Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian
Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is twenty-four-years-old. Her skin is porcelain, her eyes delft blue, and in England she might have had many suitors. But here in The New World, amid this community of saints, Mary is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas, prone to drunken rage, drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary's hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life. But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary - a woman who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony - soon finds herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary's garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight not only to escape her marriage, but also the gallows.
A twisting, tightly-plotted thriller from one of our greatest storytellers, Hour of the Witch is a timely and terrifying novel of socially sanctioned brutality and the original American witch hunt.
Review: In Boston 1662, Mary Deerfield is a twenty-four year old married to a widower nearly twice her age. From a relatively prominent family, she might have had a very different life and marriage had she remained in England but here in the New World she finds herself trapped in a marriage to a cruel drunk who is clever enough to conceal his abuse to her from others. After he drives a fork into the back of her hand, she realizes she must attempt to divorce him in order to save her life. But her possession of forks, referred to by many as "the devil's tines", along with what is deemed other suspicious behavior by her servant girl cast doubt on her own Christian faith. In a world of subjugated women and suspicion of witchery at every turn, she finds herself and her own reputation on trial.
In a world where women had next to no power and divorce was almost unheard of, Mary is a very brave soul to seek divorce from her abusive husband. She is an honest and likeable character and its easy to feel empathy for her plight. All Mary prays for is to have a child but she appears to have been content to live without becoming a mother, save for the physical and verbal abuse of her husband that caused her to seek a way out of her situation. I also had great respect for her parents for supporting their daughter and believing her testimony even when others doubted her husband had been cruel to her.
And yet, despite the thrill of the plot, this book dragged significantly. The details of the trial seemed interminable. Each plodding line of the court is duly transcribed and included in excruciating detail. I felt like Mary's relationship and attraction to Henry isn't fully fleshed out and seems to detract from her credibility as simply a wronged wife, but perhaps it is merely to show she is imperfect and longs for what might have been. I do wish the author had included more details about how Mary and her husband ever wound up together. Other than being fairly well off, Mary's husband seems like a poor choice for her and given her parents' tender love for her, it's hard to imagine they would have chosen such an old man who had a daughter the same age as Mary for her husband. Yet no details of their marriage or courtship were shared at all, which seemed like a jarring oversight.
This novel was well written and I expected nothing less from Bohjalian. It captures the time period of Boston the 1660s, as well as the hysteria of the time for seeking out witchcraft. Yet despite the thrilling nature of the plot and the main character's daring attempt to free herself from her fate, it missed the mark for me.
Stars: 3
Related Titles:
- Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
- Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian
- The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
Comments
Post a Comment