I Am Mary Dunne
I Am Mary Dunne is a novel, first published in 1968, by Northern Irish-Canadian writer Brian Moore about one day in the life of a beautiful and well-to-do 31-year-old Canadian woman living in New York City with her third husband, a successful playwright. Triggered by seemingly unimportant occurrences, the protagonist / first person narrator remembers her past in a series of flashbacks, which reveal her insecurities, her bad conscience concerning her first two husbands, and her fear that she is on the brink of insanity.
 First edition | |
| Author | Brian Moore |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
Publication date | 19 June 1968 (US); 17 October (UK) |
| Preceded by | The Emperor of Ice-Cream (1965) |
| Followed by | Fergus (1970) |
I Am Mary Dunne has been described as "perhaps [Brian Moore's] best book".[1] Robert Fulford, writing in Canada's The Globe and Mail, calls it "[a] feminist novel written before the wave of feminist novels began".[2]
In its original draft, I Am Mary Dunne was called A Woman of No Identity.[3]
References
- Head, Dominic (2006). The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, third edition. p. 762. ISBN 978-0521831796.
- Fulford, Robert (12 January 1999). "Brian Moore: A writer who never failed to surprise his readers". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
- Craig, Patricia (2002). Brian Moore: A Biography. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 199. ISBN 978-0747560043.
Further reading
- Brady, Charles A. "I Am Mary Dunne" in Eire-Ireland 3, Winter 1968, pp. 136–40.
- Dorenkamp, J H. "Finishing the day: Nature and Grace in Two Novels by Brian Moore" in Eire-Ireland 13, Spring 1978, pp. 103–112.