Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton (April 21-May 6, 2005)

Twilight Sleep is a satirical and scathing look at the Jazz Age. Pauline Manford is a bustling mother who's schedule is packed with cure-alls, fads, religious experiences, exercise regimens, her two children, husband, ex-husband, speeches, parties and dinners. Her daily flurry of activity distracts her from her crumbling family. Pauline is married to Dexter, but has no idea what really makes him happy. She visits her ex-husband, Arthur Wyant, to look upon him with pity. Her son from her first marriage, Jim Wyant, is married to an irresponsible flapper named Lita. Lita is bored of everything, including her husband. Pauline's daughter, Nona Dexter, is perceptive and very different from her mother. Nona tries to support her family and protects her parents while they neglect to protect her. Meanwhile, she's in love with a married man.

This world is filled with social trade-offs, underhanded planning, masquerading and deception. Pauline struggles to hide inappropriate activities of her spiritual advisor, because his exercise recommendations took inches off her frame. Meanwhile, the rest of the family pulls strings to keep Jim and Lita's marriage afloat, but when Dexter begins to fall for Lita, can appearances hold up or will the careful order crash down?

"Twilight Sleep" refers to a state created during childbirth with administration of morphine and scopolamine. The combination of drugs caused a loss of pain (analgesia) and loss of memory (amnesia), where women had no memory of delivering their babies. In a twilight sleep, the characters of the novel rush through life without consciousness, missing meanings, until they are shaken into awareness.


A Favorite Quote:

Nona glanced down absently at her slim young hands--so helpless and inexperienced looking. All these tangled cross-threads of life, inextricably and fatally interwoven; how were a girl's hands to unravel them?

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