"Ultraviolet," by Suzanne Matson

It is perhaps not too much of a surprise that so soon after posting (on 12/21/18) about the novel “A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl,” which I noted was a type of novel I usually enjoy very much – the story of several generations of women and families – I found and read another such novel: “Ultraviolet” (Catapult, 2018), by Suzanne Matson. I don’t mean I consciously looked for such a book, but such novels often call out to me. In both books, there are three generations of women, and the women of each generation are different in their circumstances, ambitions, and constraints. They all deal with wondering about family and children and whether and how to balance them with work and creativity. One thing that drew me to “Ultraviolet” was that the first (oldest) of the three women, Elsie, along with her husband, was a missionary in India in the 1930s. Her daughter Kathryn grew up there, and when she returned to the U.S., felt somewhat unsettled. As I have mentioned before, I too grew up in India as the daughter of missionaries, although some time later than Kathryn did, and when I came back to the U.S., I also experienced some mixed feelings. Kathryn moves around, has some adventures and love affairs, and ends up marrying an older man. Overall, her life does not make her happy. Her daughter Samantha wants a better life, one in which she controls her own circumstances much more, and despite some unhappiness of her own, has a career teaching at a university, as well as a reasonably happy marriage and her own children. Many of the differences among the three generations of women can be attributed to societal changes regarding women’s roles over the years, but some are due to the individual women’s personalities. Although in some ways the three generations are not close, love of family prevails. Samantha and her mother Kathryn become much closer as Samantha gets older and more established and secure in her own life, and Samantha does much to take care of her mother as Kathryn ages. The three main characters, along with the less major but still important characters of their fathers, husbands, and lovers, are realistic and believable. This is an intriguing and satisfying novel.