Mrs. Caldwell Speaks to Her Son

the long version

"Well Mrs Caldwell is the English mother of Eliacim who has died a while ago (not clear but possibly in WW2 or at least between the world wars). She is writing a sort of diary of her thoughts as she ponders her relationship with her now grown son. The book has about 200 pages with about 200 short chapters, each with a descriptive heading. She is going mad and the basic suggestion (though not clear since this is definitely not a simple narrative story, but in my view) is because of her guilt in having had incestuous thoughts about him since he was a boy. Each chapter is basically a thought picture with little connectivity with the others as Caldwell brings to mind Eliacim’s possible loves, his career in the navy (he dies aboard ship and is buried at sea), objects that spark a memory, avoids but alludes to her inappropriate behaviours and so on. There is a possible thread of ideas associated with water, wood of coffins, sin, time and her own youth."--Goodreads