The Shunning

Deborah Dowson is a children’s librarian in Pickering, Ontario.

Marianne Paul’s first novel focuses on the lives of two women from
different eras who are shunned by their communities. Aley, a
contemporary writer and single mother, is harassed by the local
“Mothers for Morality” for her provocative fiction. Elizabeth, a
pioneer woman, clairvoyant, and diviner, is ostracized by her neighbors,
who fear she’s a witch. As “outcasts,” the two women travel almost
identical paths of self-doubt and self-denial; in the end they come to
accept and nourish their individuality and creativity.

Though the lives of Aley and Elizabeth are clearly parallel on many
levels, Paul takes this parallelism to the extreme: the staccato style
used for stream-of-consciousness comes across as if the characters
shared the same inner voice, regardless of their age, sex, temperament,
or the period in which they live. And not only are the women’s
conflicts and situations repeated but they also share the same themes
(water as their elemental force and clairvoyance as both gift and
curse), making it difficult for the reader to get a sense of the
individual characters.

The narrative alternates between the women’s stories, building
suspense as each story is continually interrupted. But the expected
climax— an anticipated clash between the renegade women and
society—is never realized. Instead, resolution occurs within the
characters; and their self-realizations are not particularly dramatic.

This appealing story unfortunately falls short of its potential. The
noticeable absence of a climax is disappointing in an otherwise
enjoyable and entertaining novel.