Review of Carolyn J. Rose’s An Uncertain Refuge
(Carolyn J. Rose, An Uncertain Refuge, ISBN 9780983735908)
Don’t miss this book! It’s a thriller, full of action and suspense. Moreover, the underlying theme, spouse abuse and exploitation of women, points out inconvenient social ills in our society—indeed, in the world. Ms. Rose’s prose is riveting and her characters sparkle with authenticity. None of the story seems contrived. I couldn’t put it down.
First, the story: Kate Dalton manages an Arkansan domestic violence shelter, a place where abused women go as a last recourse when the prehistoric system of restraining orders fails, as it usually does. Amanda Blake’s double ex—one ex for angry ex-husband and the other for violent ex-con—shows up at the shelter and tries to kill her. Kate steps in with a few martial arts skills and ex-hubby dies by his own knife. The governing board of the shelter, led by a sleazy misogynist lawyer, decides it wants to take advantage of the publicity, but Kate doesn’t, so the board fires Kate. She heads out of town but is detoured by the recovering Amanda who cons Kate into being her son’s guardian while, like a mother bird leading the cat away from the nestlings, takes the ex-husband’s equally violent brother on a wild goose chase.
Kate seeks and finds comfort in menial labor while running a motel located on the Oregon shore. She and Amanda’s son (the kid is a hoot) are befriended by two of the motel workers, the chamber maid and the handyman; an older woman running an animal shelter; and a sheriff who prefers fishing in solitude but is ready to help. She begins a process of bonding with Amanda’s son. But all along the brother is hot on Kate’s trail. After killing Amanda in Ohio, he makes it to Oregon. The confrontation with Kate turns into a confrontation with the handyman, but I won’t spoil the ending for you.
Historically spouse abuse and exploitation of women have been associated with ignorance and the lower classes. Now we know (or should know) better. It permeates all social classes and educational levels of male homo sapiens (the sapiens part is debatable, of course). In fact, some of the most egregious cases correspond to well educated and well-off men who still believe that their wives and girl friends are private property to use and abuse as they please. Some societies, of course, even institutionalize this. Is there any difference between the fundamentalist Mormon Jeffers and an Arab emir with his multiple wives? Is there any difference between a Hindu who lights fire to his wife so that he can get a bigger dowry or fundamentalist Muslims strictly interpreting Sharia law by stoning an unfaithful wife to death?
When I was in South America, I was saddened by obvious cases of abuse where the woman would say something like “Oh, I think he doesn’t really love me unless he slaps me around a little.” This is victim mentality. The other excuse often heard: “Oh, he’s just gets nasty when he drinks—otherwise, he’s fine.” The latter often corresponded to the husband spending the week’s wages on aguardiente and then going home to beat on his wife who asked for money for groceries. Some excuse! In the U.S. “the reasons” can be more sophisticated—cocaine, meth, uppers and downers—but it’s the same phenomenon. How many prostitutes die by violence perpetrated by their pimps or johns? Abuse can attack all social levels too—the only difference is that in the U.S. the well-to-do can afford to send their transgressors to rehab.
Rose’s book is a troubling portrayal of the violence that is often associated with abuse. I have touched on abuse in Full Medical (the Defense Secretary’s wife) and The Midas Bomb (Sgt. Castilblanco’s defense of an abused wife when the detective was a SEAL stationed in Korea). The Saudi ambassador in Scherzo Two of Soldiers of God laments the fundamentalist teachings that force his country to reject half their human resources, the Saudi women. The mother of the victim in that novel relates the story about how her Iraqi family disowned her and threatened to kill her for marrying an infidel.
Ms. Rose doesn’t dwell on the causes of the abuse. I can understand that it would be a distraction from the plot flow. Moreover, there are too many “causes.” I associate most abusers with rigid fundamentalist personalities with sociopathic tendencies. Religious causes can be found in the dogma of sects even in the U.S. The causes are so varied because abuse cuts through all social strata. However, Rose does hint at an important truism: abuse tends to run in families. One flipped out family member can set off a chain reaction through multiple generations. Kate even worries that Amanda’s boy will turn out like his father and not his mother.
In some sense, An Uncertain Refuge is a feel-good book. Outcomes in real life are generally more complex and deadly. Our justice system seems incapable of handling abuse—it’s only handled well when good people with common sense and good intentions step in to save the day. Otherwise, disaster can strike. If the woman is killed, we tsk-tsk and go on with our lives. If she kills her abuser, she ends up in jail, like the women in Massachusetts a few years back, and we forget about it. Like the media in Rose’s book, our sensationalist reporters play up the violence and then drop the story. We need to think seriously about changing the way the justice system handles abuse cases. Perhaps Refuge will raise a few eyebrows and stimulate such change. Other writers can help by weaving it into their stories. Burying our heads in the sand is definitely not the solution!
(Carolyn J. Rose is one of my “Stealth Authors”—see my webpage “Steve’s Bookshelf.” She has continued here tradition of writing exciting prose in this “must read.”)
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