Uncertain Voyage by Dorothy Gilman Book 31/40 of the 2018 Goodreads.com challenge

Uncertain Voyage  by Dorothy Gilman 1966.

An author’s therapy novel

Introduction:

This is book #31 of my 2018 Reading Challenge sponsored by Goodreads.com.  I pledged to read 40 books.  To make a framework for the books I would read, I established a reading protocol early in the year to make book selection easy and organized.  Each book chosen for this challenge must fall into one of the following categories:

     1. Authors recommended by other readers (author must be new to me)
     2. Any recommendations by my fellow readers of our online mystery reading group established in 1993 on Prodigy
    3. The next book in a series I have been reading
    4. The next book in a series I have abandoned (in an attempt to revive my interest)
    5. A book that references a historic event or period that is not in my lifetime
    6. A book that references any historic event or biographs a famous person who lived in my lifetime.
    7. New mystery author with setting in USA.
    8. New mystery author with setting in western Europe.  

This novel satisfies Protocol #4.

I became familiar with Dorothy Gilman by reading her Mrs Pollifax mystery/espionage series.  The series features a bored widow/grandmother who takes a part time job as a CIA operative, travels around the world and somehow avoids getting killed by the obvious state’s enemy

‘bad guys”.  She also raises geraniums and belongs to a garden club.  There is adventure, suspense and humor all rolled into one Mrs. Pollifax. 

Dorothy Gilman also wrote some stand-alone novels that included mystery, strong women facing all odds and surviving, but not as much humor as the Pollifax series.  Uncertain Voyage, published in 1966 and re-released in 1988. while presenting a good espionage story, in this review, I present the reasons I categorize this novel as the author’s “therapy novel”. 

Story Line—no spoilers

A newly divorced female (Melissa Aubrey), who married at age 16, leaves Massachusetts and takes an "around the western world" trip in attempt to find a new lease on life. She starts off on a cruise to Denmark, then her first plane flight to Paris and then onto Majorca.  She meets several men on this trip and she fantasizes each one as the new man in her life. Her trip begins with a cruise to Denmark.  She meets an interesting man but he merely asks her to deliver a book to someone in Majorca (her last stop) because he feels that someone is out to kill him. He is right; he dies on the ship.  She packs up the book and continues on her trip, paying more attention to finding some new man who will give her some feeling of usefulness, romance and bliss. In short, she is eager to fill the "emptiness"; a common feeling post-divorce.   In reality, she discovers that there are older men, boring men, married men and CIA agents who are interested in her.  The “man hunt” is not working out so well, and it becomes obvious to her that possessing that book is dangerous. And she is right.

Why do I call this a “therapy novel”?

In addition to the rather complex espionage spy story, Gilman spends a great deal of time focused around Melissa’s post-divorce depression.  Gilman intertwines this espionage story with Melissa’s understandable feelings of loss, and confusion particularly around the return to single life. This part of the novel goes around in a circle with no resolution or decisive action, and actually becomes burdensome.  This part of the novel mirrored a very personal experience and it was hard not to suspect that Dorothy was writing about her own reaction during her transitional year.  She divorced in 1965, one year before this book was published.

Common elements and behaviors during the post-divorce depression and healing transitional year present in this novel:

·       Melissa:

o   began to pay attention to the conversation she was having in her head.

o   sought out more human touch—she felt deserving of recognition and romance

o   demonstrated that strength is defined in many ways

o   faced her fears and began the fight to establish her new life

o   discovered that she is the only person she can control

o   accepted that there was no sure path to her new life

o   realized that dating is invigorating but being alone is also useful

o   resolved her anger and the impossible became possible--she learned to love herself

o   fantasized male attention as attraction and learned it was not that at all

The Ending

There are a few reviews that discussed the ending as weak.  I found the ending of this novel to be incredibly interesting.  Without a spoiler it is impossible to discuss here.  I will continue to search for more reviews of this novel especially discussions about the ending. At this point, I do not know what really happened at the end.  Would love to hear how other readers interpreted the end.

Without spoiling—I will offer that this novel reads like a Hitchcock movie.   I can easily see Audrey Hepburn as Melissa and Cary Grant as Adam.  It has a very “Charade” feel to it.  Overall, it has a nice blend of romance and espionage.  Both of these best known for being impossible to win.