What Maisie Knew

What Maisie Knew is structured by the tension between innocence and corruption. Maisie, as a young and at least initially ignorant child, is a clear example of innocence. Through her experiences with her parents and stepparents, however, Maisie becomes deeply familiar with the moral corruption of human society—a process which, the novel suggests, is simply an extreme version of growing up. Maisie begins the novel wholly unaware of her parents’ immorality: at the time…

Though she is too young to understand much of it, Maisie’s life is shaped by the power of money and society as much as it is by the specific quirks of her dysfunctional family. Through its indirect exploration of money and society, What Maisie Knew argues that one of the strongest forces in family life isn’t necessarily familial at all, as the pressure to present themselves in a certain way to the wider social…

What Maisie Knew is not only the story of a child in the aftermath of her parents’ divorce, but also the story of a child experiencing and perceiving that aftermath. As suggested by the novel’s title, Maisie’s growing awareness and understanding of her situation are essential elements of the plot, as she slowly makes sense of the tangled knot of relationships and affairs that form around her—and eventually chooses her place within them. By…