I Am Mary Dunne Explained

I Am Mary Dunne is a novel, first published in 1968, by Northern Irish-Canadian writer Brian Moore about one day in the life of a beautiful and well-to-do 31-year-old Canadian woman living in New York City with her third husband, a successful playwright. Triggered by seemingly unimportant occurrences, the protagonist / first person narrator remembers her past in a series of flashbacks, which reveal her insecurities, her bad conscience concerning her first two husbands, and her fear that she is on the brink of insanity.

I Am Mary Dunne has been described as "perhaps [Brian Moore's] best book".^[1] Robert Fulford, writing in Canada's The Globe and Mail, calls it "[a] feminist novel written before the wave of feminist novels began".^[2]

In its original draft, I Am Mary Dunne was called A Woman of No Identity.^[3]

Further reading

• Brady, Charles A. "I Am Mary Dunne" in Eire-Ireland 3, Winter 1968, pp. 136–40.
• Dorenkamp, J H. "Finishing the day: Nature and Grace in Two Novels by Brian Moore" in Eire-Ireland 13, Spring 1978, pp. 103–112.

Notes and References

1. Book: The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English . Cambridge University Press, third edition. . Head, Dominic . 2006 . . 978-0521831796. 762.
2. News: Brian Moore: A writer who never failed to surprise his readers . . 12 January 1999 . Fulford, Robert . Robert Fulford (journalist) . 6 February 2016.
3. Book: Brian Moore: A Biography . . Craig, Patricia . Patricia Craig (writer) . 2002 . London . 199 . 978-0747560043 .