Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Fayne is a book about misapprehensions and secrets – and the misapprehensions caused by secrets. Meanwhile, everyone thinks they are living with clarity and knowledge. Symbolically, Fayne is an estate in the ill-defined borderlands between England and Scotland; the political border is just one of many unfocused divides. In Fayne, Ann-Marie MacDonald leads us gently through the maze that is Victorian society.
When does keeping a secret become deceit? Do good intentions mitigate lying to a beloved family member? How can good be measured? How long should a lie live? We make assumptions based on what we know, but who can know everything? Are the truths we ignore really lies?
This is the story of a mother and her son. And, of a father and his daughter. Of an aunt who just tries to keep the estate going. This is a story of the land itself.
When the novel opens, Charlotte is twelve. She lives at Fayne with her father and a small retinue of servants. Her mother and brother are present only in a large, traditionally posed painting. She is blessed with a remarkable education that comes from reading her father’s collection of Greek and Roman philosophers – she started at A and has arrived at P. Gravity is a theory unknown to the Greeks and to Charlotte – because Sir Issac Newton is too modern.
At puberty, her permission to wear a boy’s clothes is withdrawn, and Charlotte’s less academic education begins. She learns to be a girl. These are late-Victorian times. To her disgust, Charlotte learns that all the clothes piled on her body restrict her every movement, even walking. Manners and appearances are all important. As a self-professed scientist, Charlotte adopts her new camouflage with objectivity, if not equanimity. Since her father has promised her an education at the medical school in Edinburgh, she acquiesces to his strange demands, in pursuit of this shining goal.
Fayne is a rich parable about life. We think we see the trajectory of our plans, and dreams, and decisions, but imperfect vision means we are surprised by the turns of the actual future. Our character is revealed in how we respond.
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