Before I tell you about this book, I have to tell you about my particular copy of this book. It was a gift from a friend. Not for a birthday, or a name day, or Christmas, or Hannukah, but a spontaneous, perfect, lovely gift. She had picked it up from the Lifeline Book Fair, so its previous owner was one Richard Rigby, who has an impeccable hand for calligraphy (if we assume he wrote his own name). It’s a traditional Penguin Classic. Dorothy Baker’s author picture and bio on the back cover are mottled brown. Its ‘old book’ smell makes me sneeze if I read for long periods of time and it’s just the right kind of floppy: Not too flimsy.

Now the words inside are a whole other matter. In an American college, somewhere in the 1940s (I believe), Janet Logan is a 23-year-old student who has been taken under the wing of French professor, Pauline Maury. Their relationship is a strange one: They are lovers, but Pauline Maury looks after Janet like a daughter. Janet’s past is shady, and what appears to be a mutually loving relationship at first, reveals itself to be a prison of sorts: Pauline Maury has salvaged Janet’s reputation and moulded her into the perfect form for university society, and in return holds Janet hostage for it, guilting or scaring the young girl into staying whenever she is on the verge of escaping.

This is only revealed, however, when Janet forms a relationship with Ray MacKenzie, one of the help. Things get hairy. I’ve never really been interested in stories about romantic relationships, but this one in particular is told in such a way that you can’t help being drawn to its characters.

..something about the way she did these things gave Ray MacKenzie a sense of never having seen her before. It must have been the sandals that did it, because he’d seen her before, he’d stood with his back against this door before and watched her walk away from him, and he had seen her in most of the right ways of seeing people, in the quick flashes that catch an attitude and print a memory…but he had never seen her wear a brown orchid and he didn’t know she owned these shoes. (p88)

In fact, this book is riddled with underlined passages from my first reading that if I were to share with you, would probably constitute as plagiarism.

Sometimes books have great characters, but the prose may be lacking in something. We still love the characters, but the reading experience lacks that transcendent quality that occurs  as a result of the writing itself (from the likes of say, Nabokov, or Woolf) Other times, we read books where there is no doubt the of the high literary quality of the writing, but without loveable characters, we miss out on the relationship we form with the characters, relationships that feel so strong we can almost have conversations with them in our heads.

In “Trio”, we get feel everything for our characters: Janet’s heart being torn in two, deciding whether to continue to live a tortured but comfortable life or to break free and sacrifice the ‘knowns’ that have accompanied her so far; MacKenzie’s frustration at seeing his lover trapped, and not knowing whether it is a result of her weakness or the professor’s overbearing will; Pauline Maury’s strong sense of what is proper, her genuine wish to offer Janet the world and more. We can feel all these things, but still look at them critically, and each person’s criticisms will differ according to the experience they bring to the book.

For example, I found Ray MacKenzie’s attitude towards marriage, quite simply, wrong. His justification?

That’s how it has to be, you dope. They’re married and everybody accepts it and lets them alone and they do as they please as long as they damned please. (p117)

And I found my opinion of Janet oscillating wildly. One moment she was a victim, the next she was independent, bright, secure. She seemed too easily influenced by her company. Then again, these are frustrations I have with people in real life (myself included). So, frustrating, yes. Realistic, incredibly so.

“Trio” seems to be a little on the rare side when it comes to hunting it down, but it’s worth the effort. This book swam inside my head for days after I’d finished reading it.