When Emerson was twelve, she was enamored by her grandmother Amelia and believed that what others saw as eccentricity or mental illness was instead a misunderstood gift. Five years later, hardened by her mother’s suicide and worried that she might be destined for a similar fate, Emerson visits Amelia at The Lavender House, a mental health facility for the elderly, to learn more about the enigmatic women in her family who found either magic or madness in response to a world that often seemed too small to contain them. As Amelia’s warped fairy tale emerges, buried stories are unearthed, and everything Emerson thinks she knows shifts as she begins to confront her own magical thinking and burgeoning feelings toward her best friend, Courtney.
When Emerson was twelve, she was enamored by her grandmother Amelia and believed that what others saw as eccentricity or mental illness was instead a misunderstood gift. Five years later, hardened by her mother’s suicide and worried that she might be destined for a similar fate, Emerson visits Amelia at The Lavender House, a mental health facility for the elderly, to learn more about the enigmatic women in her family who found either magic or madness in response to a world that often seemed too small to contain them. As Amelia’s warped fairy tale emerges, buried stories are unearthed, and everything Emerson thinks she knows shifts as she begins to confront her own magical thinking and burgeoning feelings toward her best friend, Courtney.
“The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight.”
—Joseph Campbell
Chapter One: Emerson, 2004
On the summer solstice, shortly after my twelfth birthday, Amelia predicted my mother’s death. It was the last time I visited her small brick apartment on Dock Street in Columbus, Ohio. My younger sister, Lori, and I sat straight-backed at the kitchen table and waited as Amelia rushed past us on tough bare feet to answer the door. Dozens of small bells sewn into her floral skirt chimed as she moved.
We jumped at the second, more forceful knock. As we craned our necks to see what was going on, she whipped around, pointed her finger at my forehead, then my sister’s, and said, “Stay in the kitchen. Stay put.” When Amelia—our grandmother, but don’t you dare call her Grandma—told you to stay put, you did. My sister and I leaned in to listen as she exchanged words with a pair of low voices before sighing. “Fine! Whatever. Tell him to give me some notice next time. My rent is good till the end of the month.” We heard the loud bang of something heavy hitting the door.
“What do you think it is?” Lori whispered.
I imagined something magical, a large statue of a goddess or an armoire that would take us to Narnia.
“Some of us arrive uninvited,” are the words of Amelia as she tells her life story to her granddaughter Emerson. Amelia grew up as an unwanted child from a long line of women with extraordinary gifts; she is now, against her will, spending her last years in a nursing home, where Emerson secretly visits her. The women in Amelia’s and Emerson’s family can see the future, have a deep connection to nature and knowledge about the world passed on through generations, and their spirits comfort and advise its living members. These women were, once upon a time, called witches and punished for their wisdom and their unconventionality. Nowadays, they are often cast aside by society and considered a bad influence.
We Arrive Uninvited is told through the alternating points of view of Amelia, born in 1921, and the teenager Emerson, born in the early 1990s. The novel reveals the stories of five generations of the family’s women. Each of these characters has to make choices on how to best live with the burden –but also the possibilities– of her gifts in a world that doesn’t understand the likes of her. We learn about great-great-grandmother Grodzki, wise and generous; about Kat, obsessed with money and prestige; about Amelia, frightened in her youth and defiant in her old age; about Celine, artistic and depressed, and, finally, about Emerson, confused and in love.
The novel moves along nicely, and each character comes alive in the reader's mind with a unique, well-crafted personality. There are beautiful vignettes of family interactions, as well as of the various relationships the characters establish. The historical perspective on life in the early to mid-twentieth century is intriguing. The descriptions of contemporary nursing homes, with their small cruelties and indignities, are on-point.
Throughout the book, there are insightful observations on what it has been like for women to assert their uniqueness and independence in a world that, for the most part, has wanted them to play a narrow, subservient role. “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society,” a famous quote commonly attributed to the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, is an underlying theme of this novel.
There is also a promising idea behind this story. There is the hope that perhaps the burden for these women is getting lighter, that their gifts are even coming to be appreciated. This could be because the spirits of their predecessors keep joining forces and making them stronger. It could also be because the world –despite its many lingering issues– has, in some ways, become a better, more tolerant place.
We Arrive Uninvited is an entertaining, satisfying read. However, towards the end, there is plenty of telling of the main episodes of Amelia's life as a young woman, when a few scenes depicting her struggles could have had more impact.