Wolfe writes this novel, Pandora by Holly Hollander, as if it is a first
person narrative written by a woman, though it is not clear to what extent this
fictional book, Pandora, is a novel, and to what extent it is a non-fiction account
of a crime perpetrated by the writer’s stepmother against the writer’s father
and others.
The first three sentences of the book are “Is this a historical
novel? Nope. This is just one that took a real long time
to sell.” This is the beginning of the
Foreword written by the narrator, Holly Hollander; this Foreword refers to the characters in the book as if they are real. Further muddying
this issue is the fact that the text of the book makes clear that the teenage Holly
was both a fan of mystery novels, and considering a career in journalism. Holly was a high school student at the time
of the crime, the early 1980s; her book is being published about ten years
after the events it describes.
Writing in the voice of a young woman is of course a somewhat
risky undertaking for a man in his late 50s, and I have to wonder how women
have assessed Wolfe’s effort. Nancy Kress,
quoted on the back cover of my edition, considers the book, and Holly in
particular, delightful, so Wolfe has at least one female thumbs up.
The plot is a pretty traditional murder mystery, with a terrible
homicide, a bunch of suspects, red herrings, police detectives and amateur
investigators trying to figure everything out, all that sort of thing. I’m not exactly a connoisseur of mystery
novels, but in my opinion the mystery plot works; it is interesting and makes
internal sense, is hard to figure out but could, conceivably, be figured out by
the reader. In short, the much younger
wife (Elaine, Holly’s stepmother) of a successful businessman (Harry Hollander,
Holly’s biological father) manages a sort of raffle at the local fair. At the climax of the raffle, when a nineteenth-century box labeled “Pandora” is opened to reveal the prize, there is a
tremendous explosion, which injures many and kills several people, including
the man with whom Elaine is carrying on an adulterous affair, a married Vietnam
vet. Who planted the bomb and why? The people who have been making harassing
phone calls to the Vietnam vet? The vet’s
jealous wife? Holly’s insane uncle, Harry’s
older brother Herbert, who would be running the Hollander company if he wasn’t
in an asylum? The impecunious ex-lawyer who
lives on the edge of town with some hippies because he recently got out of
prison for trying to bribe a judge?
There is much more to the book than the mystery, though. Wolfe adds many interesting touches, such as
literary criticism of mystery novels in the voice of Holly, lots of talk about
Greek mythology and the wisdom of the Greeks (mostly from the ex-lawyer) and
about World War II (Harry served in combat at Anzio and elsewhere in Europe, and has
several war souvenirs that figure in the plot), and lots of talk about books,
all things Wolfe cares about.
Pandora by Holly Hollander, as the title suggests, is also about women, women’s
place in society, and men’s attitudes towards women. The killer turns out to be evil step-mother Elaine,
who is ruthless and greedy enough to blow up innocent strangers and gun down
poor crazy Herbert in her pursuit of her husband’s wealth, and who uses her
sexual wiles to try to camouflage her atrocity.
Several times the lawyer character, who is portrayed as well read and intelligent,
makes what you might call sweeping generalizations about women, that women are
curious, that women writers tend to use particular words more than men and
write in a certain style more than men.
Two versions of the Greek Pandora story are related by the ex-lawyer:
the one in which Pandora’s curiosity unleashes evil upon the world, and the one
in which the gods create Pandora, the prototype woman, as a means of punishing
men. This is not a flattering view of
women!
At the same time, the women in the book are all victims of
men, or neglected by men, in one way or another. It was Herbert’s murder of his wife that put
him in the insane asylum. The Hollanders'
housekeeper recalls how her mother was often given black eyes by her father. The ex-lawyer, Holly’s spying reveals, has
broken some woman’s heart. And in the
very last line of the book, we learn that Harry, whom Holly adores, can’t be
bothered to remember his own daughter’s birthday! Not a flattering view of men, either.
Looking at the back cover blurbs, we learn that not only
Nancy Kress but also Charles de Lint think that this book is “a delight to
read.” The New York Review of Science
Fiction calls it “a bright bauble.” I
think it’s a very good book, but my perspective is a little different: I
suggest that Pandora by Holly Hollander
is about the prevalence of evil in our world, again as you might expect from the
title. The main plot is about a mass
murder and the total collapse of a teenage girl’s family. (After Elaine is arrested Harry moves out of
town and Holly moves in with the impoverished lawyer and the hippies.) Again and again Wolfe reminds us, in well
integrated little asides, about the Nazis, Indian wars, atrocities in Vietnam
by both the communists and the anti-communists, police and government corruption
and incompetence, etc. There is a dearth of functional,
fulfilling love relationships in the book.
And what is the Hollander business which is so successful? Manufacturing locks and safes, a business
that thrives because the world is full of killers and thieves!
Of course, Wolfe is a Christian, and the novel does offer a
measure of hope and redemption. Perhaps the
ex-lawyer, having paid his debt to society and made sure Elaine and not one of
the other suspects was punished for the murders, and Holly, who has maintained
a good attitude despite the trials she has been through, can make a happy life
together in that ruined old house on the edge of town.
This is a well-written and complex novel that rewards
careful reading and reflection. Wolfe is
a master of economy, there is no fluff or gratuitous decoration in the book,
each sentence has some purpose and meaning.
Wolfe respects the reader, and assumes the reader is smart and knowledgeable,
but even if you miss some allusions and nuances, as I’m sure I have, there is
much to enjoy and appreciate in the novel.
Another superior effort by a great writer.
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