Rated 4 out of 5
Really enjoyed it a lot. Definitely going down a Williams rabbit hole after this. Mother tom and Laura suffer their own delusions and internal tortures while being trapped, forced to live together - seemingly isolated from the world and each other - after the father deserted them. Reminds us of the isolation that is built into American public (and in this story private) life as a result of democracy and capitalism. Each encourage us to “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” - not to pull up your neighbor. The inherent irony of American democracy (“by the people, for the people”) is that it incentives us and often even requires us to go it alone. Once alone (encouraged by rugged American individualism, think John Wayne of this same era) we are so fragile that any shortcoming can feel insurmountable. Stress, drug abuse, mental health collapse, physical collapse, pay your taxes, keep the lights on, die. The father ran away from this, abandoning his family. Tom would later follow in his footsteps. Mother and daughter are left isolated in this hostile world and the reader has no sense that things will be ok for them. Sometimes the only way to escape a house fire is to jump out the window, and give the rest up. Tom continued to suffer for his twice abandoned sister after leaving, but I don’t think he regretted saving himself from the fire.