MONA IN THREE ACTS

MONA IN THREE ACTS

BY GRIET OP de BEECK

Mona in Three Acts tells the story of a child growing to womanhood and how the actions of her family and others around her formed her thoughts, feelings and ability to deal with life. It is very relatable in how we often bend our will to others, allowing them to mold us, often causing us to keep our own desires at bay.

Mona’s strict and sometimes cold mother is killed in a car crash when Mona is young, and her father quickly remarries. With a father who has been distant most of her life, and with a new, insecure and demanding woman as her new mother, Mona continues the desire to please mechanism she formed with her birth mom. Always trying to be helpful, blaming herself when things go wrong, and stuffing down her own feelings, she finally finds some release as an adult in working with a theater group.

Still, in her work and her choice of a lover, she doesn’t even try to explore what really matters to her, she comes across as a “good girl” to her parents and as powerless but somewhat helpful in her job. She recognizes that things aren’t wonderful, but seems unable or unwilling to change anything.

In the “third act” of the book, situations involving her father cause Mona to begin seeing things in a new way, and to alter relationships that had stayed stagnant for years.

Some may describe this story as depressing, but I didn’t feel that way. Certainly at times I wanted Mona to just break out and break away, but actually her life seemed very realistic in many ways. I was definitely ready for the story to end, however, as I felt it dragged a little in the middle.

I applaud the translation from Dutch to English; it was done very well and I felt no awkwardness at all, as I have in the past with other translations.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for an opportunity to review this book.