Private Way: A Novel by Ladette Randolph

Abstract

Reviewed by: Private Way: A Novel by Ladette Randolph Manish Pandey Ladette Randolph, Private Way: A Novel. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2022. 227 pp. Paper, $21.95; e-book, $10.99. “I have lost the thread of my life” (15). Vivi Marx, the protagonist of Ladette Randolph’s novel Private Way, utters this line as she decides to move to Lincoln, Nebraska. Her departure from Southern California to Nebraska does not signal a short sojourn; in fact, she is intent on staying for a year. The owner of a financially successful social media platform, Vivi has become the target of cyberbullies, whose harassment has now extended into her real life (in one scene, she finds dozens of dead rats in her pool). Anxious and frightened, Vivi decides to move to Lincoln, Nebraska, because it is “the only place where [she’d] ever really felt safe” (14). There, she hopes to live a life of seclusion, an insular life without the internet. But, in a small, rural town, can one’s life really be private? Then, even if it is, is such a solitary life fulfilling? Among other important questions, the novel is chiefly preoccupied with these two and, in answering them, offers an exciting glimpse of the social code and the dynamic of the relationships that exist in the small-town communities of Midwest America. Characterized by Vivi’s desire to become an antithetical figure to her mother, the novel thus begins with the narration of her nomadic upbringing. Vivi’s mother is unsentimental, a disposition that seeps into her parenting, as she is described as “careless.” Similarly, Vivi also finds her contradictory; despite her talks about “entanglements,” she is able to entangle herself with a new man in every new place she settles. Vivi narrates that she “blames her mother” for being an outcast everywhere she goes. Their dynamic can be summed up with their attitudes toward Nebraska: Vivi’s mother feels no affinity to the place despite it being her birthplace, whereas for Vivi, it is a place of comfort because of the summers she spent there with [End Page 440] her grandma. However, despite Vivi’s best attempts at distancing herself from her mother, we find out that they are, in fact, similar in their penchant for individuality and also condescension (although Vivi doesn’t realize it) toward small-town life. While Vivi’s search for a private life takes her into Fieldcrest Drive, it becomes apparent from the onset that, due to the presence of the neighbors, leading such a life is impossible. Though she can stay away from the internet, there is not much privacy to be had in the community. As Audra, one of her neighbors explains, in a small community like Fieldcrest Drive, “there’s no privacy” but what exists is “a code of discretion that allows everyone to pretend they have privacy” (210). Additionally, in a town where everyone knows everything about everyone, Vivi’s inclination to keep her past a secret makes her a target of suspicion. To fully be accepted into the community, she will have to become vulnerable and reveal her private life, and this conflict thrusts the plot forward. Set in the backdrop of the 2016 presidential election, the novel undermines the assumptions many have about the Midwest being conservative and parochial. Ivan, one of Vivi’s friends with Czech heritage, tells that Lincoln used to be an “immigrant reset-tlement community” (124). When he invites her to a Thanksgiving dinner, Vivi is “surprised by how many of [his relatives] are Bernie supporters” (128). By the end of the novel, Vivi reaches a nuanced conclusion in that “personal differences [have] to be set aside to live a meaningful and dignified life in close proximity” (223). This makes the novel all the more resonant in the America we live in today. Undoubtedly, Randolph’s novel deals with complex questions and provides a refreshing representation of small-town life in rural Nebraska. [End Page 441] Manish Pandey Texas Tech University Copyright © 2023 Western Literature Association ...