MOLLY

A husband's anguished, complex response to his wife's suicide and the revelations that followed.

"Molly Brodak, Poet and Memoirist of Her Father's Crimes, Dies at 39," read the headline of her New York Times obituary. Her problematic father's appearance at this final juncture is ruefully noted by her husband, Butler, author of Alice Knott, There Is No Year, and other novels. He begins with a gripping account of the day he came home and found an envelope taped to the door containing a suicide note and instructions for finding his wife's body. Knowing of her lifelong issues with depression, he was nonetheless blindsided. They had just had a nice evening and been to a museum two days earlier; a picture of her waiting for him in a gallery is one of the book’s lovely color photographs. However, while going through her journals and phone records in the days after her death, Butler learned of Molly's infidelity with many partners, including her college students, and of a long-term liaison ongoing at the time of her death. He initially thought he would not include this information, but he decided to tell all. This will be too much for some readers, though his attempt to understand is relatable and moving: "A cycle of lying and hiding had likely kept her alive at times, a habit modeled on her father that she’d never learned to break." This theme takes its place beside many others in Butler’s sprawling, philosophical interior monologue, which includes quotes from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche; spiritualist interludes, in which he communicates with demons and his dead wife; and testimony to the wonderful postmortem support of their friends.

Not for everyone, but it could mean the world to those facing similar shocks and losses.