Mrs. Bridge

Finally got around to reading this wonderful American novel by Evan Connell.  A friend, who is an avid reader, has raved about it and now I know why.  The quiet desperation of Mrs. Bridge glimpsed through short episodic chapters caused an ache deep inside of me.  I could hear her repressed scream, and I was deeply saddened by her inability to form her own opinion.

"Thirty, thirty five, forty, all had come to visit her like admonitory relatives, and all had slipped away without a trace, without a sound, and now, once again, she was waiting.