In the Deep Midwinter

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November, 1949: In the aftermath of his brother James's death, Richard MacEwan's life is suddenly rocked by secrets involving his wife Sarah and daughter Anna. Among his bachelor brother's papers, Richard discovers a letter from Sarah that hints at an infidelity. Then there is Anna's affair with a married man, Charles Norden, which threatens to change her life forever. The story of Richard, Sarah, Anna, and Charles--along with the troubling legacy of James--is one of faith and doubt, profound moral and spiritual ...
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More About This Book

Overview

November, 1949: In the aftermath of his brother James's death, Richard MacEwan's life is suddenly rocked by secrets involving his wife Sarah and daughter Anna. Among his bachelor brother's papers, Richard discovers a letter from Sarah that hints at an infidelity. Then there is Anna's affair with a married man, Charles Norden, which threatens to change her life forever. The story of Richard, Sarah, Anna, and Charles--along with the troubling legacy of James--is one of faith and doubt, profound moral and spiritual conflict, and the intricate bonds that hold families together.

A debut novel of classic elegance, moral consequence, and luminous prose. When a well-established lawyer loses his brother in what seems to have been a hunting accident, the calm surface of his life is disturbed, as secrets kept by the women in his family begin to emerge. 288 pp. National print ads. National author reading tour. Buyer's Choice

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly
In November 1949, St. Paul lawyer Richard MacEwan travels by train to North Dakota where he will claim the body of his brother James, who was killed, apparently in a hunting accident. Six months later, in April 1950, near the end of this absorbing narrative, Richard learns from James's friend Henry Finch something closer to the truth about his brother's death. The intervening pages of this first novel from Clark (biographer of James Beard in The Solace of Food) develop the story of the Midwestern Mac-Ewan family as though it were a photograph of extraordinary detail in the midwinter tints of gray and blue. Richard's daughter, Anna, divorced and the mother of a son, begins a relationship with a married man, Charles Norden, that leads to pregnancy. Richard's wife, Sarah, disapproves, although Charles claims to be close to a divorce. The theme of the truth about James's death is intertwined, from beginning to end, with Anna's dilemma and ongoing reflections on Christian philosophy. Sober in tone, moral in content, Clark's vision, especially in matters of adultery, is deeply considered and humane. His characters are fundamentally decent and substantial people who, while believing in moral absolutes, are drawn away by the lure of that other human absolute-love. Clark uses a tight structure to think through a moral issue in mature prose. Still, the achievement here is his depiction of the more elemental process of how people come to consciousness amidst the accrual of a lifetime's overlays of knowledge and meaning. Intelligent and perceptive, this first novel combines meticulous craftsmanship with a serious moral imagination.
Jonathan Yardley
Graceful…seamless…almost stately…It has been a long time since the last American novel of such compassion, intelligence and maturity.
—The Washington Post Book World
Donn Fry
The most absorbing, most intelligent and most wholly satisfying novel I've read in a good while—certainly since Richard Ford's Pulitzer—winning Independence Day….A beautiful and haunting novel of character.
—Seattle Times
Kate Tuttle
In the Deep Midwinter comes along at a time when people have stopped talking about The Great American Novel. That's too bad, because this just might be it.
—The Boston Book Review
Kirkus Reviews
A first novel by the biographer of James Beard tries to recapture the moral issues of 1950s America, a time when WASPish reticence and conservative social values reigned.

