Set in motion

Valerie Martin's debut novel earned strong critical attention and introduced concerns she would return to in later books such as Mary Reilly and The Great Divorce: the fragile material world, the grind of ordinary jobs, and the faint but real chances for change and freedom.

Helene Thatcher, the novel's young narrator, once hoped for a career in academia. Instead she works for the welfare department in New Orleans, surrounded by paperwork, filing systems, stuffy offices, and rules that never seem to end. The disorder and hopelessness she sees in the clients she serves run parallel to her own life across town, in a more fashionable part of the city. Her lovers turn to sudden violence and drugs, and a close friend flirts dangerously with madness. Helene is cool, sensual, and detached, a heroine managing to hold herself together, just barely.