The Briar Club

“His mother was sometimes utterly, meanly, completely wrong, and he didn’t have to agree with her when she was. He didn’t have to fight her about it, either. He could just…get around her.”

Pete makes this comment about his mother at the end of the first chapter. When the novel opens, he blindly obeys her every command. It is his exposure to Grace and her less rigid philosophy of life that opens his eyes. The house’s many rules don’t faze the new tenant. She circumvents them every time Doilies goes to another bridge game. Pete observes this and begins modeling his behavior on Grace’s. The model Grace offers represents the start of his Struggle for Freedom.

“Whenever it felt the friendly tickle of that paintbrush in Grace’s hand. That was the moment at which, you might say, the house began to wake up. Just like people, houses go to sleep if bored, and things had been boring at Briarwood House for so long.”

This comment comes from Briarwood House itself. Grace’s urge to “feed and fix” extends to inanimate objects as well. The bilious green walls of the hallway are her first target to fix. In this quote, the house describes a tactile sensation, establishing its sentience. Like so many of the people in the novel who are overlooked or dismissed as being unimportant, a building also responds to care from someone who takes the time to notice its needs.

“‘Our people all spoke different languages and maybe still do; we look different; we live in every possible location from cities to towns, mountains to plains. But’—she waved at the Bill of Rights, including its sister documents off in the Library of Congress—‘this unites us. A government established for an articulated principle, not tribal allegiances or lines drawn on a map.’”

In this statement, Nora is explaining her belief in the rule of law to Xavier. She perceives him as someone who crosses boundaries to achieve his goals. She sees the US as a place where there is no place for bullies. Her statement also indicates her inclusive philosophy. This stands in contrast to McCarthy’s attempts to separate Americans into antagonistic factions based on their differences, evidenced by the description of “tribal allegiances” and “lines drawn on a map.”

“‘Communism is the stupidest system on the planet.’ Xavier refilled his coffee. ‘It ignores the biggest urge people got, which is that they want to build something. First for them, then for their kids […] Maybe Communism is perfect on paper to some economist, but it doesn’t account for the fact that humanity thrives on imperfection.’”

Xavier is a pragmatist, and this quote shows his approach to political ideologies. Even though Nora’s preceding quote implies that she deplores his tribalistic loyalty to his gangster family, Xavier presents a counterargument. People tend to feel attachments to their kin group and will try to benefit its members, something he believes communism doesn’t allow. Xavier contrasts his opinion with that of an economist to argue that while communism may add up on paper for them, it doesn’t for people like him.

“‘I’d be more inclined to disgust if you were head over heels for a weak man,’ Grace said. ‘Men of violence, well, they have their uses. Nations tend to begin with violent men […] It’s the weak ones who cause the most damage. Nothing wreaks havoc like a weak man—because they never learn, so they just go blithely on, leaving pain and wreckage behind them.’”

Nora has just told Grace about Xavier’s violent behavior outside the Amber Club. She is equating him with her brutal ex-boyfriend, who was, ironically, a policeman. Distinctions of right and wrong become blurred when men on opposite sides of the law behave badly. Grace reframes Nora’s dilemma by suggesting that violence isn’t the problem; weakness is.

“Russet-haired Reka Takács had never been nice—she’d been unabashed, untethered, unmaternal, and bold. Why did she have to become nurturing, sweet, nice, just because she was now old?”

Reka is an angry old woman who is surrounded by young boarders at Briarwood House. This quote indicates that she was a rebel as a young woman and remains one now. Her comment is an indictment of restrictive cultural norms for women during the baby boom era. Dominant expectations assume women will become nesters and breeders. Once they pass that stage, they are expected to become natural babysitters. Further, they are expected to be benign and inoffensive. Reka rejects the stereotype and expectations for her to be nurturing, sweet, and nice simply because of her age.

“‘Happiness.’ Grace rose, smoothing her skirt. ‘It’s a choice as much as anything. Or you could choose to be angry, and if you stay angry long enough, it will become comfortable, like an old robe.’”

Reka has just achieved her life’s dream of recovering the stolen Klimt sketches. Yet, she weeps because she is grieving her late husband, who cannot be here with her. Grace encourages her to choose happiness over anger despite the losses she has experienced. By comparing anger to a comfortable old robe, Grace demonstrates how it will be difficult to shed the longer Reka stays enveloped in this feeling.

“Fliss nearly burst into tears. She could just sit and know that her baby was all right, that the Briar Club women had closed around Angela in that blessedly breezy, automatic way they always did, passing her from one set of fresh arms to another while Fliss’s arms got a little bloody rest.”

To this point in the novel, Fliss has been soldiering on alone, never asking anyone for help with the baby. Her hesitancy to ask for help is partly due to the cultural conditioning that expects mothers to tirelessly devote themselves to their offspring 24 hours a day. She also struggles due to the initial isolation at Briarwood House. Once Grace arrives, the barriers begin to fall, and Fliss receives support from this community. By describing the tenants passing around Angela to “fresh arms” in a “blessedly breezy, autonomic way,” the author highlights the willingness others have to help Fliss and give her a much-needed rest.

