Katrina Gulliver
The Three Miss Margarets is a tale of Southern sisterhood, tracing the lives of three women in the small town of Charles Valley. The three Miss Margarets of the title are known individually as Maggie, Li’l Bit, and Peggy. Maggie is a retired doctor in her eighties, Li’l Bit is a spinster in her seventies, and Peggy – in her sixties – is the widow of the richest man in town.
The women’s differences in age allow Schaffer to explore descriptions of growing up in the town from the 1920s to the 1950s. Her evocations of these different periods are interesting, but she leans towards the clichés of Southern life – to the extent that not much description is needed for the reader to get the drift. The character of Li’l Bit’s lawyer father owes much to Atticus Finch and other minor characters tend to be stereotyped.
Indeed, much of the book is familiar ground – a community divided not only by race but also by class, with minor gradations in status according to whether one’s grandmother was "a Peterson, from Mobile". A prestigious lineage – however distant – can confer some measure of privilege despite the slumminess of more recent ancestors. Even the most sympathetic (white) characters – who are presented as free from racial prejudice – seem to be ferocious snobs.
The idea of the past never being far away in such an atmosphere runs strongly through this book. In addition to the three women of the title the focus is on their young neighbour, Laurel Selene. Laurel’s own life has been dramatically affected by the actions of the three Miss Margarets, in ways she does not realise. Her alcoholic mother (does anyone grow up poor in Southern novels without an alcoholic mother?) had brought her up to believe those women were guilty of something, but Laurel dismissed this as paranoia until events lead her to investigate further. The discovery of this dark secret (another obligatory Dixie novel trope) is the plot of this story, and Schaffer presents lots of side-trips on the way to the conclusion.
Louise Schaffer presents believable dialogue, and a very televisual tale – it is easy to imagine this as a mini-series, or at the very least as Oprah’s book of the week. Ms Schaffer is an actress and clearly has a gift for drama. Unfortunately, this book drifts a little towards melodrama. Books exploring female solidarity and women’s struggles can be interesting, but a book that manages to cover lesbianism, rape, illegitimacy, murder, racial prejudice and cancer is casting the net a little too wide. However, the characters are engaging enough for it to be a page-turner (I read it all in one sitting). Good reading for the train.
