Final Payments Summary
Mary Gordon

Final Payments Summary

Isabel's quest for self-definition raises a number of disturbing questions throughout the novel. Central to the narrative is the attempt to define Christian love. When her mother died, Isabel became the intellectual project and confidant of her teacher-philosopher father, whose influence is both destructive and salvific. The novel opens on the day of his funeral. While her father had encouraged her intellectual independence and guided her aesthetic sensibility, he refused to acknowledge her...

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