“Dear Dan, there will be no Orton Baby Number 2, because we are living in a world of bomb watch holidays and no one should be bringing babies into this world. I’m sorry I brought even one into this world. Have I disappointed you enough yet? Bad mother. Bad mother.”

Fliss writes this blunt letter to her husband overseas. She has just watched a television program showing the first testing of an atomic bomb, and the sight horrifies her. The fact that war can inflict such violence causes Fliss to regret having Angela and reaffirms her desire not to have a second child. However, despite her clear desire, she still blames herself, thinking she is a disappointment and a bad mother for expressing this want. By repeating the phrase “bad mother,” the author highlights the intrusive, pervasive nature of the thought. This highlights The Struggle for Freedom for Fliss.

“Grace looked thoughtful. ‘I sometimes think this country is an eternal battle between our best and our worst angels. Hopefully we’re listening to the good angel more often than the bad one.’ She sighed. ‘We do that, and change will come.’ ‘Not fast enough.’ They both took a slug of their hot toddies.”

Grace and Fliss have just returned after the raid at the jazz club, and Fliss speculates that Claude would never be treated as badly for being Black if he lived in England. Describing the nation as a battle between best and worst angels, Grace highlights the systemic racism in the United States. Her desire that the country listens to the good more frequently than the bad emphasizes the unequal treatment of individuals based on race and the truth that the country has a long way to go toward freedom and equity for all people.

“Women have to plan out every moment of their lives, from wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday all the way through to rest on Sunday. So why aren’t we allowed to plan this? Something that derails our whole lives, all the other plans.”

Fliss is talking about her pregnancy and her doctor’s lecture about accepting whatever God sends. This quote highlights the degree to which women’s choices in the 1950s were severely limited. Fliss employs contrast to describe how society ensures women must plan every aspect of their life to keep a family afloat from washing to ironing, yet they cannot make their own choices about whether and when to have more children. By describing it as something derailing, Fliss highlights the constrained nature of women’s bodily autonomy and Navigating American Identities and Societal Restrictions Amid McCarthyism.

“Do you have any idea how bloodthirsty women can be? Ask the housewives on this block if there’s anyone they’d be willing to run over with a tank. You’d see nothing but squashed mothers-in-law for miles.”

As in many previous sections of the novel, this quote uses humor to emphasize cultural misconceptions about the fragility of women. JD has just described his war experiences with female Russian soldiers, and Harland is horrified. However, Grace’s quote highlights the “bloodthirsty” nature of women and uses hyperbolic expressive language to argue that regular housewives are capable of aggression and would be willing to run over their enemies, including mothers-in-law, with tanks. This foreshadows the impending murders. Ironically, women commit both murders, yet the detectives refuse to believe that women can be capable of such violence.

“Bea had always been inclined to blaze through life like a fastball, heading straight from where she was to where she wanted to go at ninety miles an hour—Grace, she thought, was a knuckleball, dancing on the wind, taking a less orthodox path to the plate but getting there all the same.”

Bea has just landed a job as a baseball talent scout. This wouldn’t have happened if Grace hadn’t planted the idea of finding work on the sidelines of the game. Other characters also comment on Grace’s ability to drop a hint at exactly the right moment into a listening ear. As is characteristic, Bea uses a baseball analogy to describe this quality in her friend, comparing Grace to a knuckleball, which takes an unorthodox yet effective approach.

“Ever since I married it’s nothing but men: my husband and my father-in-law and all the toadies around them. Sad little kings of sad little mountains.”

Sydney is telling Claire about her life. More than any of the other women in the novel, Sydney is trapped within the patriarchal system with a husband who physically abuses her. Although she ranks highly in the social hierarchy of Washington, DC, she is subject to politically powerful men who need to feel superior to someone. She highlights that they assign the role of the subordinate to the women in their lives so that they can enjoy their position as king of the hill. Describing these men as toadies, Sydney further demonstrates the elevated sense of self they feel.

“‘War games.’ Reka spat the words as though they were an epithet. ‘Szar. Those generals and colonels need a few old women on staff at these meetings so there’s someone on hand to say, “That is the stupidest idea on God’s green earth.”’”

Arlene has just described an army drill that took place in her hometown of Lampasas, Texas, in which American servicemen played the role of an invading communist army. Reka’s comment suggests the gendered nature of such behavior. War is an atrocity that causes significant fatalities, yet the military describes this drill as a “game.” Given the United States’ paranoia regarding the Red Menace, such behavior might seem rational, but Reka speaks pragmatically of the stupidity of the exercise. By highlighting that they need old women on staff to tell the generals and colonels their decisions are stupid, Reka asserts the wisdom women of her age possess.

“And then he sat Bear down on the edge of the bed when he was done crying, sat him down where he couldn’t see me, and explained very kindly that there are times when daddies have to discipline mommies, and it’s just part of being a grown-up […] It’s what the man of the house does, okay? You’ll learn that someday. And he took him out of the room to get ice cream down in the kitchen, and I lay there thinking, My son is going to grow up just like his father.”

