Product Description

In 1899, the streets of New York were as unsettled as the heart and mind of Mary Jane Elmer. the ideas of the transcendentalist were still in the air, and thoughts of a second revolution were rising. Emma Goldman spoke to ever-growing numbers of the disenfranchised in Union Square and scandalized the city fathers. Police used horses, clubs, and bullets to disperse the crowds. Women were redefining their roles for the coming century. And, near the middle of life, solitary in her marriage to an intractable and distant artist, and still grieving the death of their daughter ten years earlier, Mary struggles to shape a future she can endure. Derived from the lives of real people, this beautiful novel ia a whirlwind of history, art, familial tremors, and personal desire. But beyond its elegance, beyond its historical authenticity, Every Past Thing is an intimate and moving family portrait-and its every brushstroke is marked with longing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #816925 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A woman solicits a reunion with her former lover at the end of the 19th century in Thompson's debut novel, embarking on an overwrought reappraisal of her tragic past. At a notorious East Village anarchist watering hole (and also the last known address of her former secret beau, Jimmy Roberts), Mary Jane records in her notebook the events that have led her and her husband, the painter Edwin Romanzo Elmer, to New York City: the death of their only child, Effie; their estrangement and reunion with Edwin's imposing and wealthy brother, Samuel; and their family and social circle's tension-fraught relationships. Mary's days of secret escape are contrasted against Edwin's private turmoil as he struggles to secure a place at the National Academy of Design, while his thoughts are distracted by his wife's suspicious absences. Though the novel covers the course of a week, flashbacks expand the story's breadth and scope. Portentous prose may make a tough go of the novel's first half, but narrative urgency grows, albeit slowly, as connections between the characters are revealed. Readers fond of late 19th- century literature will appreciate this florid trip back in time. (Sept.)
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From Booklist
In late-nineteenth-century New York, Mary Jane Elmer, the wife of painter Edwin Romanzo Elmer (a real artist whose most famous painting serves as the cover illustration), is struggling to make sense of her life. Although the couple's 10-year-old daughter died years before, Mary is still grief stricken and unable to find comfort in her relationship with her husband, a reticent man who finds the fullest release for his own emotions through his painting. Mary haunts a bar famous as an anarchist hangout, searching for an old lover while confiding her deepest thoughts and the history of her complicated relationship with her wealthy brother-in-law to a private journal. Both the evocative ideas of the transcendentalists and the fiery speeches of Emma Goldman deeply influence Mary's exploration of her own desires. First-novelist Thompson employs a near-stream-of-consciousness narrative style that is, at times, impenetrable. But patient readers will be rewarded; by novel's end, Mary's journey to face the compromises and deceptions she has made to protect herself takes on the utmost urgency. A novel to be savored. Wilkinson, Joanne

About the Author
Pamela Thompson is the editorial director at Interlink Books/Olive Branch Press in Northampton. She lives with her husband and two children in Worthington.

Customer Reviews

Intriguing Premise, Disappointing Results
This book was provided to me through Library Thing and I was excited to wade into my first assignment as an "early reviewer." I was attracted by the dust jacket description, but unfortunately an intriguing premise, ample interior dialogue and a favorite setting do not necessary make a readily accessible novel. Pamela Thompson's, "Every Past Thing", is a fictional account of the real individuals involved with a painting the author discovered in the Smith College Art Museum. I readily identified with Edwin Elmer and his wife, Mary, who have moved to New York City in 1899, ten years after the death of their daughter, the main subject of the painting. Mary believes that life has passed her by and spends her days wandering Manhattan, while Edwin is attending an art academy, attempting to launch his art career. Mary is ostensibly searching for a man with whom she had a romantic encounter early in her marriage. Instead she is befriended by two young anarchists who draw her out of her preoccupations and expose her to a new way of looking at the world. (Emma Goldman is a minor character.) Edwin and Mary are living lives that barely intersect and aren't even certain what they are looking for. The novel spans six days, and a large part of Thompson's novel is taken up by Mary's inner dialogue as she reacts to each event. It did not strike me as effective approach in this case and I often had difficulty connecting the pieces as they randomly appeared in Mary's mind. Admittedly, Thompson's language is sometimes disarmingly beautiful: "The night was not soft, was not velvet, but spoke to him of something hard and cold, the carbonized remains of an ancient fire." I believe Pamela Thompson has a genuine literary talent and I will be watching for subsequent novels. But the intriguing premise and other allures did not add up to a satisfying reading experience this time.

Really Good !
The jacket blurb on this book, compares Thompson with the likes of Emily Barton and Marilynne Robinson. I would have to say I may have added Joyce Carol Oates to the mix.
Thompson's novel is based on real life characters. The painter Edwin Romanzo Elmer, his wife Mary and his brother Samuel are the three main characters of this book. The story takes place over one week of their lives in the year of 1899.
Ten years after the death of their only child Edwin and Mary journey to New York. Edwin to take painting classes while Mary is left to wander the streets of the city.
Like Oates, Thompson is very good at "getting into" the heads of her characters. Again much like Oates' novels, this is a book to be read and savored. The story is not a fast read, it is a very emotional book.
I admire an author who attempts to bring to life individuals who have lived in the past. Thompson creates a living and breathing couple. They are both troubled and have grown distant from each other, due mainly because of the death of their daughter. Yet, as one reads the story of this couple and their marriage, it is revealed that much more lies behind their distance than a single death.
Good book !!

Consolation
Ten years after the death of their daughter Effie, the painter Edwin Romanzo Elmer and his wife Mary Jane Elmer are in New York where Edwin unenthusiastically attends The National Academy of Design. While he is gone Mary supplements their income by working at the whip-snap machine and spends the rest of her time writing in her diary. Thompson invokes the past elegantly, making hauntingly real the loss of Effie. But Effie isn't Mary's only loss. Jimmy Roberts, a younger man who had once boarded at her and Edwin's bed-and-breakfast and with whom Mary corresponded for years after he left for New York to study medicine, is the subject of many diary entries. In New York Mary hopes to bump into Jimmy Roberts at Schwab's, a saloon he had mentioned once in his letters, and the place of choice for the political anarchists of the times, including Emma Goldman.

In the painting, "Mourning Picture," which inspired the novel, Effie is seen in the foreground surrounded by her cat and her beloved sheep, her doll, a hat laying in the grass; Behind her the expanse of sky and green hills. Edwin and Mary sit in their mourning clothes framed by young trees. The house that Edwin built towers behind them and seems to cut the picture in two and separate them from Effie. Their features, including Effie's, are heavy with sadness. With great beauty and grace Thompson has captured the fractured lives of these characters and their loneliness as they continue after all these years to mourn their daugther and seek consolation, finding it only intermittently in the small surprises the present offers them. There is a sense in the painting of Edwin and Mary sitting chained to their chairs, frozen in their longing gaze in the general direction of Effie, whom they probably no longer see clearly. Even our most intimate memories crumble with the distance while the present tosses us together indiscriminately to glimpse what we can of each other.

Thompson clearly cares deeply about her characters and it is contagious. Rarely have I been this moved by a novel. The beautiful writing, the richness of the historical context, and the depth and compassion of the storytelling makes this a highly recommended read.