Perfidia (Rossner novel)
Perfidia, published in 1997, was the last novel by Judith Rossner, author of Looking for Mr. Goodbar. The book's title, which means "perfidy" in Spanish, references the popular song by the same name. Like the song, the book deals with the issue of betrayal and details the devastating consequences of the emotional abuse that a mother inflicts on her daughter.
Plot summary
The novel opens with five-year-old Maddy and her mother, Anita, leaving her father, a Jewish professor at Dartmouth College. The two hit the road and travel extensively before settling in New Mexico.
Hard-drinking and promiscuous Anita strikes up a casual relationship with an aging hippie named Wilkie. She becomes pregnant shortly thereafter and converts a derelict house into a lucrative art gallery/tourist trap. Anita later gives birth to a boy she names Billy.
The relationship between the mother and daughter becomes inexplicably strained after the birth. Anita becomes increasingly neglectful of Maddy and clearly favors her son over her daughter.
The relationship permanently sours when Anita takes up with Lion, a long-haired drug addict. Lion overdoses and young Maddy, afraid and not knowing what to do, leaves Lion alone in the house. Anita bitterly blames Maddy for his resulting death.
Anita, who has become a full-blown alcoholic (who self-righteously swears off drugs), runs through a string of boyfriends, including psychiatrist, Ellery. She begins physically abusing Maddy as well.
Things take a violent turn in the house. Anita, depressed over turning forty, loses control of the art gallery. She is enraged by Maddy's decision to return to New Hampshire to attend college and attempts to stab her daughter with a broken tequila bottle. The two women struggle over the weapon; Maddy wrests it from her mother and stabs her in self-defense, hitting her jugular vein. Anita dies from massive blood loss.
Maddy is put on trial. She opts for a trial by judge. The judge sympathizes with Maddy's plight but finds her guilty of manslaughter. She is sentenced to four years in prison.
While Maddy is in prison, she forms a sexual relationship with her cellmate, Lucille, and begins corresponding with Ellery's semi-estranged son, Keith. (Ellery and his wife have taken custody of Billy, who wants nothing to do with Maddy.) When she makes parole, she moves in with Keith. She gets a job against his wishes and becomes pregnant. Maddy and Keith soon break up. Buying a car, Maddy begins to travel from place to place much like Anita had in her youth. At the end of the novel, Maddy reveals that she has legally changed her name and that she has given birth to her child.
Critical reception
The book received mixed reviews with Deborah Mason of the New York Times writing, "Perfidia is an unsparing close-up of the seductive attachment and growing repulsion of a mother and daughter who mean far too much to each other."[1] On the other hand, Publisher's Weekly panned the book, opining that, 'because Anita is so monstrously selfish, hurtful and mean, Rosner's attempts to explain why Maddy continues to love her mother never ring true. Maddy's references to Anita's rare moments of kindness, and to their "closeness," seem grafted upon the narrative. Most of the characters here are despicable and lack dimension.'[2]