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Wives and Sisters
By Natalie R. Collins
St. Martin's Press
Reviewed by: Rob
Holden
One of the basic questions that mankind has always had to deal with is: which is more important -- the rights of the individual, or the supremacy of the collective? No, I am not starting a sociological thesis here, but rather presenting what -- it seems to this reviewer -- is the question at the very heart of Wives and Sisters, the amazing début novel from Natalie R. Collins.
When she was six years old, Allison Jensen and her best friend were playing in the woods near her home when a man approached them. One moment her friend was beside her, and the next moment she was gone forever -- not only from Allison's life, but also seemingly from the memories of the tightly knit Mormon community in which she lived. The questions that she asked about her friend were met with evasive answers and lies. Years later, after a brutal attack, Allison once again finds herself questioning the society in which she lives -- and the amazing amount of secrecy and deception that she finds from the leaders of her community as she tries to search for the truth. The closer Allison gets to the identity of the sexual predator that is stalking her, the more roadblocks she finds thrown up in front of her by the hierarchy of the patriarchal Mormon society in which she lives. The leadership of her community -- which includes her own father -- doesn't want her to find out the truth, just as they didn't want her to know the truth of what happened to her friend all those years before. And yet it is this very truth that holds the only chance for her to survive.
There are a few things that make Wives and Sisters stand out. First off -- though this is Collins' first novel, the tempo and pace at which the narrative is presented is that of a very seasoned author. Past and present are intricately interwoven to create a tapestry of almost palpable suspense which moves along at a pace that keeps the reader turning page after page. The writing is tight - there is no fat in this novel, and there are no long, brooding soliloquies to slow down the action. Collins tells her story with an economy of words that one rarely sees with new writers.
However, what really makes Wives and Sisters an amazing achievement is the narrator of the story, Allison Jensen. In Allison, Collins presents the reader with a character who suffers from the same sort of angst and self doubt that everybody does, and yet manages to pull down deep inside herself to find a kind of courage that even she never knew she had. She is a character who never in the course of the story has all the answers -- or for that matter, even all the questions - and yet is compelled by her own convictions to risk everything in her quest for the truth. She is a woman who is willing to go up against everything she has ever known armed with nothing but her own belief that what has happened to her will happen to others if she doesn't stop it. Allison's character takes what would otherwise be a run-of-the-mill suspense novel and turns it into a story of courage, hope and the raw power of simple human dignity.
Interestingly enough, Collins manages to tell her story while at the same time avoiding the "Mormon bashing" that seems to currently be in vogue -- both in a few recent non-fiction bestsellers, and in the press (particularly surrounding the Elizabeth Smart case). Rather than indicting the entire religion, Collins crafts a story that revolves around individuals that could exist in any religion or ethnic community anywhere in the world and, in doing so, broadens the overall appeal of the work. Allison Jensen happens to be Mormon, but her story easily translates to any society that puts more of a value on the appearance of propriety than it does on the rights and safety of the individual.
Wives and Sisters is an amazing achievement, and in this reviewer's opinion is a just read. Natalie R. Collins is an author that we shall be seeing great things from in the future.
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