Thunderhead
Miranda Darling
Scribe, 2024
Just like in Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf’s 1925 observational novel detailing a single day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, Miranda Darling’s central character, Winona Dalloway, is preparing for a party. Clarissa starts her morning “buying the flowers herself” as her servants take care of the preparations for the party, reflecting upon the choices she has made that have resulted in her current role at the apex of the London social hierarchy, only paying oblique attention to the casualties of war and her own carelessness.
Winona starts her day similarly pondering on her own situation as an externally glamorous Wife #3 to an ambitious man who organises her life via text message. She quit her job to write romantic fiction “because it would make him feel safe” but instead of reflecting upon her achievements, berates herself for her failures and the ways in which she embarrasses her husband.
Miranda Darling’s style is highly engaging as she has constructed an unreliable narrator who reflects many of the anxieties of womanhood. Winona has subjugated her desires to the will of her husband and despite loving aspects of her role as wife and mother, often feels stymied by his stereotypical expectations. She documents his increasingly frustrated attempts to deal with her fragmenting personality in conventional ways but maintains both engagement with and sympathy for Winona.
Miranda Darling has created a distinctive character who walks a fine line between agency and lunacy, filled with interesting observations and personal reflections upon her life and the lives of others. It is finally an uplifting and innovative tale, that takes the life of Mrs Dalloway and considers her through the consciousness of a 21st century context.
