“The Resurrection of Joan Ashby” by Cherise Wolas (post 2): “She feels again the dichotomy that always did split her in two,” the “maternal” and the “writerly”

Early in the novel, the reader is told of the protagonist’s quest: She “needed to reframe her existence, fracture her life, bifurcate Joan Manning, wife and mother, from Joan Ashby, the writer, erect boundaries to prevent any accidental bleeding between the two” (1, p. 82).

Three hundred four pages later, the split in her personality is again stated: “She feels again the dichotomy that always did split her in two,” the “maternal” and the “writerly” (1, p. 386).

To help her writer personality dominate and supplant her wife-mother personality, she has left her husband and older adult son back in the USA, and has gone to India to rediscover and reinforce her true, writerly self.

She also wants to visit her younger adult son, who, unlike her husband and older adult son, has no conflict of interest with, or objection to, her being a writer, and who is already living in India (to find his own true self).

When Joan and her younger adult son meet in India, he senses that she wants him to address her in terms of her writer personality, not her married or maternal personality, and so he asks her if she wishes him to call her Joan or Ashby. “Ashby,” she says (1, p. 396).

Why does she choose Ashby instead of Joan? It is an interesting choice. In the USA, if an adult child does not address his mother as “mother” or “mom” (or some variation), he will address her by her first name. After all, of her two names, Joan is her personal name, while Ashby is probably her father’s family name, and her son would associate it more with his grandfather than with his mother.

What does it mean (if anything) that she wishes her writer personality to be addressed by her father’s family name rather than her own personal name? Is her writer personality male? It is possible, since I have discussed other female writers in this blog who had clear evidence of male narrative personalities. But in this case, based only on her choice to be addressed by her father’s family name, it is little more than idle speculation.

So far, I have read 396 pages of this novel, and except for the narrator’s repeated comment that the protagonist has a split personality—the mother and the writer, who compete for control—very little has been said about the writer’s writing process. I hope something is said in the remaining 135 pages.

1. Cherise Wolas. The Resurrection of Joan Ashby. New York, Flatiron Books, 2017.