Ivy Lodge: A Memoir of Translation and Discovery by Linda Murphy Marshall

This book tells a story about a rather emotionally haunted house in Kirkwood, Missouri.

"Abraham Lincoln's comment that a house divided against itself cannot stand rang true in our home" the author wrote. She explains this both architecturally and psychodynamically. The Civil War era house in an upper class neighborhood that she grew up in looks beautiful and graceful from the outside, but rooms and spaces are awkwardly laid out within. On each floor, some rooms were left unfinished and empty. The same could be said of her family.

This is Marshall's account of growing up in that unusual house, and of the effects of her highly accomplished parents' neglect of both the house and their children.

The author grew up to become a language translator stemming in part from her constant efforts as a child to understand her parents' frequently cryptic and sometimes cruel ways of responding to their children's needs for emotional nurturance, safety and sometimes even critical medical care.

Marshall's retrospective translations of life in that house and family show how people can appear to have every economic, social and educational advantage while living disconnected, emotionally starved lives. The kindest thing I can think to say of her socially prominent, Washington University educated parents (long deceased) is that they weren't into parenting. That's putting it mildly.

Kudos to this woman for overcoming much of the childhood cruelty and neglect she experienced in the house called Ivy Lodge.

Reviewed by Marianne W