A Serious Widow

Edith Fowke is a professor emeritus at York University and author of the
recently published Canadian Folklore: Perspectives on Canadian Culture.

Beresford-Howe has written several novels about women and their varying
problems in modern society. This time her subject is Rowena Hill, a
recently widowed woman in her fifties whose husband unexpectedly dropped
dead. Rowena had been the conventional wife, dominated by her husband,
Edwin, and unequipped to cope with the world on her own. Her situation
was shortly complicated by the revelation that her husband had been a
bigamist and his first wife was entitled to his estate.

The book follows Rowena’s day-to-day attempts to cope with her
problems, badgered by her domineering daughter Marion, a Girl Guides
commissioner who treats her mother like a backward child. To escape from
her problems she holds conversations with two imaginary advisers, Ethel
Wilson and Prince Charles.

On the surface the plot sounds unpromising, but the author’s skill
manages to make it interesting. Rowena is surprised to find that she
attracts two middle-aged admirers: her minister and her lawyer, and with
them discovers the pleasure of sex—something she never experienced in
her 20 years with Edwin. Gradually she begins to develop a life of her
own. She makes friends with her next-door neighbors, helps an old
retired professor, and gradually finds the strength to make her own
decisions.

After having a hard time getting enough money to live on, Rowena ends
up with her house (which she had expected to lose), a good job, and
improved relations with her daughter. Perhaps the way everything turns
out rosy for her is too fortuitous, but the happy ending gives the book
a fairy-tale quality that most readers will enjoy.