The Crying Child (1971)

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When Jo McMullen gets the call from her wealthy brother-in-law asking her to come visit her sister, Jo thinks its another ploy to curtail her recently acquired freedom in San Francisco. But the more she hears, the more worried she is--her beloved older sister has recently had a miscarriage, and is now haunted by the ghostly cries of an infant. So she packs her bags and flies to the isolated island off the coast of Maine where they've recently relocated. But what she finds in the historic old home seems less like a psychological breakdown, and more like a ghost out of the past looking for something...but what?

Spoilers Below



 The Crying Child is an odd duck of a book, and it's one that serves as a bridge between the bleak, disappointed world of Dark and Rabbits and the optimistic independence of Sinner and Witch. It starts off on one side of the divide, and then there's more-or-less as abrupt volte-face one or two chapters in, and we're suddenly on the other side.

The story starts off with a very Gordon Randolph-esque character--Ran Fraser is a millionaire, darkly controlling and autocratic, with a wife on the edge of a mental breakdown isolated in a large family home. Jo is a bitter, sullen narrator, fighting a sordid, unwanted attraction to her brother-in-law. Mary, his wife, seems threatened, not so much by her own mind or the supernatural, but by his control and what could very easily be interpreted as an external effort to drive her mad...or at least have her declared so. Even the man who is obviously meant to pair off with Jo--snarky doctor Will Graham--seems misogynistic and antagonistic from his first opening line. Housekeeper Mrs. Willard and caretaker Jed are vague neutral territory--are they villains, or merely unwitting bystanders?

And then, by the end, by some strange alchemy, everything is on its head. There are ghosts, and a sad, compelling historical mystery untangled. Jo is sympathetic, with humor in her viewpoint, and a clear perspective on her adolescent crush. Ran is a hapless, adoring husband, with all his sharp edges gone. Will is a normal guy with a lovely house full of cats and dogs. Jed and Mrs. Willard are a charming, wise couple with reservoirs of knowledge and practical encouragement.

It's as if whatever bitterness MPM was carrying rolled off her back in the midst of writing this book, and she allowed herself to write charming antique stores and kindly handymen instead of dark emotional manipulation and murderous husbands. I have no idea what prompted this, and I won't pry, but I loved it. It was such fun to return to the Ammie-type tale, with a band of supernatural skeptics rushing to save a threatened loved one through the power of historical research! It's a magic recipe she'll come back to now, time and again, and it'll never get old for me.

Favorite Line: "A genealogy and those account books, and you say you didn't find anything? Jo, you are the most...if I didn't have a sick kid and a hysterical mother on my hands, I'd come back now and go through those books item by item."

Rating: ****

Notes:
*Look for the now traditional snipe at contemporary music! 'The Insects' indeed. XD

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