Class, Race and Motherhood

It is a book which seems deceptively low-key and insignificant because of the very self-absorbed person the protagonist is, who wants to only live in her own little, self-circumscribed world, but which is actually told quite well, and is very readable, the writing style the equivalent of ‘easy listening’ if it were music. 

Rebecca is a privileged white woman living in Bethesda who seems to have it all – a loving, rich husband, a promising career as a poet, and then a baby. Plus a family of sisters who seem quite kind to each other, and reasonably nice parents. After giving birth to baby Jacob, finding herself struggling with early maternal duties and problems, she hires Priscilla, an black, older woman who was helping her at the hospital, to be her fulltime nanny and help. Rebecca simply loves Priscilla and all her presence enables and facilitates in Rebecca’s life. For awhile, everything goes smoothly. 

Then Priscilla becomes pregnant, and Rebecca is nearly in denial, not wanting to plan ahead even when her husband suggests they need to do so. Events overtake them, and Priscilla delivers a healthy baby boy, Andrew, but dies. Priscilla has a daughter, Cheryl, who herself delivers a baby girl within two weeks of this. Rebecca fixates on wanting to adopt baby Andrew, and for some reason, does not discuss it with her husband, but tries to jockey him into this decision. He accuses her of being selfish, of not thinking of him at all, and not even considering he is not a monster and may love the baby anyway – Rebecca puts up no defense, but pushes on ahead to get her own way. Even when her own family voice some natural doubts about a white family adopting a black child:

“This is what I want,” Rebecca said, and as she said it knew that she always got what she wanted

p111

The novel presents us with completely self-centred protagonist, who does not necessarily love herself – hence we couldn’t say she is narcissistic even though there is a lot of navel-gazing going on for Rebecca – but one who definitely mainly does what she wants. Even her tremendous care for her two sons seem to be because it is the story she wishes to craft of herself, of her life:

Some percentage of the things she did for the children were actually for her

p127

Mostly, Rebecca always seem to find herself wanting, is always trying to establish she is more than she is,

Rebecca wanted […] to prove to herself that she was the woman she wanted to be, the sort of woman who could

p162

Strangely, even after Rebecca achieves clear and definite career success, she does not become ‘successful’; she merely continues to become someone who wishes to become successful. The novel is all about Rebecca watching herself, performing for herself, a completely inward looking person, who refuses to go one step beyond her own fixed world and has practically no interests beyond her own wishes. Even the people she claims to love, admire, respect, Cheryl predominant amongst these, find Rebecca does not ‘see’ them; they are just players in her life, puppets in her act.  

The novel brings forward very interesting social issues – how is a white mother who adopts a black child perceived by different communities? Some regard her as martyr or saint, which says a lot about those communities/viewpoints. Some are mistrustful of her motives; some think she is not going to be able to provide what a black young man will need. The fact of the matter however, is simpler than all these social issues – Rebecca loves baby Andrew perhaps because she loved Priscilla without really knowing her; and Rebecca wants Andrew as her child; everything else is immaterial to her, including what is best for Andrew. She is very happy to extend her family to include Priscilla’s family, once she formally adopts Andrew, and will brook no opposition to her plans, not even from her own husband, who rapidly realises he too is only on he periphery of Rebecca’s radar.  

Apart from the race issues which are flagged up most interestingly, the novel also notes class issues. When Rebecca’s sister is asked to babysit Andrew, the novel gives us this flash of insight into Judith’s life and attitudes:

Rebecca knew Judith felt guilty: the twenty-thousand-dollar animal [a horse], the spare Mercedes, their stubbornly white streets in a historically black city. She volunteered with Planned Parenthood as a means of redress. Andrew was adorable and he was also a trump card

p139

Alam’s writing is strong because it is both subtle and packs a lot of reverberating meaning into its succinct sentences. He clearly elected to write an unlovable protagonist who nevertheless encapsulates – in her desires, in what she wishes to be – her society’s values and aspirations. Rebecca is strangely unquestioning and unself-aware despite being talented, privileged, intelligent, well-read, well brought up. Her lack of self-understanding is what enables the reader to critique her, and through her, critique the society she reflects so well.