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Mrs. Molloch. (Original novel);
Abstract
The novel centers around Marianne Molloch, who has accompanied her husband, Allen, to an Australian outback town, Darling, where he is an administrator for an oil company. His vision of the world he hoped to bring them to--one of family unity and strength--fades almost immediately. Their son, Mike, must go to high school in Perth, and Marianne agrees to manage a hotel in Bali for Bill Knecht for a few weeks while he has heart surgery, not knowing that the surgery and its complications will stretch her stay there to several months. Marianne's experiences on the island center about a quest for self-discovery. Alone and independent, she develops an inwardness which is connected to her relationships with several complex characters: Made, her taxi driver, whom she idolizes as "the new man"; Sister Quantz, a Catholic missionary nun and artist, who was formerly a spy for the Nationalist Chinese; Opal O'Connor, a Malay/Australian, possibly a drug dealer, who is accompanied everywhere by her monkey; Budi and Dewa, young musicians at the hotel whose romance is tainted by the worst Western values. Their differing personalities and the strong culture she experiences on the island draw Marianne further into interior conflict. The experiences of Allen Molloch, coping with his solitude, and Mike Molloch, experiencing conflicting sexual feelings of puberty, are reflections of Marianne's quest. Allen discovers he is not cut out to be a "mate," and has an affair with a woman of questionable sexuality. Mike, mouthing the homosexual-fearing attitudes of the school bully, discovers to his horror that he is attracted to that same boy. The three story lines are interwoven and come together and to their own resolutions at the end when the family is momentarily spiritually reunited after an act of self-sacrifice on Marianne's part on a high mountain lake in Colorado.
Subject Area
Literature
Recommended Citation
Eis, Jacalyn Louise, "Mrs. Molloch. (Original novel);" (1988). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8818616.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8818616