Natalie is the sort of woman that other women either envy (she’s very pretty and men are attracted to her) or want to wise up because, in Natalie’s world, feminism happened to other people. Heart of the Country, by Fay Weldon, opens on the day Natalie’s husband leaves her for a younger woman. Harry left behind a bankrupt company and too many bills for unemployed Natalie to handle. Within days, her comfortable, boring life falls apart. On its own, this wasn’t enough to tempt me into reading this book. What really got me is that Heart of the Country is narrated by Sonia, one of the women who tries to wise Natalie up, and is now narrating this story from a mental institution.
It’s not hard to feel sorry for Natalie. She’s a hapless sort. She seems to have no ambitions. Natalie sticks to her routine of caring for the kids and keeping house. It’s little wonder that everything falls apart when Harry leaves. Natalie was so oblivious that she ignored past-due notices and had no idea what the family finances were like. In another book, Natalie might have found her gumption and turned her life around. In another book, Natalie would have been a strong single mother and a role model to anyone aspiring to motherhood. Heart of the Country is emphatically not that book and I am very glad for it.
Shortly into Heart of the Country, we meet Sonia, our narrator. Sonia drops hints about why she’s incarcerated in a mental institution, but the full story doesn’t come out until the fiery climax of the book. In her narration, Sonia reveals her frustration with Natalie and Britain’s Social Services. (Sonia is one of those strong single mothers.) Sonia does her best to help Natalie get on her feet but Natalie’s natural passivity and naiveté thwarts Sonia’s efforts. Before too long, Heart of the Country reads like a more-bitingly-sarcastic-than-average comedy of errors.
Heart of the Country was a brilliant if serendipitous choice of book to follow Dragon Springs Road. In Dragon Springs Road, we had a protagonist who fought against becoming a kept mistress with everything she had. In Heart of the Country, Natalie seems more relieved than anything else when a man offers to put her up in an apartment and pay for her lifestyle in exchange for some, ahem, physical companionship. Where Jialing is full of determination and independence, Natalie seems entirely incapable of functioning in the world without a man to handle money. I was very sympathetic to Sonia who, even though she has her faults and does a terrible thing, was almost always exasperated with Natalie’s failure to land on her feet.
Originally published in 1988, Heart of the Country remains an engrossing read. I daresay that the scenes in which Natalie, Sonia, and Sonia’s friends struggle with the arcane bureaucracy of Social Services are still very relevant. I’m glad I took a chance on it when I spotted it for sale on Amazon.