The Perfectionists by Gail Godwin

First published in 1970

This beautifully written, insightful novel focuses on a woman's struggle to understand herself and her marriage during a two week vacation in Majorca. Dane, a journalist, has been married to John, a psychotherapist, for less than a year. Dane describes their marriage as "difficult" in the sense of "challenging." Indeed, it would be a challenge to be married to John, or even to be his friend, for John is constantly analyzing his life and the lives of others. John is given to badgering Dane for "a moment of shared truth" and saying things like "Don't attack the tender shoots of me." John wants Dane to know all of him while Dane wants John to display his attractive qualities while keeping the inner mess to himself (John thinks of the mess as "the natural disorder that precedes growth"). John intellectualizes life until he drains it of vitality, even as he complains that Dane isn't fully experiencing their shared moments. Dane thinks of her marriage as a spaceship carrying them to a destination she cannot yet envision and sometimes she feels that way, while most of the time she feels frustrated with her genius husband. She relies on fantasy and her own resources to have a satisfying time with him in bed.

Joining them on vacation are John's obstinately silent son Robin, the product of a failed relationship with a doctor who broke up with John soon after giving birth, and Penelope, one of John's patients. Dane has the same conflicted feelings about Robin that she has about John. Sometimes she sees him as an all-knowing, mysterious wonder; other times she harbors malevolent thoughts about him and fantasizes about abusing him.

Godwin's writing style is precise, her characters are unique, and her ideas are powerful. This novel deserves a wider audience.

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