The Scarlet D

A woman leaves a terrible marriage, comes home to New York, and discovers her real crime: making the family say the word divorce out loud. Roxane Gay watches old New York's immune system activate against Ellen Olenska in chapters two through five, and names what the antibodies are made of: blame, projection, and gossip, the one currency everyone here accepts. Along the way she dismantles Newland Archer's flattering self-portrait, item by item, and issues a warning about May Welland that the whole series will keep proving true. The scarlet letter in this book is a D.