In Folly, We Find Wisdom

Folly by Laurie King

Laurie King almost lost me.

Laurie King is an author who has wowed me like few others. Everything her pen cooks up is a gourmet experience. This was true whether the book is part of one of her series-Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes or Kate Martinelli-or is a standalone novel like the incredible A Darker Place.

So I was looking forward to a treat when I first rented Folly from the library as a prelude to purchasing it. I ended up returning it unfinished to the library after reading only a single chapter. It bored me. I found little in it to capture my attention and the gloom was so prevailing that I just couldn't bring myself to read further.

Thankfully, a few years later, a co-worker insisted that I had to go back and read it. She was raving about King's newer release Keeping Watch and said Folly was a necessary predecessor. So I decided to give Folly another try. I'm glad that I did.

King took a risk with Folly. She establishes a main character who by outer appearances is weak-minded. She suffers from mental illness and neither she nor the reader can be quite certain that anything she sees or hears is real. She has a deep self-loathing that makes it difficult for the reader, upon first introduction, to feel sympathy for the protagonist. As a reader, I also wasn't sure I wanted to enter someone else's blackness-especially that of a stranger that I hadn't yet formed a connection with. Once you form a connection with a character, you're more willing to make the emotional investment of reading through the tragedies.

Folly of Age

Folly is not a tale of the foolishness of youth. The main character, Rae Newborn, is a middle-aged woman who is feeling the aches and pains of a life with too many blows in it. The story opens as her daughter and granddaughter are dropping her off on Folly, an island off the coast of Washington where she is determined to rebuild a home and her life in near-complete isolation. We quickly learn that she suffers from panic attacks and has attempted suicide many times in her life. Even now she carries with her a revolver as her answer to failure.

Rae's independence is something that is hard-won and something that threatens to slip frequently from her. She is a vulnerable character, even as she does things that many would not have the courage to undertake.

Now mind, Rae has some very good reasons to be mentally fragile. Her husband and daughter are dead and she had a nervous breakdown after someone attempted to rape her. And these events happen after she's already spent most of her life fighting the disease of depression.

Immediately upon being left on the island, she is beset by fears and a deep paranoia. As the story progresses, you begin to question-as does she-whether there really are people out to get her. Perhaps there is some foundation to her paranoia. We also begin to learn of Rae's ancestors and the story behind Folly and its burned-down home.

To Believe All Men Honest Would Be Folly, John Quincy Adams

While Folly has many aspects of a traditional mystery, it breaks the mold in many other ways. Like mysteries, it is tightly plotted with a pacing that builds on the suspense. There are several twists and turns before the answer is revealed at the end. The story is filled with a fair amount of suspense and our characters are frequently in danger.

But King takes us beyond the usual mold in that she explores several different themes within the story. She leaves us in doubt as to whether there truly is a mystery with an external "bad guy" or whether the danger is completely within Rae's mind. King draws us into Rae's depression and paints a highly realistic picture of the disease. Through King's masterful handling, we are exposed the insidiousness of mental illness and the way it makes you doubt everything.

King also does something very clever with her treatment of depression. One of the symptoms of the disease is how small the world gets for the sufferer. As the disease gets worse, the person's world becomes smaller and smaller until he or she cannot bear to see anything beyond his or her own nose. In Folly, we watch as Rae tries to leave the world behind her and move into an isolation where she does not have to face other people. We then watch as she begins in isolation and slowly makes connections with other people until she is part of a community that is larger than the one she participated in when she lived in a city surrounded by people. She gains independence as she looks out and strength as she learns to rely on others.

A fool, a fool, I see a fool i' the forest, a motley fool!, William Shakespeare

King does her usual incredible job of creating real, fascinating characters. She consistently rejects stereotypes to flesh out creations of people who are multi-dimensional. She manages to do this with nearly every character who crosses her pages, no matter how small their role might be. She even inserts the awkwardness that people have in their relationships with others and doesn't shy from having relationships take unexpected turns.

While Folly is meant to be a standalone novel, King does introduce a minor character who becomes the protagonist in another of her standalone novels--Keeping Watch. Likewise, the setting of Folly and many of the peripheral characters continue to play a role in this next book, a book that is completely different from Folly in both themes and tone.

Love is the folly of the wise. Samuel Johnson

People called this novel haunting and touching. It is a description I resoundingly second. I should have had more faith the first time I picked up the book. I should have known that Laurie King-with her ability to respectfully treat difficult topics with a great deal of freshness and originality-would not disappoint me.

-- B. Redman