A Dangerous Woman by Mary McGarry Morris

After reading A Dangerous Woman I've decided that Mary McGarry Morris is my new favorite author. She is amazingly perceptive about people and life in small towns and makes you feel like you are there watching the story unfold--sometimes like you are a part of it! I think we all know someone like Martha Horgan: "different", difficult to talk to or to be around and someone who is just "weird". There's been something "different" about Martha her whole life. She is socially inept, painfully honest and unable to maintain an adult relationship with anyone because she becomes obsessed with that person. Is it because she's lonely? Or autistic? Or is she psychotic?

Martha was already "different" when something traumatic and horribly unspeakable happens to her when she is seventeen. After that, and particularly after the death of her father, she is sheltered by her Aunt Frances who really isn't all that much older. Frances is the one who arranges for Martha's job and room in town and is usually the one who has to deal with any of her problems.

Martha's only "true friend" is a co-worker, Birdy. To Martha's horror, Birdy becomes involved with a despicable type of man, one who uses Birdy and pilfers from the cash register. You can't tell someone in love that their lover is bad, though, and Martha just cannot understand why Birdy won't listen to her. Martha loses her job when she's falsely accused of being the thief and throughout the book, she is determined to make Birdy listen to her.

Martha just wants to be normal like you and me, to love and be loved, to have friends, a life, a purpose and to be happy.

That's what the other wonderfully depicted characters in this book want too. Frances has invested years of her life with a man she cannot claim. A ne'er do well by the name of Colin Mackey appears, a troubled man who'd like to be a famous writer and seduces both Martha and Frances. There are the ladies at the boarding house, at least one of whom appears in another great book by Morris, Songs In Ordinary Time. Now that I've read this book, I'm very much looking forward to reading other books written by this author. It's definitely an excellent book to read!