To his credit, Clark doesn't celebrate one worldview over another, understanding that each has its drawbacks. Like Dreiser's American Tragedy, this somber narrative turns on a crisis that would be solved today without severe social consequences. Anna MacEwan, a divorced 30-year-old mother in St. Paul, becomes pregnant by her boyfriend before he has actually proposed to her. Something of a grind at his staid law firm, Charles Norden fears this untimely pregnancy might damage his chances at a partnership, so he encourages Anna to have an illegal abortion. The novel, though, is really her father's story. Richard MacEwan is a dull and dutiful estate lawyer who has always done what is right and good, watching while his brother James, a charming lady's man, has pursued the high life. The story opens with James's accidental death, a mystery that sets in motion a series of revelations. In a family defined by secrets and unspoken feelings, Richard is disturbed by a letter discovered in his brother's remains—a letter from Richard's wife declining an affair with his brother. He is stunned, disoriented, and then Anna suffers a botched abortion, and Richard, a devout Episcopalian, feels himself descending into a world of disbelief and infidelity. After a heroic struggle, this solid and loving father accepts that his legalistic view of the world has been inadequate, and he discovers moral subtleties that help stave off psychic anarchy.

It's hard to get worked-up over an issue that seems somewhat dated; Clark's overwrought style doesn't help, nor does his explicit propaganda for safe, legal abortion. Still, his ability to see the value in a lost, often ridiculed, way of life is valuable, as is his tidy narrative technique.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780312151492
  • Publisher: Picador
  • Publication date: 12/28/1996
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 278
  • Product dimensions: 5.75 (w) x 8.47 (h) x 0.98 (d)

Meet the Author

Robert Clark is the author of a biography of James Beard, The Solace of Food, and a cultural history of the Columbia River, River of the West (Picador). He lives in Seattle, Washington.
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Reading Group Guide

1. Robert Clark has said that he "wanted to write about how men and women see themselves as men and women." In the Deep Midwinter is set during a time in America when gender roles were more clearly defined than they are today. How do society's expectations of men and women in the 50's affect and shape the relationships between Charles and Anna and Richard and Sarah? How do those expectations color the ways in which the characters perceive themselves? Do those perceptions change as the novel progresses?

2. The novel is peppered with references to the battles of World Wars I and II, the Cold War that hangs in America's near future, and the literal and figurative injuries that individuals sustain in battles. What kinds of wounds do Anna and Richard bear in the book? What do those wounds teach them? How do they go about healing their injuries and forgiving the loved ones who inflicted them?

3. Sarah and Anna both have secrets about men, but they handle them quite differently. How do their involvements with James and Charles, respectively, broaden our understanding of their characters?

4. When he wrote this novel, the author wanted to write about abortion "not as a political 'issue' but as something that arises out of the experience of community, family, even love." Discuss the role that Anna's abortion plays in the novel.

5. If the characters in the novel suddenly found themselves in modern America, they might be shocked at how readily Americans divulge the private details of their lives to one another. How do the characters communicate with one another in the book? How does silence impact Sarah and Richard's marriage? The relationship Anna haswith her parents?

6. The novel contains a great deal of religious imagery. What is the significance of religion to the story? How does Richard's crisis of faith in God relate to the trouble he experiences in his marriage?

7. The wintry Minnesota landscape is an important aspect of the novel. How does the physical world reflect the interior lives of the central characters? The mood in America during the time in which the novel is set? Does the emotional atmosphere in the book change as spring draws nearer?

8. Although James never physically appears in the novel, he is nonetheless an important character. What kind of man is he? What do James's family members and we as readers learn from him? What effect does his absence have on the story?

9. After her abortion, Anna believes that she died and was reborn. In what ways does Anna go through a rebirth? How does she change as a result of her experience? Are there other characters who are reborn? How?

10. In her review of the novel, Kate Tuttle of the Boston Book Review wrote, "In the Deep Midwinter comes along at a time when people have stopped talking about The Great American Novel. That's too bad, because this just might be it." In what ways does Clark's book exemplify the traditional American novel? How does his novel differ from "modern" American literature?
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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 14, 2004

    my new classic

    I read Clark's novel as part of a college fiction writing course. In the Deep Midwinter is an outstanding example of a story whose strong characters control the plot and its major themes. One evening, I thought I would read just a few pages -- and I read for three hours! I would highly recommend this novel to anyone interested in reading what might be, as a reviewer stated, the Great American Novel.

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