Abstract:

"Her father, a middle-aged prosperous businessman, married Mary Foley, a young woman who had escaped a childhood of poverty. Mary Foley, Mary Doyle is Marjorie's journey to uncover the layers of her mother's life. It is not a straightforward story to tell--secrets, lies, omissions, and equivocations were the tools Mary relied on for protection. Mary Foley was raised in the 1920s and 30s in a bleak mill town on the west coast of Newfoundland. The Foleys of Corner Brook were urban poor; Mary never mentioned an address, just the relentless pursuit by landlords--one of whom hauled the roof off their house to force them out. With the help of her ambitious illiterate mother and a convent of nuns, Mary earned her secretarial diploma, her ticket to St. John's. She married her boss, a wealthy widower 25 years her senior and the father of five boys. Gerald Doyle was the eponymous founder of the Doyle Bulletin and the Doyle Songbook. They had an 11-year idyll, including sailing around outport Newfoundland in their own yacht. But Gerald's sudden death in 1956 left 39-year-old Mary with eight children, a household staff, and a business to run. She was "game" a word she loved. She toured Europe for three months with children and no itinerary and later drove around Morocco in an Austin Mini. At age 57 she was awarded a long yearned for university degree. But a deep-rooted contrariness complicated every relationship. She fell out with maids, doctors, neighbours, siblings, and her best friend and faux lover, a priest. A fierce sense of how the world should be drove her battles."-- Provided by publisher.