The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran

Release date: 2010 / 353 pages

Synopsis (from Amazon): When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected—and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret and her children.

First line: “A common bat on the other side of the world elects to sink its rabid fangs, and one’s cozy existence is finished.”

Review:  The premise of this novel is just too interesting to pass up.  Consider moving with your husband to a land far away from your friends, family and everything you’ve ever known.  Then, imagine being kidnapped and hidden away with your children for six years, only to find that your husband (who believed you to be dead) has married a younger, beautiful woman during your absence.  Then imagine these events occurring in the 1890′s — and needing to defend yourself against claims of bigamy in a court of law.  Too fascinating..!

Moran has embraced this scenario, thought to be based on real-life events, and turned it into an interesting historical novel.   The first section was my favorite — Moran vividly recreates the Oades’ journey to the island of New Zealand.  I was transported aboard the ship, nervous about the future, yet trusting in my husband who adored both his wife and especially his children.  The first few experiences in New Zealand were likewise fascinating.  This is a place I hope to visit someday, so I was intrigued to learn more about the land and the native Maori people.

However, this is when the narrative became problematic for this reader.  First, an unexpected leap in time (represented by a letter home) left me a bit disoriented.  Moran had been so generous with her narrative details up to this point, that I was a bit disappointed I was not privvy to the experience of the Oades making a home in their new land.  However, once Margaret and the children were kidnapped, I was hooked again — I can only imagine how frightening (and exciting) this experience would be, but alas the narrative soon switched to follow Henry’s life.

Henry is the least interesting and least developed character in the novel.  The third person point of view is only limited to his character during the years between his first wife’s disappearance and his second marriage.  These years are pretty compressed and Henry never becomes either sympathetic or fully developed.  Granted, leaving the island where his family disappeared — without incontrovertible evidence of their deaths — is tough to forgive, as is what seems to be a fairly quick courtship with his second wife.  Personally, I would have cut this section on Henry entirely and instead followed Margaret’s experiences with the Maori.  I would have loved coming upon Henry’s new life and wife as surprised as Margaret, especially since she is our favorite character at this point.

My second disappointment was not learning more about the Maori or their land.  The point of view of this novel is third person limited, but feels omniscient, so statements like “The Maori filled the room, brandishing rifles and whips, a hideous tattooed four, with mouths yawning wide, tongues wagging obscenely” or “The men chattered among themselves, speaking their bastard tongue…”  and references to the Maori as “The brute ahead turned and glared” or “The savage in the rear shouted out” were uncomfortable.  Since the setting is in the 1890′s, readers expect this sort of limited objectification from the characters — so, dialogue that referred to “brutes” and “savages” would not have been surprising.  But to read descriptions of “savages” and “brutes” in the limited third person voice felt as if either the reader or the author was describing this indigenous (colonized) culture in this limited, objectified way.  Were the Maori’s actions brutal and savage?  Yes.  But to objectify the entire culture this way felt uncomfortable.  Plus, Margaret and the children lived with these people for years, so they would have seen many different sides to this unfamiliar culture.  Yet the only impressions Margaret allowed were observations of older women passing gas, cruel hunting techniques, “putrid” food, and the warriors’ facial tattoos.  So, my hopes for learning about tribe and the landscape of New Zealand were not realized.

However, on a positive note, Moran’s portrayal of the two women is wonderful — fully-realized and empathetic.  Both Margaret (the first wife) and Nancy (the second wife) were interesting and complex and their eventual friendship easily imagined. 

So, despite a few reservations, I do recommend this novel on the basis of its premise and characterization.  I think most would enjoy it — and book clubs would find quite a bit to discuss!

If you are interested in winning a copy, simply leave me a comment and I’ll choose a lucky winner by Saturday!  By the way, the copy is in ARC form (a bound manuscript).

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