The answer to this
question can be found in the chapter entitled "Snapshots." Up until this stage,
Abigail is a woman who is presented as being haunted by her dead daughter and increasingly
alienated by her husband's inability to let Susie go. She needs an escape from this
claustraphobic situation, and so first tries adultery with Len. However, it is clear that this
is not enough of an escape for her. Note how the idea of going to California came about, and why
it was so attractive for Abigail:
My mother made it
through only one winter in New Hampshire before she got the idea of driving all the way to
California. It was something she had always thought she would do but had never done. A man she
met in New Hampshire had told her about the work to be had in wineries in the valleys above San
Fransisco. It was easy to get, it was physical, and it could be, if you wanted it to be, very
anonymous. All three sounded good to her.
Thus we can see
that Abigail went to California because it was something that she had always thought about doing
before the onset of family life. In addition, she could easily pick up physical work, to help
her forget her worries, and she could remain anonymous, and avoid the kind of questions that
would prevent her from truly escaping.
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