Maude Hutchins (Maude Phelps McVeigh Hutchins) was an early-mid twentieth century artist turned writer who is, or was at the time, better known for being the neurotic wife of Robert Maynard Hutchins. This man was famous for being the young and formidable president of the University of Chicago.
Maude is associated with the “nouveau roman” movement and her novels and short stories were seen as scandalous. One of the best of these is Victorine.
Victorine is an odd but lovely short book that is essentially a story of a girl coming of age, or awakening to her sexual but still innocent self. She is thirteen. All her senses are alive and buzzing, but confusedly. She has a sixteen-year-old brother and their infatuation with one another (which terrifies them both) runs as an undercurrent throughout. Her father is aloof to the point of being an automaton. Everyone but Victorine’s mother, Allison, understands that he is a serial adulterer. Allison is oblivious. The children are left with no moral guidance except the vague mores of their social class and the mystical, not quite applicable, dictates of the church.
The story takes us through the next couple years, essentially through Victorine’s puberty. She has an active imagination with experiences that veer into magical realism. She fantasizes about sex while trying to block it from her mind and dabbles in innocent experimentation. The novel brushes up against enough taboos to make it uncomfortable. Yet the lyrical writing layers on reassurances that no boundaries are crossed.
By the novel’s end, the reader feels she understands these strange characters, and they come to seem more real than bizarre. I’m curious enough about this writer to read more of her work if I can chase it down.
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