Mad Mabel is a favorite novel for me this year. I ended up listening to the audio book, which was quite satisfyingly, narrated by Hannah Fredericksen and Jenny Seedsman. We meet Elsie at age 81, describing herself to us as being six feet tall with a sturdy backbone, ensuring we do not underestimate her. She’s lived in her present home on Kenny Lane in Melbourne for almost 60 years, keeping a close watch on her neighbors while keeping them out of her business. She would best be described as a curmudgeon. But a long, long time ago, Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick was a Mable Elsie Waller, the child of wealthy socialite parents who, for as long as she can remember was called “Mad Mabel.” Elsie sets the stage for her story by pointing out that few people think of children or elderly people as murderers, but that she was an unfortunate exception to this perception. This is largely thanks to her father who blamed her for something that happened in the family when she was three. He forever describes her as “not quite right” and the folks in town distort what happened to the point that they suggest the three year old committed a murder. Later on, while still a child, something she does makes her infamous, making her seclusion in the last sixty years dear to her. Because Elsie/Mabel’s story unfolds intermittently and at just the right times, just put a pin in there for the details to be read by you.
Her beautiful mother was kind of nice to young Mabel but not much of a mother. Eventually, through an amazingly satisfying cast of characters including especially Mabel but also all the villains and heroes in her life, Elsie tells all. The terrible distortion of who she really is followed her through life to such an extent that she only has one person in her life, Daphne, her best friend from childhood. While Elsie would never say she had a good life up to age 20 or so, when she arrived on Kenny Lane, two loving women did the best they could for her and gave her safe haven. These were her Aunt Cess and Cess’s “friend” Ness. They can be credited in large part for Elsie’s sturdy backbone. So, Elsie is wary with good reason and Mabel was almost uniformly hurt, bullied and misunderstood, but she is decidedly okay and she managed. Always. Now, thanks to my favorite 7 year character in any book foisting herself upon her, Elsie is dragged into having to deal with people, in particular little snot nosed, in your face Persephone. For chapter after chapter in the face of every disrupting and boundary crossing visit from Persephone Elsie directly and repeatedly tells the kid to bug off and the kid hangs in. At 81, for unclear reasons, Elsie is accused of murdering her neighbor but this time, Elsie no longer has to stand alone and stoically. There’s no way Persephone will let her stand alone Slowly, reluctantly, victoriously, Elsie gets to not only be a woman with a sturdy backbone, but a woman who participates in a meaningful life with people who want her there. Again, that’s not exactly a spoiler because the process by which this happens matters greatly and people (except Persephone) are not disposed kindly toward Elsie even if they don’t know she’s the infamous Mad Mabel. I like very much that each part of Elsie’s life gets tied up in a bow, some tattered and the final one big and bright. Because in the midst of trauma and scary stuff happening, you wouldn’t give Mad Mabel — a very special woman with a sturdy backbone who deserved more- a terrible ending, right?
They Called me Bookworm 