Mrs. S by K. Patrick

 

The setting is rural England at the kind of English boarding school that worships the past and 'girls' who have come through it.  Tradition and rules are everything.  Into this structure comes a young Australian girl, only twenty-two, who has been hired as the matron, a title that has little defined roles but seems to boil down to watching the girls and making sure they are where they are supposed to be.  The matron is openly gay and at first has no friends among the staff.  But she finds that the housemistress is also gay and they form a friendship. The girls seem to know and sometimes make comments but overall she is accepted by them and the rest of the staff.

Then there is Mrs. S, the wife of the headmaster.  As opposed to the protagonist, Mrs. S. is the epitome of femininity. She dresses in lovely dresses daily, even in the sweltering heat of an English heat wave.  All the girls love her and want her attention.  But the Australian has an immediate attraction to Mrs. S. and it is difficult to tell if Mrs. S. is also attracted to her or if she is merely being friendly.  As the weeks go by, the attraction grows on both sides and soon the two are having a torrid affair.  Surely this is a state of affairs that is doomed to disaster.

K. Patrick is one of Granta's annual Best Young Novelists.  She is Scottish and both a poet and a novelist.  The author identifies as trans-masculine.  The sex scenes in the book are quite graphic which could be an issue for some readers.  Patrick is able to portray the slow, building attraction between the matron and the headmaster's wife, one young and openly gay, one middle-aged and the epitome of what is considered 'normal' in a compelling way that makes it seem normal when the two actually get together.  Patrick herself attended a rural English school with famous former students who were authors as this environment is portrayed.  I found this book and author fascinating and a good indication of what literature can do for us, showing a world many of us will never know.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.