*A Trigger Warning: characters in this novel face traumas such as death, sexual assault, and other violence against women and children that will be referenced in this post.*
The Before:
I found Westering Women when scrolling through the audiobooks provided by my local library. I have been interested in the lives women throughout history. Although it is not a traditional romance novel, it is a story of love between women and the bonds of sisterhood. Recently, I have seen stories of friendship love become more common in literature. This can be seen in films such as "Bridesmaids" or "The Half of It". Although I haven't read it myself, from what I understand Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell is a novel with similar themes.
The Feels:Maggie is a great main character. She's a little bit naive and meek. I get the meekness, because she had been in an abusive relationship with her husband for years. I don't understand how she can be so naive though, especially since her husband was so monstrous to her.
Any character named Lavinia is always going to be terrible (Thank you "Downton Abbey"). This novel was actually able to help me build some empathy for a Lavinia.
When looking at reviews on Goodreads, I noticed a lot of people being upset with the "men bashing" in this book. I think what people don't understand that this novel portrays a fairly accurate depiction of how men were allowed to act historically. We really only hear about the abusive men, because we are following a group of women who were abused. It would be totally different if the book was about a group of high society women. Maybe then we would only one or two women who face violence from their husbands. The women we follow have faced trauma throughout their lives, which implies that everyone they know has faced some sort of trauma. Being surrounded by trauma is a trait most common in the people in our society that are the most down trodden. A way for men to deal wth their trauma (in a subconscious way) was/is for them to act out in violence. At the time this story takes place, the law and society even supports them being allow to act violently toward their wives. This was a harsh reality of the time and I really don't see this as the author bashing men in the novel. Yes, there are some men in the novel that do terrible things, but, to me, it does not come across as them doing these terrible things for no reason. Even if someone today were to argue with one of these men doing bad in the novel, he would argue back that his wife is his property and he could do what he wished with her and the law would openly be on his side. This is actually what started First Wave Feminism, women fighting back and supporting each other by pointing out that the constitution stated all people were free (...except for slaves... and American Indians... and other non-white people... and the Irish... and the Italians... oh and don't forget about children... and those in prison...) It's horrible, but this is the way things were... (are?)
The ending of the book makes some of the more dull parts worth it. Please know that there is a lot of suffering in this book, but it has a joyous ending.
The Concerns:
There is a lot in this book about sexual assault. I'm glad that Dallas addressed the suffering that many women have historically gone through. What bothered me was how the women reacted to their assaults. I understand that different people will react to trauma in different ways and I respect that. What I take issue with is that the women in this novel will react to other traumas they face, but they don't react to the sexual assaults that happen to them. I know that writing a character that has gone through sexual trauma can be difficult and I can tell Dallas clearly tried. I just wish she had developed the characters more, because otherwise, it makes it feel like sexual assault is being used as a plot point. One of the sexual assaults I feel should have been left out deals with a small child and her father. That felt a little unnecessarily violent and like a quickly forgotten plot point by the main characters. Instead she could have had the father hit or almost hit the child, because it would have left the mother with a similar reaction. Don't get me wrong, hitting a child is a terrible thing, but sexually assaulting a child is far worse and it was implied that it had happened before. In my opinion, that's just too much.
I'm not a fan of how race in portrayed in this book. Being a racist is common amongst the villains in the novel. For me, it trivializes racism. In the book you either think whites are better than everyone or not, which is just not the case in real life. The way the Native Americans are portrayed in the novel is actually fairly racist; the book gives off the a "noble savage" vibe. I kept waiting for the group to come across a Native American that they would help or would help them or join the group, but instead they were treated as either violent or drunks or abusive to "their women". We don't hear from any characters of color, we just hear what white characters have to say about them. Evelyn, the only black character, is highly educated and has been cared for as a loved servant by the wealthiest woman in the group. Maggie never really interacts with her and we never seen anything from her perspective.
Then I looked at her Goodreads profile and it stated that she writes about themes such as "human dignity". Not when it comes to people of color. Not when it comes to this particular book. I'm going to have to take off a lot of points for this. I am completely disappointed in Dallas.
Plot: 8/10
Writing Style: 7/10
Meaningfullness: /210
