Daniel Wunsch is a father afraid of history repeating itself. Cordelia Wunsch is his daughter, hurt and puzzled by her fatherâs dire predictions about her future, stemmed from the absent grandmother she so strongly resembles.
In this engaging and psychologically insightful book, the reader travels back and forth in time to follow the three interwoven stories of a father, his daughter, and his mother as they struggle to find each other and repair the disrupted bonds between them.
Daniel Wunsch is a father afraid of history repeating itself. Cordelia Wunsch is his daughter, hurt and puzzled by her fatherâs dire predictions about her future, stemmed from the absent grandmother she so strongly resembles.
In this engaging and psychologically insightful book, the reader travels back and forth in time to follow the three interwoven stories of a father, his daughter, and his mother as they struggle to find each other and repair the disrupted bonds between them.
Daniel Wunsch, Professor of English Literature at the State University of New York in Albany, wanted to pick up his teenage daughterâs backpack and throw it through the window. It sat there on the floor in the middle of the family room, despite the fact that he had asked her to move it when she got home from school that afternoon. His daughter stood before him defiantlyâ not defying him about the backpack, which wasnât even the topic of conversation. She was defying him about his most basic values, ignoring his completely legitimate concerns. How was a father supposed to parent such a child?
âThe facts are the facts, Cordelia,â he said, looking up at his daughter from where he sat in his favorite chair. âYou were seen at a coffee shop when you were supposed to be in school. Why shouldnât I be upset about that?â
âDad,â said his daughter. That was all she said. She stood there with a look of exasperation on her face.
His wife sat on the couch across from him, looking at him with pleading eyes, as if the whole problem were his fault. He just glared at the backpack. For a moment, he could see himself picking it up and hurling it at the window. Since it was full of her school books, it would have significant mass. Mass times velocity equals momentum. It would have terrific momentum. He could almost hear the glass shatter.
For a moment, he thought that Cordelia had tears in her eyes, but then she blinked hard and there were none. He started to feel bad for her, but then he just felt annoyed again. Why should she be so upset, anyway? He was the one who should be upset.
âHow do you plan to succeed in life if you canât even meet the minimum expectations and attend class?â he asked.
His daughter took a big sighâan unnecessarily dramatic sigh, in his opinionâand rolled her eyes at the ceiling.
âDan, please,â said his wife, Abby. âSheâs just being a kid. She made a mistake. Thatâs all.â
He looked at Abby and held his empty palms upward to sig- nify the futility of his situation. He hoped that Abby would read his nonverbal message: What do you want from me? Sheâs the culprit. Why donât you ask her to fix this mess? But Abby wasnât getting it at all. She made another comment or two to defend Cordelia, while Dan sat in his chair trying to maintain his equanimity.
âDad, listen,â said Cordelia. She seemed to be relaxing her at- titude in response to her motherâs support. âYou have a point, of course. I should have been in class. No doubt about it. Iâm sorry about that. I didnât mean to worry you. But itâs no big deal to cut one boring French class, and Iâm going to do fine in life. Really, you need to stop worrying. Iâll be fine.â
âItâs not fine,â he said in quick reply. âAnd Iâm certainly going to worry when I see my daughter starting down a bad path in life. This can only lead to disaster. You cut classes, you do very little homework these days, and you run around at too many parties.
Drinking parties.â He emphasized the word drinking, just to make sure she got his point.
Cordelia shifted her stance. He thought she might storm out of the room, as she had done in past arguments, but she stood where she was. She pursed her lips, let out a big breath, and then spoke in a very restrained tone.
âDad, listen. Itâs not the Prohibition era. Itâs 1997. Kids drink at parties. And as far as school goes, I cut one class. Okay, maybe two classes. But Iâm in the second semester of my senior year, right? Iâve got very good grades, and Iâve already been accepted to a terrific college. So, whatâs the problem?â
Whatâs the problem? he thought. His daughter couldnât see the problem. His wife couldnât see the problem. No one saw it except for him, and he was getting tired of trying to explain it to everyone.
âWhatâs the problem? he repeated. âWhatâs the problem? The problem is that youâre about to throw everything away by your ridiculous behavior now. Everything youâve worked for in high school could be destroyed by one reckless decision at one of these parties you go to. Do you want to be a girl who accom- plishes something in this life? Or do you want to be a loser?â
She turned her head abruptly to her right, as if she just couldnât stand the sight of him anymore. She tapped a foot rap- idly on the floor, gazing out the window. When she spoke again, her voice was unexpectedly loud and strident.
âYou know what, Dad? Iâm sick and tired of listening to you criticize me all the time! To be honest with you, Iâm sick and tired of coming home at all!â
Dan gripped the arms of his big wingback chair. He looked at Cordeliaâs backpack sitting in the middle of the family room. Was it packed with books? Or was it stuffed with clothing? Was she planning to leave home? He felt himself rising up from his chair to a standing position.
âWell, fine!â he said. âThen maybe you should look for some- place else to live!â He had an urge to walk over to the backpack and give it a good kick. For a moment, he thought he was actually going to do it, but she grabbed it before he could make his move. She stood there staring at him for a moment. The look on her face was a look of shock, total disbelief. Then she turned and ran up the stairs.
âCordelia, wait!â called Abby.
He heard his daughter in her bedroom as she walked back and forth overhead, loudly opening drawers and slamming them shut. He sat back down in his chair, suddenly feeling self-con- scious. His daughter must be thinking that he was behaving like a monster. His wife Abby probably agreed. Worse, he truly felt like a monster. In the moment of rising from his chair, he felt like someone capable of doing terrible things in a blind rage. Was he really going to kick his daughterâs backpack? And why did he say such mean things to her?
A few minutes later, Cordelia came back down the stairs. Her backpack was bulging now, obviously loaded with extra supplies. She walked straight out the front door. She didnât say good-bye; she didnât even look back. She slammed the screen door as she walked out. Abby, still sitting on the couch, started to cry. Dan sat in his wingback chair, wishing that he could just disappear.
When I first began Age of Worry, I wondered if I would make it to the end. The story in the beginning felt very forced; almost as though the writer was trying harder to sell his writing capability than he was in writing a good story. The strained relationship between Dan and his daughter Cordelia also felt forcefully strained in the beginning. Being a mother of teenagers, I felt as though Cordelia needed to be a much more rebellious and defiant teenager to incur the displayed wrath of her father.
It wasnât until Danâs mother, Kate was introduced that I began to really get absorbed into the story. This is where the writing and the story began to flow more seamlessly and I found myself unaware of time passing while I just kept reading and reading!
I was very intrigued by Kateâs disappearance from her family and of course, wanted to know why she left. I think the thing I appreciated about Kateâs story was that she never played the part of a victim, even though she clearly had been in her young life. Her leaving may have appeared selfish; but her intentions were anything but that. In the end, I admired the authorâs ability to weave Dan and Cordeliaâs story together with Dan and Kateâs story.Â
Nevertheless, there are flaws in the story. The author tries to make similarities between Cordeliaâs running away and his motherâs departure that really arenât there. The discrepancies donât seem obvious until the end and youâve had a chance to reflect on each individual story. There are a few characters in the story that serve no purpose and really come across as âseat fillersâÂ
Still, overall it was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it for anyone interested in a story that explores the dynamics of family generations past and present with a dose of mystery and intrigue.Â