“Something terrible has happened and I don’t know what to do.” While this frantic and arresting opening references only a singular “something,” the many events in the unnamed narrator's unraveling life suggest that much more is at stake, including loneliness after her son leaves for university, a growing resentment between her and her husband, and a fraught relationship with a fellow poet. Seeking escape in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bialosky's protagonist parallels her own experiences with the events of the classical art and mythology on display, and in a richly sensual prose, the author both interrogates the relationship of desire and dominance and shows us the deep inner workings of a woman struggling to break free of the constraints that have long held her back.
