The Cult Of Mary by Laura Van Den Berg, 2019
The magic trick:
Focusing on a character on the margins of the main story
This is the story of a woman accompanying her mother on a trip to Italy. They both have the sense that it is a last chance of sorts, given the mother’s failing health.
Clearly, that’s a fertile premise. So it’s interesting that the text spends so much time focused on another man in the tour group. It’s an indirect, but highly effective, way of telling the mother-daughter story.
And that’s quite a trick on Van Den Berg’s part.
The selection:
In Arezzo, we parked and followed the guide up a steep stone street, curving in the direction of Piazza Grande, and that was when we realized this man, our common enemy, had peeled away from the group. Perhaps he had gone to check the prices after all.
“Maybe he’ll like Arezzo so much he won’t want to leave,” my mother said, clutching my arm with her wizened, claw-like hands.
“We’ll never get that lucky,” I said back.
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