A Marriage of Masks

Susan Patrick is a librarian at Ryerson Polytechnical University.

On a seven-hour car drive from Fredericton to Quebec City, a mother and
her teenage daughter gradually come to a new understanding, as the
secrets underlying the mother’s “marriage of masks” are revealed.
The flashbacks cover a period of more than 20 years in their dissection
of the marriage, and the daughter finds that most of her assumptions
about her parents are turned completely upside down.

Dohaney has created vivid, complex, and believable characters, and she
writes with a strong understanding of human nature in her depiction of
the uneasy relationship between mother and daughter and the worsening
relationship between husband and wife. Her true-to-life and heartfelt
rendering of the raw emotions and pain of a bad marriage makes this
novel compelling reading.