The Big Girls

by Susanna Moore

Book Overview

Helen is serving a life sentence at Sloatsburg women's prison for the murder of her children. Dr. Louise Forrest, a recently divorced mother of an eight-year-old boy, is the new chief of psychiatry there. Captain Ike Bradshaw is the corrections officer who wants her. And Angie, an ambitious Hollywood starlet contacted by Helen, is intent on nothing but fame. Drawing these four characters together in a story of shocking and disturbing revelations,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400076102
• ISBN13: 9781400076109
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Definitely worth the trip into the dark places of the mind

Although the subject matters explored in this book are not ones I particularly wish to think about it, I found myself utterly engrossed. Set in a women's prison, this haunting story is told through the viewpoints of four very different people (yet all linked together in some way). I found the author's style of writing through short entries, jumping back in forth between each equally fascinating character to be clever and refreshing. That may sound confusing, but one could certainly follow the storyline and figure out what was going on in no time. What I couldn't figure out, was how it would end. Not for the faint of heart, this book was emotionally wrenching and equally shocking. I definitely recommend it, especially for a book discussion group.

A haunting and decisive view of our culture's emotional temperature

A women's prison is a sad and horrific place on a good day. On a bad day, it's hell on earth and a receptacle of all the dark sides of the instincts and emotions that women as a species share: a maternal instinct, but one that is more controlling than loving; a need for intimacy that isn't necessarily returned by a paramour, thus leading to deadly drama; a desire to connect with other women that then turns envious and jealousy takes the reigns. Sloatsburg women's prison, the main setting of Susanna Moore's THE BIG GIRLS, is such a place --- seething with opportunity for some welcome (and not-so-welcome) surprises for all. Four voices take us inside this particular world: Helen, who is serving a life sentence for murdering her children, suffering horrific hallucinations and clutching to moments of lucidity; Chief of Mental Health Dr. Louise Forrest, the divorced mother of a beloved eight-year-old boy named Ransom, who is both repulsed and excited by the prospect of helping her patients; Angie, a would-be movie starlet who only has eyes for herself but is the object of another inmate's undying affection; and Ike Bradshaw, former New York City narcotics detective turned corrections officer who has seen more than his share of life under the proverbial rock. The story moves from one place to another --- one set of characters to another --- very smoothly, following similar trains of thought at times and making less distinctive segues at others. Moore is an adept literary juggler, keeping all balls in the air at all times, even when some of the connections between the characters are related and seem, well, a little too obvious. For example, two of these women are going to be brought together through the divorced husband --- his past and his present. And Louise and Ike's burgeoning relationship creates added tension in the prison that at times makes that place almost inexorably unbearable. But Moore is all about creating and maintaining an intense weave of tension and drama, which makes THE BIG GIRLS a compelling read. Moore, having been a teacher of writing at such a prison, brings to the struggle of these people a certain gravity that raises THE BIG GIRLS above the usual crime novel. Even Angie, the self-involved starlet of the book, holds her own amidst the revelations that come from Moore's relentless attention to emotional detail. Each character has a surprising and intense journey to go on, and Moore doesn't once let the rope slip --- all of them are caught in the swirling vortex of lousy health care, a corrupt prison environment and a world-at-large that seems to have all its priorities out of whack. As these characters struggle, so do we, and in them we find a world of resonating fiction that Moore's immersion in factual details keeps at a constant boiling point. Like Michael Cunningham's THE HOURS, the multiple character voices combine to give us a haunting and decisive view of our culture's emotional temperature. --- Reviewed by Jana S

A BOLD, POWERFUL NOVEL

The Big Girls is not easily read. It's a story that sears, discomfits, disturbs our complacency and, yes, sometimes amuses. We meet characters with psyches laid bare, stripped of any subterfuge or protective devices Susanna Moore is s a noted writer ( One Last Look, In The Cut, Sleeping Beauties ) with a penchant for the psychological and she explores, better said, skillfully dissects minds. Her setting is New York's Sloatsburg Correctional Institute and her narrative is related in four voices. Dr. Louise Forrest has been the Chief Psychiatrist at Sloatsburg for some six months. At times, that feels more like a sentence to her than simply a period of time. She cannot adjust to the below standard conditions at the Institute nor to the incompetence of her fellow staff members, which is only compounded by their callousness. She's far too qualified for this position, leaving one to wonder what life experiences brought her there. A divorced mother, her one solace in life is a young son, Ransom. For reasons the reader takes to be compassion Louise is drawn to Helen, a prisoner and her patient. Helen is seriously afflicted; she murdered her own children and hears voices. Further, her younger sister was given up for adoption yet Helen believes she has found her in the person of Angie Mills, a move star wannabe. One cannot help but feel pity for Helen as the details of her abusive childhood and adulthood are revealed. Especially poignant are her attempts to connect with Angie via mail. Angie, the third member of the narrative quartet, has her own agenda and it's all about promoting Angie any way she can. She's also involved with Louise's ex husband, Rafael. A fourth voice belongs to Ike Bradshaw, a former narcotics detective who is now a guard at Sloatsburg. He is attracted to Louise who reciprocates his feelings. How the lives of these four intersect, for good or ill, is the crux of the story. Susanna Moore has written a bold, powerful, sometimes violent novel not soon forgotten. - Gail Cooke

Sushi master with words

This could have been another story on human error and redemption. It's not. Four people, warden, prisoner, doctor and guard, are caged together in their pain and neuroses. If you think you know prison life, and why people end up in prison, read 'Big Girls'. Moore writes with a clinical precision that evokes powerful emotion. I did not anticipate feeling sorry for the women at Sloatsburg; they are, after all, the detritus of our society. But 'Big Girls' is not about the politics of the criminal justice system or a commentary on social ills (though it could well be.) I chose to read it the way Moore wrote - as compact narrative and incisive dialog. Read this at least twice and then read it again.

A Knockout

Moore's new novel turned out to be an unexpected blow that a reader needs a while to recuperate from its disturbing effects. Still, the read is so rewarding that it is worth, hopefully, being studied in depth. The work remotely hints her previous work like "In the Cut" regarding its shared themes such as the thin border between sex and violence, the abusive nature of loving relationship, her female characters' tireless pursuit of 'wrong men' (the protagonist's lover, Captain Bradshaw, reads almost the same one as the Irish detective in "In the Cut", but it did not disappoint me for I liked this character as well as the unforgettable teacher figure) etc. although this time the text changed the set into a jail system and is engaged in the landscape of the criminal justice field, which hardly lives up to the concept of what 'justice'could be. The protagonist, Dr. Forrest, gradually develops her dangerous sympathy towards her inmate patients, especially one who killed her children for her long nurtured psychosis and serves her time for a life sentence, and crosses the rigid boundary that is supposed to distinguish what is sane and what is not, and who is to be a criminal and who is not. This heartwrenching and heartfelt narrative questions and ultimately demythtifies motherhood, and explains the madness that always lies in it, in a marvelous manner as well as its close analysis on the oedipus and electra complex. The author's take on these often cliched subjects is so intelligent and unique that becomes such a treat. I gurantee that this brings a fresh air to even well-read readers for its sophisticated views and its application of femminist's idea to prison system and ethics there. MUST READ.