Pastors' Wives

April 1, 2013
Marriage to the man at the pulpit is an ordeal of biblical proportions for a trio of wives in this uneven debut from former Time reporter Cullen. Ruthie and Jerry fulfill our expectations of New Yorkers--he works in finance, she in PR, and they live busy lives filled with takeout and friends. Then Jerry is called to God. Ruthie, a lapsed Catholic, is stunned but supportive when Jerry announces he is quitting Wall Street to work for an evangelical megachurch in Georgia. She always knew Jerry was spiritual (after all, they met while he was a theology student), but their religious differences seemed irrelevant to their urban life. Soon enough, the two are on the campus of the Greenleaf Church, where staff and parishioners are encouraged to drive green hybrids, use the church's store and cafe, enjoy the Christian-themed yoga studio and enroll the kids in their day care. Ruthie and Jerry are housed in the same gated community where the church's charismatic leader, Aaron Green, and his wife, Candace, live. Ruthie is strangely nonplused by their move to a Southern-style Stepford and is in fact impressed by first lady Candace. While Jerry is turning into Pastor Green's right-hand man, Ruthie makes friends with Ginger, Candace and Aaron's daughter-in-law. Ginger is often alone with her two small children (while her husband happily jets around the world on disaster relief missions), at the mercy of Candace's haughty commands. When Ginger's past (an Internet porn career before she was saved and married) comes to light, Candace shows everyone how to play hardball. Meanwhile, Ruthie fears that she and Jerry are drifting apart and that he is seeing the choir's lead singer, a true believer, which is something Ruthie will never be. Though Cullen's story occasionally feels like a juicy secret revealed, the novel lacks a consistent authorial point of view. Filled with Bible verses and an insider's unquestioning acceptance of evangelicalism (the novel could do well in the Christian fiction market), it fails to fully examine Ruthie's role as outsider until the end. A case of a reporter's objectivity failing the needs of fiction.

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 15, 2013
Ruthie Matters was raised Catholic, but when her husband hears a call to serve, she follows him to a megachurch in Magnolia, Georgia. There, among the suburban lawns and smoothie bars, she takes on the unpaid job of pastor's wife and publicist for Greenleaf megachurch. Pastor Aaron's wife, Candace, is, for better or worse, her role model, and she is a force to be reckoned with. Candace's daughter-in-law, Ginger, struggles to balance two young children and her husband's growing following, but she lacks Candace's grace and confidence, not to mention her approval. The strength of this first novel by the author of Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death (2007) lies in characterization. Each woman is complicated enough to avoid stereotyping, especially Candace (although she does have some wonderful ice-queen moments). As each faces threats to her way of lifebad publicity, secrets from the past, temptationeach comes to her own conclusions about faith and her place in the community. Engaging, funny, and thoughtful, this is a book that can bring Christian-fiction and secular women's fiction readers together.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)