The Half Wives

February 27, 2017
Pelletier’s (Accidents of Providence) excellent second novel chronicles May 22, 1897, as it unfolds in San Francisco for Marilyn Plageman; her ex-pastor husband, Henry; Henry’s mistress of 10 years, taxidermist Lucy Christensen; and their daughter, Blue. After their son, Jack, died on his second birthday, Marilyn rebuffed her husband’s affections. Four years later, Henry met Lucy and began an affair with her. Marilyn has remained in the dark for many years, volunteering for charitable causes and longing to communicate with Henry while pushing him away. On what would have been Jack’s 16th birthday, everyone is on a path that leads to the cemetery where he is buried. Henry’s running late for his annual ritual of planting flowers at Jack’s grave site because he spent the night in jail after fighting to save the cemetery from being disinterred and turned into oceanfront property. Marilyn plans to disrupt Henry’s routine; she brings along an orphaned child she befriended at the opening of an orphanage. Blue is recovering from having fallen through a skylight at a pump station where Lucy was trying to glean information for an article she planned on selling to the local paper. Lucy, who has managed to stay away from Henry for four months, is worried about how the separation will affect Blue, who longs for her father’s company, and feels the need to bring Blue to see Henry at the cemetery. Pelletier’s writing is moving and enthralling and conveys the conflict at the heart of the book: “He was never going to marry you,” Lucy tells herself, “But he’s not married to Marilyn either. He’s yoked to that child in the ground, that child the city wants to move.” Pelletier keeps readers hooked right up to the book’s satisfying conclusion.

February 1, 2017
Pelletier's (Accidents of Providence, 2012) second novel unfolds a complex story in the span of 24 hours--the dreaded yet celebrated anniversary of Henry and Marilyn Plageman's son Jack's birth...and death.Dead 14 years on May 22, 1897, Jack would have been 16 if he had lived. Traditionally, on the morning of May 22, Lucy, Henry's lover of 10 years, helps him plant new flowers at Jack's gravesite and then leaves before unsuspecting Marilyn arrives to mourn. This particular day, the normally well-orchestrated schedule collapses, soon to be followed by the tenuous relationships that have been precipitated by grief. Pelletier expertly fills in the back story--introspection and memories mingle smoothly with the present. Henry, Marilyn, and Lucy relate their stories in the second person, a point of view that serves to distance them from their own lives, as if they are not living but merely being observed. Henry once had a life with a warm, loving wife and beloved son...until that sunlit afternoon when Jack was napping and he and Marilyn made love. Marilyn can no longer bear intimacy with Henry. Her life was once filled to the brim with love...until loss and guilt stepped in. Lucy met a broken Henry and fell in love. She thought he might leave Marilyn, not understanding that he was inextricably bound to her...until she saw them together at the cemetery. Blue, Henry and Lucy's 8-year-old daughter, loves her absentee father deeply, but her impulsive action in the cemetery on this calamitous Saturday brings relationships to a wrenching conclusion. In the end, the half wives may be able to redeem their lives, but it remains to be seen if Henry will stay locked in his own half-life. Well-crafted characters struggling alone with shared grief furnishes a coursing river on which this intriguing story effortlessly flows. Tough to put down.

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February 15, 2017

Every visitor to San Francisco's Cliff House and the ruins of the Sutro Baths, which burned down in 1966, wonders about what it was like to visit the famous turn-of-the-century spa. Set on May 22, 1897, this first novel takes us there, introducing four protagonists--Harry Plagemen; his wife, Marilyn; Lucy Christiansen, Harry's mistress (or half wife); and Blue, Harry and Lucy's eight-year-old daughter--who live in the Richmond District neighborhood near the city cemetery and the baths. Their lives collide on this day when Henry and Marilyn make their annual pilgrimage to the city cemetery to visit their son's grave; the two-year-old boy had choked to death. At the graveyard, the parties in this ten-year love triangle reach a breaking point. VERDICT While the four-person narrative style gives us various perspectives and allows insight into the characters' denial of their situation, it ultimately limits development of their personalities. Best for readers interested in San Francisco and Richmond district history.--Cheryl Bryan, Orleans, MA

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