The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Pat Murphy's The Falling Woman.

The Short of It

Plot: An estranged mother and daughter are reconnected on a troubled archaeological dig.

Page Count: 287

Award: 1987 Nebula

Worth a read: No
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Pass
Technobabble: None
Review: A bland coming of age story/relationship drama with pretensions of being either horror or suspense. Characters are flat: the woman who threw herself into her career and ignored her family, the man who needs to protect people, the old woman who is superstitious. Story is a plodding mess that is meant to give the characters and their interactions the spotlight - but characters don't deliver, and the whole thing crumbles. Boring and predictable.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free! One spoiler, but it's in the blurb of the books, so, deal.

This is another book that falls into the broad category of dull, tedious, and dry stories without being egregiously terrible. It's just not interesting. An archaeologist who can see ghosts of the past is reunited with her estranged daughter after the death of her (the archaeologist's) ex-husband. The story is told with chapters from both of them as they struggle to reconnect. A story like this one hinges upon the investment of readers in the characters. This needs to be built up: what issues does each character have that this connection would solve? How are they parts of a whole? Instead of putting in this legwork, Murphy assumes that you have already interacted with stories like this one. So you get the idea. Why develop the characters to cultivate investment if we already understand that we should be invested?

Both mother and daughter (Elizabeth and Diane) are about as generic as they come, despite the talking to ghosts. Elizabeth is a busy busy businesswoman who has no time for love because she's got to make deals... except the archaeologist version. Diane is a naïve young woman just trying to find her place in the scary scary real world. Yawn.

There are enough different story threads here that it often feels like a number of half-finished drafts patched together with some tape. To be clear, these are tepid threads: What's up with that weird old woman? Is something happening with that boy in town? Will she let her daughter join her today? To call them subplots is to offer too much credit, and a subplot often links in or contributes to the broader plot. Here? Not so much. 

A few moments show some of the interesting directions this book could have gone: linking past with present, the oppressive weight of the patterns in which we become stuck, the differing meanings of "real" that we each experience. But these are not the actual themes of the book - they are, at a guess, what Murphy wishes were the ideas conveyed.

Ultimately an unsatisfying read. The mild horror elements never land in a way to evoke any amount of fear and the rest of the plot arcs offer a weak and generic drama.

If you want to read this anyway, consider using the link below! I'll get a few cents at no extra cost to you.

The Linking Woman

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

How much more is there to say about a book that is just so dull? 

Let's talk about horror, because that is, as best as I can tell, the genre that this is intended to be. Or perhaps a thriller? Either way, it is meant to build and maintain suspense. Stakes! That's the name of the game. The Falling Woman is woefully unsuccessful at doing this. The scenes that should keep us on the edge of our collective seat - a bench, I guess - fail to do this completely.

“How did your daughter die?” I asked.

Zuhuy-kak met my gaze. Her hands were folded in her lap. For a moment, she said nothing. “I gave her to the goddess,” she said at last.
“You sacrificed your daughter,” I said, staring at the woman’s face.

“Now it is time for the cycle to turn again. You can bring the goddess back to power. Your daughter—”
“No,” I said.
“You can,” she said. I noticed then that she was holding the obsidian blade. “It will be easy. And then, once it is done, you can rest.” 
“No.”
“You are like me,” she said. “I know you. I knew you when I saw you by the well. You too made a sacrifice that was not good. You began falling just as I began falling when my daughter died and the power of the goddess died with her. I began falling long before the priests threw me in the well,” she said.

 Anywho, then she decides to kill herself instead.

There is never a point at which someone reading believes that either Elizabeth or Diane will die. After all, the central point of this book is their reconciliation. This relationship is not resolved before this scene, therefore they both need to make it through. A few other scenes earlier in the book have tertiary characters suffering injuries but no one dies - why would the main characters do so?

Murphy stumbles in trying to create an oppressive atmosphere for the sake of tension and instead writes a text that is itself unpleasant. We are constantly reminded that it is hot and dry, inhospitable. Eventually it gets tiresome to read. That is, perhaps, the best descriptor for this book: tiresome. It is dull and wearying to consume.

Maybe avoid stabbing yourself or others, Stranger.

And don't forget to read a book!