A Whiter Shade of Pale and Becoming Emma

Linda Perry is a senior policy analyst at the Ontario Ministry of
Colleges and Universities.

These works share a common theme: the passionate inner lives and fervid
memories that torment ordinary people. In Becoming Emma, the main
character is buckling under the weary yoke of suburban
“domestrivia”—dread, guilt, and misery all the days of her life.

But Edwards goes beyond the portrait of the artist as a middle-aged
housewife—well beyond. She affirms the peace and joy of familiar love
and loving kindness: “The couple, husband and wife, are half lying,
half sitting on their bed. Their hands are open, speaking . . . it is a
moment of completion, of impenetrability to all that is not he and
she.”

In addition to telling a good story well, Becoming Emma provides a
literary banquet, including such varied fare as a provocative
exploration of art and kitsch; discussions of Latvian deities and their
symbolism; and an exploration of the contrasting influence of male and
female writers, through an analysis of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and
Jane Austen’s Emma.

The first novella, A Whiter Shade of Pale, portrays the theme from a
man’s perspective. George is troubled by a sense of encroaching age,
of promises betrayed and opportunities lost. Edwards again provides a
feast of disparate elements, including Etruscan archaeology and quotes
from Mario Torelli, George Seferis, and D.H. Lawrence. She manages to
alternate these heady intellectual elements with the lyrics of old rock
songs (as the title suggests). An unlikely combination, perhaps, but if
Tom Robbins writes like Dolly Parton looks, it’s fair to say that
Edwards writes like Julia Child cooks—combining fine ingredients,
taking domesticity and raising it to its quintessence, through wit,
intellect, art, and a powerful mastery of her medium.