An Unseemly Wife
In 1867, Ruth Holtz’s peaceful life in a Pennsylvania Amish community is destroyed when her husband hears of the free land in Idaho. Driven by the fear that his sons will not have enough land to farm, Aaron is willing to go against the rules of their Order and join up with an ‘English’ wagon train heading west. Both he and Ruth believe they can keep separate from the English as their Order’s rules dictate, but as the distance from home grows longer the small Amish family is the focus of jealousies and resentment. When tragedy strikes, Ruth questions her decision to stop being what her people see as an ‘unseemly wife’ and follow her husband in an act of blind faith.
This debut literary novel is remarkable for its lyrical tone and the sense that Moore manages to convey of Ruth and Aaron’s separateness when they eventually have to come to grips with the English community. The circles of bonding – the Amish identity, the Fold, the family, and friendship – intersect in different ways, the bonds variously tested by obdurate attitudes and the ordinary strains of family life. The poetry of Moore’s language enhances rather than diminishes a sharply drawn portrait of life within a wagon train that conveys both the sheer boredom of the long trek west and the inevitability of hardship and loss.
An Unseemly Wife is Moore’s family history, but the reader is left to imagine how Ruth’s story ends. This lack of resolution may be unsatisfactory for some, but to me it suits the theme of heading out into the unknown, on faith, that pervades the whole book. Faith, Moore seems to be saying, can be changed by circumstances but still abides deep within us. Recommended.
