The story begins with the delivery of a family of wolves, hunted down by Erastus and the family’s tracker, to Eudora (Dorrie). She is the youngest of the wives, homely and haunted, living in the ranch’s barn where she mounts her husband’s trophies; her sole role in the household. She has come to the arrangement with her husband that he would not take her body, so long as she continues to bring his pelts to life. It is here, in the lantern-lit dark, that she has time to think about her ailing mother’s letters, her mysterious past and her loveless present, doing what she enjoys most. However, for the very first time, Dorrie is having trouble envisioning how best to mount the bodies.
Ms. York’s attention to grisly details and erotic undertones allows this otherwise literary novel, to read as compellingly as pulp fiction. Such issues explored as jealousy, life, death, lust, betrayal, and ultimately, love lends an ordinary, human feel to an otherwise extraordinary circumstance. However, it is the richness of her characters, each of them surprisingly likeable in their own way, which steals the show. From Thankful, the lusty third wife, Ruth the warm and good natured second wife, Ursula, the mother-hen and first love of Erastus, Bendy the circus contortionist turned stable hand, and Lal the covetous son, to the tracker, who is strangely, the closest to the untouchable Dorrie, these colourful characters bring the mosaic of stories full circle.
Each scene is very self-contained and could very well stand alone as several short stories, but Alissa York masterfully weaves them altogether. In each scene, the tension climbs higher than the last, ebbing again as the scene comes to a close; thus forcing the reader to continue in order to discover where their favourite character will end up, of which they’ll surely have at least one.
The static players work well for this novel, confident in their position and lives. It is only Dorrie who goes through any real revelations in this tale, as she learns the meaning of friendship and acceptance of help in her work. One might believe at first that this is Dorrie’s story, since it clearly begins there, but it is instead a highly motivational plot driven narrative, giving each of the many cast members plenty of room to share their story. They are each, in their own triumphant way, highly settled, happy and comfortable in their skin after troubled histories of insecurity, youth and uncertainty. The Hammer Ranch is where they clearly ought to be.
Alissa York has painted the setting’s picture to equally match the integral landmarks, to the beings that use them. Such things as the silk house worked by Sister Ruth, Dorrie’s barn, Bendy’s stable, Mother (Ursula) Hammer’s locked pantry and Sister Thankful’s seductive chambers, donate the presence of each character’s ingrained being to the setting and allows these tangible rooms to become characters in and of themselves.
When the characters are not able to tell us what we need to know, Ms. York has cleverly utilized the sleep deprived Dorrie’s vivid dreams, where she literally has a bird’s eye view, into the past, and therefore the souls, of the key players. Ultimately, this is where we truly see the theme of the novel – it’s a small world after all and despite our differences, we all are very similar; a moral tale of the dangers of judging others. The human differences amongst race, class, religion, disability, gender, promiscuity, self-esteem and desire, make this family of epic proportions worth reading about.
The voice of the narrator delightfully changes to match the extremely tight descriptive passages, as it also does for each and every character’s innermost thoughts. While this novel does not offer much in the way of action, the inner turmoil in these wonderfully flawed characters is strong. Her tension is built effortlessly fast, within two or three pages, in each and every scene. Then just as quickly, it is put on hold, so that the point of view can shift to the next character’s intriguing part in the saga. When the character re-enters, it is rarely in the same time and place we leave them, but the story is pushed forward by these changing days. A growing closeness with the reader to each of the main seven, especially those that initially, you want to dislike, is seamlessly formed as you learn who they really are.
The novel is intentionally stilted between the short chapters, giving the reader sufficient pause to reflect on the revelations that have just been offered; the author wastes no space in her highly believable tale.
This inspiring work by Ms. York makes one rethink the lifestyle of polygamy, as the mystery surrounding the illusion of lusty greediness and sexual slavery are dissolved through her stab at getting to the truth. However, mundane this story is anything but. Inside the point of view of each character, we learn their deepest, secret and forbidden desires. The ending of this journey of self-discovery is left a surprise to the last, pummeling the reader through breakneck scenes, to a climax of highly satisfying means.
