BEHIND CLOSED DOORS by Susan R Sloan
Susan R Sloan has written a powerful story about a woman whose entire married life is filled with abuse. Sloan goes for the insights into the mind and manner of the victim and the abuser. It is never enough for justification of this kind of behavior, but it does give the reader a reason to think about the "why" of it all.
The book opens with Valerie Marsh on trial for the death of her husband Jack. As she awaits the verdict the book flashes back to the time when Jack and Valerie first met. It moves from there through their courtship and subsequent marriage. Valerie is too young and too inexperienced to be ready for marriage. Her family knows this but they can't convince Valerie of it.
Valerie is unaware of Jack's troubled past. His mother died when he was very young and his father never recovered from this loss. A variety of women were subsequently involved with Jack's father. They came into Jack's life but none provided a constant love and none protected him from his father's abusive ways. Jack grew up doomed to repeat his father's mistakes.
As the story progresses the lives of Jack and Valerie's children take center stage at one point or another. There are very few happy moments in the story and more than enough tragedies to fill multiple lifetimes. Valerie and Jack are doomed to lives of bitterness and frustration.
Sloan paints a full picture of her characters and makes each sympathetic in a way. Still the reader is repulsed by Jack's violence and Valerie's weaknesses. They are wrong for each other and in a strange way wrong for themselves.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS is a portrait of lives joined together forever and heading downhill fast. You will be appalled by the cruelty involved but also fascinated by the detailed stories that are told.
Sloan is a superb storyteller and is able to pull off a sneak twist at the very end of the story. For this and other reasons her book makes for riveting reading.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS is published by Warner Books. It contains 467 pages and sells for $25.95.