Arlene and Paul Tobler give up teaching to run the Tobler family farm after Paul’s father dies. Now in their fifties, Arlene is accustomed to the silence of their marriage and of the careful frugality of a family farm that exists from crop to crop. But she is also aware of what she has given up.
In their circle of friends, who gather for cards and chitchat, Nancy and Burton are conducting a clandestine affair. Nancy’s husband Harvey confronts the lovers one night and pulls out a gun. Although the sin is Nancy’s and Burton’s, they don’t pay the price.
Full of uneasy silences, Wilson’s novel is haunting–especially the first part, told from Arlene’s point of view. This was a novella in and of itself.
But then it continued. I initially had reservations about the second section, which is told by Nancy. Completely different from Arlene–willfully blind, haplessly female, and completely uneducated–the continuation of the story takes off with Nancy and Burton married. Violence once again erupts; again they don’t pay the price. At least at first.
Recommend.
On a final note: Most of the time, you can tell when someone of the opposite sex has written from the other gender’s POV. Not in this case.