to fetch him home but Bea sends Marvin’s sister instead. Iris is also bristling under her father’s thumb, goes to Paris under the pretense of fetching her brother but ultimately with the goal of staying.
Through various devices, including letters, flashbacks and razor-sharp observations, Ozick presents this family’s misery primarily at the hand of Marvin, who cannot let go of his need for control. None of these lives ultimately achieve happiness or personal fulfillment.
I found this work tedious and depressing. I had wanted to like it so much more than I actually did. In spite of this, I am still looking forward to the further Ozick I have on my plate.
Looking Forward: The Cannibal Galaxy, The Messiah Of Stockholm, The Puttermesser Papers
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