This book compellingly captures the life of a young woman, Charlee, who grows up in the 1960's and 1970's as the daughter of an alcoholic father. The key point to understand about this book is that Gay Walley's technique is not nearly as realistic as it might seem. It achieves its own psychological register by experiments in linguistic style and phrasing (i.e. unusually direct interior monologue, the narrative being alternately in first and third-person mode, also devices such as never referring to the father, Gerald, by name outside spoken dialogue). The novel can be appreciated more if it is seen in this frame and not in a social-realist one, nor as a diagnostic book about the problems of alcoholics, although it is not without relevance in this area. The story is told on two temporal levels: in the past, the father careens across the US-Canadian border and all around New England and Québec aimlessly in search of dreary pleasures; in the present, the daughter seeks to shrug off her father's legacy in relationships with men which end up only perpetuating childhood patterns. STRINGS ATTACHED is not a plot-centered book, but one about how people's states of mind are inhibited by the burden of the past.

Gay Walley's novel Strings Attached is driven by a narrative voice that draws us in and mesmerizes us with her tale of a young woman holding onto the best love she ever received while coming to terms with the damage it has done to her capacity for happiness. I was fascinated by the character of the father, Gerald, who, while horrifying me with his disfunctional parenting, captivated me with his charm. The sad story of his daughter Charlee develops gracefully from the scenes of her childhood with Gerald, in a way that feels inevitable and true. Her muted but significant triumphs -- giving up drinking and dealing with her father's death -- help sustain the overall triumph of the book, which is the author's ability to capture a difficult relationship in beautiful and evocative prose.