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Ups and downs of mother, daughter
By Louisa Thomas |
May 24, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WHAT gives something value? Eloise McAllister's answer - "mass hysteria and the tendency of individuals to think as those around them do" - has served her well as hedge fund manager.
These days, with global financial markets in a tailspin, the provisional nature of monetary value seems obvious and painful. Richard Mason wrote "Natural Elements," the novel in which Eloise figures, when the markets were still pneumatically afloat, but when he talks about "value," it's clear he's interested in something harder to discern. At the center of this sprawling narrative is the question of whether, underneath the grudges, whims and fantasies that inform our actions and relationships, it's possible to locate a dependable meaning, something worth sacrificing for.
To Eloise - middle-aged, single, intensely competitive in the London financial world, circa 2004 - value might be the result of mass psychosis, but it's something you can put a number on. Eloise's life is her work, and it has been ever since she left her lover, Claude, a French research scientist.
When Eloise's mother, Joan, can no longer live alone, there's no question in her daughter's mind that a nursing home is the solution - the one with the highest price tag, to best demonstrate Eloise's love. To pay the bill, she makes a risky bet, promising a big payoff. She even translates her enduring faith in Claude into shares of stock in his company.
Eloise isn't a bad person, but she is egotistical - so much so that she sees everything, even the sunny days that seem to be "applauding her," as reflections of her moods and needs. She may scorn the masses, but she's blind to the way her own judgments conform to the contours of her emotions. Unsurprisingly, she quickly finds herself in trouble and, as she tries to save face and fortune, is forced to reassess what really matters in life.
To her mother, the question of what makes something valuable is more fraught.
Joan's story, which Mason interweaves with Eloise's, is written in a different register: less satirical, more lyrical, even spiritual. Her husband was cruel, her mother-in-law tyrannical. Now her daughter has committed her to a fancy prison.
Everything changes when Eloise takes Joan on "the trip of a lifetime" to her native South Africa. There the discovery of her grandmother's diary pulls Joan outside her own worries and into a history far more difficult than her own.
The parts of "Natural Elements" that layer the past atop the present are some of its weakest.
The connections between people in the 21st century are where Mason's characters ultimately find value. Often beautifully rendered, these connections extend that value to the novel itself.
These days, with global financial markets in a tailspin, the provisional nature of monetary value seems obvious and painful. Richard Mason wrote "Natural Elements," the novel in which Eloise figures, when the markets were still pneumatically afloat, but when he talks about "value," it's clear he's interested in something harder to discern. At the center of this sprawling narrative is the question of whether, underneath the grudges, whims and fantasies that inform our actions and relationships, it's possible to locate a dependable meaning, something worth sacrificing for.
To Eloise - middle-aged, single, intensely competitive in the London financial world, circa 2004 - value might be the result of mass psychosis, but it's something you can put a number on. Eloise's life is her work, and it has been ever since she left her lover, Claude, a French research scientist.
When Eloise's mother, Joan, can no longer live alone, there's no question in her daughter's mind that a nursing home is the solution - the one with the highest price tag, to best demonstrate Eloise's love. To pay the bill, she makes a risky bet, promising a big payoff. She even translates her enduring faith in Claude into shares of stock in his company.
Eloise isn't a bad person, but she is egotistical - so much so that she sees everything, even the sunny days that seem to be "applauding her," as reflections of her moods and needs. She may scorn the masses, but she's blind to the way her own judgments conform to the contours of her emotions. Unsurprisingly, she quickly finds herself in trouble and, as she tries to save face and fortune, is forced to reassess what really matters in life.
To her mother, the question of what makes something valuable is more fraught.
Joan's story, which Mason interweaves with Eloise's, is written in a different register: less satirical, more lyrical, even spiritual. Her husband was cruel, her mother-in-law tyrannical. Now her daughter has committed her to a fancy prison.
Everything changes when Eloise takes Joan on "the trip of a lifetime" to her native South Africa. There the discovery of her grandmother's diary pulls Joan outside her own worries and into a history far more difficult than her own.
The parts of "Natural Elements" that layer the past atop the present are some of its weakest.
The connections between people in the 21st century are where Mason's characters ultimately find value. Often beautifully rendered, these connections extend that value to the novel itself.
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