October 22, 2007
Psychologist Gilligan’s landmark study of gender and moral thinking, In a Different Voice (1982), set off a generation’s worth of Mars vs. Venus debates. In Gilligan’s poised debut novel, Kyra is a Cambridge-based architect and professor of architecture who meets Andreas, an opera director, at a friend’s Thanksgiving dinner. Both have lost spouses to political turmoil. They are intrigued by each other, falling first into companionship as he persuades her to design sets for his nontraditional production of Tosca, and later into an affair. When Andreas leaves suddenly to pursue his work, Kyra spirals downward, bottoming out in a dramatic attempt to find out what is “real.” As Kyra begins an unconventional, sometimes combative course of therapy, Andreas floats in and out of her life. The novel’s great strength is Kyra’s voice, which Gilligan renders with assurance and lyricism. The result is a powerful portrait of a complex character.