This is a quietly told account of families in a small Ohio town, focusing on two generations although starting with an earlier one and bringing in children born in the 1920s, so with characters from four generations total. Two brothers marry two sisters; they bear children simultaneously (as does another family), resulting in three children who grow up together. Two who are not cousins marry. Attention shifts to a fourth family for much of the book, although all of the characters remain important.On the plus side, the characters and relationships are well delineated, with an acute sense of psychological subtleties, and the book held my interest throughout.On the minus side, the author leads us to expect some things to be much more meaningful than they ever become. To start with, the initial anecdote about the memorial fails to lead anywhere (even though the author returns to it near the end). And to whom does the title refer? Am I really dense that ultimately I didn't feel it really quite applied to any of the main female characters? (Yes, there's an event near the end that one of them could perhaps be blamed for, but it didn't seem to justify the title.) While both of these problems might seem significant, the thing that nagged at me more was quite different. Early on, I was impressed with the author's insight into character and mood, and approved the fact that she recognized how small incidents or realizations can color one person's attitudes, beliefs, ambitions, loves, while not even registering to other people on the scene. Such moments occur, yet can be difficult to pinpoint. However, as the book went on, I realized that the author had made an almost facile device of this. Characters were repeatedly having such life-changing subtle moments. Well, perhaps that does happen, but I began to resist the idea--it seemed almost as though the author was taking a position on the subject, and I reacted by thinking that more often one (for instance) stops loving or trusting a parent as a result of repeated failures, not at one key small moment. Furthermore, once I became sensitized to this ongoing stream of tiny emotional shifts, I realized that the author had also failed to keep track of them. One person might have the same kind of emotional shift or epiphany more than once (okay, that does happen, but the author should link event two to event one in some way) OR despite having lost faith or love or whatnot in that person forever after, then later prove only to have lost it temporarily. Thus, I went from applauding the author's understanding of subtle psychological shifts to feeling that she threw these around liberally and a little mechanically.Nonetheless, overall I enjoyed the book's sensuous and detailed picture of a group of people over decades in a small Midwestern town.
The Evidence Against Her was not at al what I expected. I picked up this book because it was set in the 1910s and I wanted to immerse myself in language from that time. I thought, solely based on the title, that it might be story of a sordid woman, perhaps even a killer. I was wrong. It's not. It's about two families and the characters that make them up.For a saga it was somewhat interesting, though because it was told as opposed to showing us the drama through the character's eyes (there is little to no dialog) it lacked tension. I kept waiting for something to happen, unfulfilled by the interactions of the characters and their emotions as told by the narrator.The language was beautiful and rhythmic and the characters were interesting up to the last section. From the last section to the end, Dew's main characters quit having thoughts or being at all aware of what was going on around them, which made them annoying. That much oblivion ought to cause drama, but it didn't. It's worth the read for research on the time and language, but it is not really a satisfying story.
What do You think about The Evidence Against Her (2002)?
This is the first in a trilogy of books by (Ms.)Robb Forman Dew and recommended by Goodreads. It is set in a small Ohio town about 1900-1925 (cir). It is the story of two turbulent families living in turbulent times. I thought the story was pretty good, the writing fair. I enjoyed it enough that I've already begun reading the 2nd book in the trilogy. Sometimes the author is too wordy. A few times it was difficult to determine if the author had lost touch with reality or she was attempting to describe the delusional meanderings of her characters. Fotunately, these meanderings are short lived and, after several pages, the author and her characters return to reality. I would be interested in reading others' reviews of this book.
—Tom
Essentially this appealed to me most as a genealogist and historian. It's almost like it starts with the skeleton of what you know of family history (places, dates, marriages, schools attended, homes lived in, professions, etc.) and adds the stories you wish you knew. A family tree with character development. The plot feels effortlessly, almost heartbreakingly plausible and the uneven story structure, with the odd jumps in time and shifts in tone and POV, mirrored the process of piecing together the history of a community.
—Laurie
I found this book very unsettling. Both my mother and my mother-in-law are from small Ohio towns. And each of them grew up during the timeframe of this novel. I felt echoes of each of them in the various female characters in the book, yet I felt no connection with any of the women in Dew's novel. And certainly no sympathy for their family dramas.In general, I enjoy a book where seemingly nothing happens. The small events of every day can be so much more interesting than overblown plots. But, this book seemed to focus on the petty, the dysfunctional and the distressing aspects of family life. The writing was interesting, the characterization was skillful, but the pages were filled with incidents I didn't want to experience and people I found it impossible to like. It has been praised as painting a vivid picture of small town life; that may be true, but there is also humor to be found in every day life and none of it was present here. Nor was there resolution or redemption. I needed some relief from the narrow, inward focus of these women who were bright but did little with their gifts.
—Nancy
