June 28, 1999
Lippincott calls his first novel a "creative response" to the Virginia Woolf classic of similar title, but its virtuoso handling of the inner life of its characters should delight more than just Woolf enthusiasts. Like Mrs. Dalloway, this book confines its action to a single day in London and its environs, drifting among the members of the Dalloway house as they prepare a party for the Dalloways' 30th wedding anniversary. Here, however, the primary focus is on Richard Dalloway, former Parliament member, doting husband, a man trying desperately to manage an affair that threatens his family on several levels. Richard's social class puts him at ease in his world, but can't prevent him from suffering a quiet desperation; he's a man whose confidence seems to ride on his last exchange with a bookstore clerk or a flower peddler. As he oversees the party arrangements, Clarissa, Richard's wife, likewise contemplates their lengthy marriage. Expertly manipulating point of view, Lippincott (The Real, True Angel) also enables the reader to view the Dalloways through several eyes: their daughter, Elizabeth; Richard's lover, Robbie; even the servants who loyally attend the Dalloways but offer their own perspective on the life of upper-class England. By using recognizably Woolfian techniques--shifting points of view, extensive inner monologue--the author pays homage to Woolf while at the same time creating his own vision of a straitjacketed, homophobic England. Only the references to Woolf herself, including one in-person appearance, seem a bit cute in a book in which much else is understated. This is imitation in its finest form, as one writer draws from another to create a convincing world.