Dropseed: The Story of Three Sad Women - Nettie Magnan - ★★★

AUTHOR: Nettie Magnan

GENRE: Literary Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: June 30, 2024

RATING: 3 stars.

In a Nutshell: A literary fiction about three women and their individual struggles. Great nature imagery and intriguing flawed characters, but too overwritten for my liking. Readers who like descriptive prose and don’t mind meandering storytelling are bound to enjoy this better. I was the wrong reader for this book. So please take this review with a pinch of salt.

Plot Preview:

Sally is a frustrated middle-aged ex-artist who is tired of the monotony of her life. Now with the added task of caring for her ailing mother, Sally seeks a change, but can she do so at the cost of her responsibilities?

Mary, Sally’s mother, is not happy about how she has been reduced to complete dependence because of her illness. Her crankiness is often a cover for her frustration and her regrets. Is it too late for her to find peace?

Beth, Mary’s caretaker, knows she has a tough patient, but even handling Mary is better than going to an empty home. Her future seems especially dim to her eyes, but can she reroute her lonely life towards happier connections before it is too late?

The story comes to us mostly in the third-person perspective of the above three characters, with the book divided into neat one-thirds for each character’s point of view.

As a character-oriented narrative focussed on three complex women who are dealing with various levels of trauma, guilt, and regrets, this book is obviously not a light read.

The tagline itself offers us a vital clue. I find it interesting that it reads “the story of three sad women” instead of “the sad story of three women.” Book captions often describe the story with various adjectives (captivating, thrilling, traumatic, emotional…) but by putting the adjective right next to the noun “women”, the sadness is somewhat emphasized. It also hints at inner sorrow than at a kind of situational despondency.

True to this promise, each of the three women who drive this story are sad, for varying reasons. But most of their misery comes from paths not taken. The what-ifs of life are always troublesome, and these three ladies have plenty of such regrets over choices ignored and decisions made under emotional duress. This leads to a highly introspective plot, where inner musings dominate action, where there’s an atmosphere of melancholy in and around the characters, and where flashback worries are given more importance than present conundrums.

The above paragraph is the crux of why this book would work excellently for a few readers, and also why it didn’t work as well for me. As a reader, I always prefer plot over prose. This book does have a plot, but it is hidden under many layers of purple prose. Almost every scene contains a great amount of description and pondering. A simple Kindle search for thought verbs such as ‘muse’, ‘recall’, ‘ponder’, ‘wonder’, ‘observe’, ‘think’, and ‘reflect’ proves how much time is invested in the characters’ inner deliberations.

At times, the musings come even in between ongoing conversations, which aren’t limited to the present timeframe but go into random (sometimes, even multiple) flashbacks and then return to the present scene and continue the dialogue. Sometimes, the digressions and/or descriptions went on for so long that I even forgot what contemporary scene the meandering had sprung up from. My Capricorn head always prefers structure, so this arbitrary narration left me struggling to concentrate. I don’t need linear storytelling but I need to see the structure of the plot clearly.

Let me mention one point that this geeky Capri brain admired: the precision of the division. Each of the three perspectives lasts for exactly a third of the book. I was delighted to see the change in POV occur at the 33% and 67% marks respectively.

I must add, many of the descriptions, especially the nature-related ones, are really good when read in isolation. It is very clear that the author loves nature (the title also proves this), and her appreciation of it seeps into every line that focusses on natural beauty. But there can be too much of a good thing, and after a while, I just hopped over the imagery.

To add to my woes, the characters in the book seem to be fond of two specific styles of thinking. No matter what life event they are reflecting upon, their inner thoughts are either poetic or philosophical. Even when they are talking to each other, their conversations often sound more theatrical than realistic, thanks to the segues into abstract reflections. As many of my friends know, I am severely allergic to both poetry and philosophy. I would have been okay had these been far and few between, but unfortunately for me (and the book), they dominate the narrative.

That said, the characters do help the cause of the book to some extent. Though they are all ‘sad women’, each of them has a distinct personality and a distinct issue to tackle. The one who appears vulnerable is actually strong, the one who appears to have a happy familial relationship is the most insecure, and the one who cares so much for others is also the one who forgets to care for her own needs. They aren’t necessarily likeable or relatable characters, but this isn’t a problem. Lit fic thrives on grey personalities, and the three women are perfect fits for this genre.

In short, it’s not the book; it’s me. I did like the characters and the realism of this character-oriented literary narrative. But as a reader who is quite fussy about writing styles, I never enjoy any book with too many expansive descriptions, observations or philosophical ponderings over life and its unfairness. Give me succinctness and substance over a periphrastic style any day. (This is also why I fare miserably while reading Booker Prize winners. ‘Tomb of Sand’ was one of my biggest reading flops, though it has exceptional descriptive prose.)

Perhaps if you are a reader who enjoys the beauty of artistic writing without wondering where the characters came from or where the story is going, you might enjoy this debut indie work more. Do note that there is some (mildly) triggering content (mentioned in the GR blurb), so pick it up when in the right headspace.

My thanks to author Nettie Magnan for providing me with a complimentary copy of “Dropseed: The Story of Three Sad Women”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.