Re-Inventing Fate | “The World at Home” by Ginny Kubitz Moyer

Re-Inventing Fate: The Role of Choice in The World at Home

The World at Home begins in 1944 as a young Irene Cleary, having grown up in a San Francisco orphanage, now emerges as a 20-year-old business owner. With a keen eye for aesthetics and exceptional talent with a needle, Irene takes over the shop of her recently deceased mentor, Anna. When Cynthia Burke, a Nob Hill socialite, calls upon her to make an alteration, Irene not only gains new customers but an intimate look at how the other half lives. Cynthia has just married nightclub owner Max Burke, but it doesn’t take long for Irene to sense that all is not well between the newlyweds despite their combined clout. 

As Irene learns more about her long-time friends, recent acquaintances, and even the family that surrendered her at birth to the nuns, she must reconcile her previous perception of morality with her newfound knowledge of reality as it plays out before her. Is the person she becomes set in stone, or can she change the path based on her choices?

A Proper Lady 

Irene’s upbringing has left her with clear ideas of what is right and wrong—love and fairness win over all else. But her strict concepts are tested by the behaviors of those around her who embrace the opposite yet come away seemingly unscathed. Soon she finds herself in the middle of a complicated affair and must question what determines who she really is—what her biological parents were like? The decisions she chooses to make now? Her role as a woman in 1940s America amidst a war? 

So much of the early to mid-1900s was about protecting men’s egos and serving them as Moyer has artfully captured in The World at Home. Whether it’s accepting a dance at the USO so as not to embarrass the serviceman asking or hemming men’s pants despite the unpleasantness that may bring, gender roles and expectations are exposed in Moyer’s novel along with classism and the far reach of restrictions during wartime. 

A Peak Behind the Curtain

Irene reflects on her luck of having gone from the orphanage to the boarding house to owning a business, a path that has been carved for her. Growing up, she was fascinated by paper dolls and fashion, and played closely with her friend Trixie, who lived at the orphanage for a while but was reclaimed by her parents after her mother’s illness passed. Trixie’s family opens their home to Irene who visits often and feels like part of the Dubuque family, even remaining friends with Trixie as the two young women surpass their teenage years. When the Dubuque parents move away, Irene feels her sense of belonging in the world wane even more. 

Unmoored by the divergent path she is taking from her peers who are in college or are distracted by bedding the servicemen during their shore leaves, Irene feels a sense of camaraderie as Cynthia Burke invites her into her world more and more, where she gets to know Max even better. Max may be successful, but Cynthia comes from old money. Her family never accepted him into the reputable McNeil crowd, and Cynthia still pines for Fred Gibson, the man she used to date, who is still part of their inner circle despite Fred also being recently married. Irene comes to suspect that Cynthia and Max’s marriage is one of friction and possibly of haste. 

The Burke’s opulence versus Cynthia’s scarcity (she doesn’t even own a proper bed), underscores the world of have and have-nots. Max, whose real last name is Bukowski, understands something of Irene’s pain having also lost his parents and unable to participate in the war due to an arrhythmia. Though he is a decade older than Irene, he expresses to her that he’d like her to help decorate the new nightclub he is opening and soon his professional interest turns personal. Hovering between being a virgin and not becoming a “V-girl,” Irene finds herself lured in by Max’s charm and genuine care for her.

Keeping Up Appearances 

Irene, self-conscious of her all-consuming freckles, admires all the decadence she encounters but never wanted anything more than a family. When Anna passes away, she sets her sights instead on achieving her dream of becoming a well-known designer. She also volunteers at the USO where, prior to the book’s opening, she met a man she fell hard for. When their love story is cut down in its infancy, she questions how she handled the start of the relationship and is wary of getting close to anyone new. 

Still, exciting opportunities pop up as Irene agrees to help the ballet with their costumes for free since the ballet meant a great deal to her predecessor, Anna. The Nutcracker is debuting in the US for the first time. Cynthia continues to be the picture of politeness as she continues to hire Irene for more work, but the secrets between them threaten this harmonious client relationship. 

Moyer’s masterful descriptions and realistic settings transport the reader to San Francisco, making us feel like the private audience to the seamless narrative of The World at Home. The protagonist’s resourcefulness and fortitude are on display alongside her generous heart and spirit. The slow reconciling of reality with hopes, dreams, and beliefs is what slowly crushes her over the course of this story. 

When are we disabused of the notion that the world is ultimately good and fair? Do good things really come to those who wait or is that just a method of manipulation? With reality slapping her in the face left and right, Irene must decide if she can live a life that doesn’t allow her past to define her future. At one point in The World at Home, Irene muses that it seems the closer you are to something, the more ownership you should feel, yet it was only from up high that she could obtain this feeling. The 10,000-foot view of life may be what saves her in the end. 

~Allie Coker