See What I Have Done
Sarah Schmidt, 2017
Grove Atlantic
324 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780802126597
Summary
Lizzie Borden took an ax
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
Or did she?
In this riveting debut novel, See What I Have Done, Sarah Schmidt recasts one of the most fascinating murder cases of all time into an intimate story of a volatile household and a family devoid of love.
On the morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden calls out to her maid: Someone’s killed Father. The brutal ax-murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, leaves little evidence and many unanswered questions.
While neighbors struggle to understand why anyone would want to harm the respected Bordens, those close to the family have a different tale to tell — of a father with an explosive temper; a spiteful stepmother; and two spinster sisters, with a bond even stronger than blood, desperate for their independence.
As the police search for clues, Emma comforts an increasingly distraught Lizzie whose memories of that morning flash in scattered fragments. Had she been in the barn or the pear arbor to escape the stifling heat of the house? When did she last speak to her stepmother? Were they really gone and would everything be better now?
Shifting among the perspectives of the unreliable Lizzie, her older sister Emma, the housemaid Bridget, and the enigmatic stranger Benjamin, the events of that fateful day are slowly revealed through a high-wire feat of storytelling. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
After completing a bachelor of arts (professional writing/editing), a master of arts (creative writing), and a graduate diploma of information management, Sarah Schmidt currently works as a reading and literacy coordinator (read: a fancy librarian) at a regional public library. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her partner and daughter. (From the publisher .)
Book Reviews
Sarah Schmidt has created a lurid and original work of horror. It's a pity that some of its force has been dissipated by its disorganized and overlong second half. As a result, the novel lacks the ever-tightening narrative torque that might more effectively have delivered the lovely shocker on the last page.
Patrick McGrath - New York Times Book Review
A gripping and still puzzling story… [and] credible imagining of a bizarre episode.
Wall Street Journal
We get only glimpses into the particular hell of the Borden household; the fact that we can fill in the blanks from our own darkest places draws us closer, more uncomfortably, in. Schmidt’s unusual combination of narrative suppression and splurge makes for a surprising, nastily effective debut. Neighbours, doctor, police: visitors to the Borden house in the aftermath of the murders react with incredulity. “I don’t think I believe it myself,” says Lizzie.
Justine Jordan - Guardian (UK)
A bloody good read.… A taut, lyrical account of the destruction of the Borden family, both through ax murder and subtler means.… Schmidt inhabits each of her narrators with great skill, channeling their anxieties, their viciousness, with what comes across as (frighteningly) intuitive ease. Everything about Schmidt’s novel is hauntingly, beautifully off. It’s a creepy and penetrating work, even for a book about Lizzie Borden.
USA Today
Debut novelist Sarah Schmidt tackles the murk and silence in this old tale, imagining the cruel secrets of a respected family.
Elle
[The] novel is compelling, scary—and gruesomely visceral.
Entertainment Weekly
This palpable imagining of what led to the murder of Lizzie Borden’s parents will stay with you for as long as this historical mystery has enthralled pop culture.
Redbook
(Starred review.) [U]nforgettable…compelling.… [T]he book honors known facts yet fearlessly claims its own striking vision. Even before the murders, the Bordens' cruel, claustrophobic lives are not easy to visit, but from them Schmidt has crafted a profoundly vivid and convincing fictional world.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) The heated narrative contributes to the sense of simmering craziness permeating the Borden household. A historical time line of actual events is appended. What better subject for a psychological thriller than one of the most notorious murders in U.S. history. —Reba Leiding, emeritus, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Heralds the arrival of a major new talent.… Nail-biting horror mixes with a quiet, unforgettable power to create a novel readers will stay up all night finishing.
Booklist
This fictional retelling of the Lizzie Borden murders is a domestic nightmare … [with] staggeringly gorgeous, feverish prose and the thrill of deep, dark, gruesome detail. (Six of the Brightest New Names in Fiction).
BookPage
(Starred review.) Schmidt creates…a palpable sense of unease.… There are books about murder and there are books about imploding families; this is the rare novel that seamlessly weaves the two together, asking as many questions as it answers.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, please use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for See What I Have Done … then take off on your own:
1. How would you describe Lizzie?
2. What was the family dynamic (or dynamite?) of the Borden household? Talk especially about Andrew Borden and his treatment of his daughters. Consider the sisters' strained relationship with their stepmother. How would you describe the relationship between Lizzie and Emma? What about Lizzie's remark that "None of this would have had happened if she [Emma] hadn't left me in the house." What do you think she meant?
3. What were Lizzie's particular resentments regarding her father? Is there one that might have set her off?
4. Talk about Bridget's position in the house.
5. Schmidt blurs the voices and perceptions of characters. Did you find this confusing? Did it detract from your reading experience? Or is the blurring part and parcel of the emotional intensity that propels the novel?
6. Sarah Schmidt writes with an almost sickening physicality — of odors, vomiting, dirty under garments, or bladders full to bursting. Why might she have chosen to employ such vivid descriptions? What effect does it have on the novel's atmosphere and/or tone?
7. Good mysteries depend on suspended revelation, information withheld from readers. What information does Sarah Schmidt withhold? Consider hints at Lizzie's instability. What other hints, for instance, are leveled at Benjamin or Uncle John?
8. Speaking of Uncle John: what is his role in all of this?
9. Schmidt's novel is both a "whodunit" and a "whydunit." What makes Lizzie the prime suspect: Since she was never convicted, however, what are your thoughts on who most likely murdered the Bordens … and why?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)