Sydney is describing how Barrett explains physically abusing her to their son. Although the notion of a husband physically assaulting his wife is chilling enough, the quote describes how such dangerous, violent cultural norms can become passed down from father to son. By repeating Barrett’s words that “daddies have to discipline mommies” and this is a natural part of being a grown-up and “man of the house,” something his son will someday learn, Sydney emphasizes the cyclical nature of violence and upholds toxic masculinity. Sydney’s recognition of this transgenerational abuse finally gives her the courage to try to escape from it, as she doesn’t want her son to grow into his father.

“Opportunities were things that fell in your lap, but second chances had to be fought for—and you could always reinvent yourself in this country, if you were willing to claw your way toward a new path. You could always reinvent yourself, if you decided it was worth the fight.”

Claire makes this statement after she decides to use her life savings to help Sydney escape. She makes a distinction between opportunities, which fall into one’s lap, and second chances, which one must fight and “claw” their way toward. In doing so, she emphasizes the intentional, deliberate nature of her decision to help Sydney. While she is referring to her liberation, the quote also applies to the other women at Briarwood House who are fighting for a better future for themselves.

“Never recruit someone into deep cover when they know what it is to starve, Grace thought […] it drew a stark line within your soul. On one side of that line were the things worth starving, suffering, dying for, and on the other side was everything else.”

Grace has lived through the two-and-a-half-year siege of Leningrad in which 1 million people starved to death, including her entire family. Such a horrific experience changed her perspective on the value of dying for a political ideology. This quote mirrors Xavier’s earlier comment, suggesting that blood ties matter more than intellectual concepts on paper. Grace is no longer willing to die for someone else’s communist principles.

“When Soviets were squashed down by life, by luck, by the system, they got resigned—the shoulders drooped. Hit an American with an equal dose of the same oppression and they went stiff—either with anger or with fear, but their shoulders and chin went up, not down.”

Grace makes this observation about what she sees as the psychological differences between Russians and Americans. She believes the Soviets have resigned their fate, describing them as metaphorically “squashed down.” Americans, she argues, respond to oppression with anger or fear, not resignation. Juxtaposing the drooped shoulders of Soviets with shoulders and chins that go up or down allows Grace to make her point with descriptive language.

“She found herself glued to the Army-McCarthy hearings on television. Watching that dark-haired, half-shaven, sweaty-looking thug bluster and threaten, wondering how on earth he’d ever conceived such a bee in his bonnet about the Red Menace when he could have been kissing cousins with Joe Stalin. If there was ever a man who would have thrived in a police state, it was McCarthy.”

This is another of Grace’s many observations about life in America. Having come from Stalin’s Soviet Union, she has no trouble recognizing a dictator in the making in the form of Joe McCarthy. She believes native-born Americans are too close to the problem to see it. They also don’t have Grace’s first-hand experience of living in a police state, which is where she thinks McCarthy belongs. This is one of the many reasons why she prefers the US to Russia. The quote emphasizes the continued symbolic role of McCarthyism in the text.

“I love this country, Grace thought. I can speak my mind here without being arrested; I can walk these streets a free woman without worrying I’m going to be hauled away in a van; I can earn money and decide for myself what to do with it. Why wouldn’t I love this place? Why would I ever want to harm it?”

This quote is an extension of the preceding one. It contrasts Grace’s affection for the US with Kirill’s blind obedience to Soviet authority. He doesn’t question the rectitude of leaders who silence all dissent by killing the opposition. When he appears at Briarwood House to kill Grace, he embodies that absolutist ideology. Grace, by contrast, is capable of independent thought. She asserts her love of the United States, using concrete examples to provide evidence for her change in loyalty.

“Because Briarwood House doesn’t care if Grace is a Communist or a spy or a woman entirely capable of opening a man’s throat with a sickle. Grace is the one who brought the house to life. Grace belongs. I won’t let them take you. I’ll protect you—but Grace has protected herself. Has protected Briarwood House as well. And the house is grateful.”

In making this statement, Briarwood House demonstrates more humanity than some of its residents. Political ideology, it argues, is meaningless when compared to small acts of kindness offered without any expectation of reward. During her time in the house, Grace has behaved charitably toward the house and all its inmates. In expressing its desire to protect her, the house is echoing the sentiments that the human members of the Briar Club will soon express.

“Burying an entire family in Leningrad had killed the urge in her for children, for a husband, for anything more permanent than lovers and friends and the easy warmth of companionship—but she still had her urge to feed and to fix. Why not start with miserable, nasty, broken Arlene?”

While Arlene is the novel’s antagonist and supports McCarthyism wholeheartedly, Grace doesn’t turn her back on her. Her inability to save her family in Leningrad has left her with the desire to help and fix when she can, even offering companionship to someone like Arlene, who she deems miserable, nasty, and broken. This decision underscores Grace’s commitment to Finding Support and Overcoming Differences in a Circle of Friends, including for an adversary.