CRUDE AWAKENING

A woman marries the love of her life but discovers irreconcilable differences embedded in the relationship.

Though dedicated to “those who have been betrayed, and survived to write about it,” Holly’s fictionalized autobiography begins with the giddiness of a marriage proposal. Christine’s engagement to CJ, a “swarthy landscaper” eight years her junior, becomes a whirlwind event, sweeping across a 2006 Jamaica destination wedding, a cross-country move, and several early red flags. The youngest of three girls, Christine was raised in a strict but loving conservative Baptist family that crumbled beneath the grief of its middle daughter’s death from leukemia in 1980. That tragedy unhinged the family: Christine’s father began binge-drinking, and her mother’s patience with her marriage started wearing thin. Believing that CJ’s love will replace those adolescent years of emotional abandonment, Christine devotes all of her energy to making the marriage work, but trouble in paradise arrives as secrets are revealed. Christine and CJ relocate to Oklahoma, where a severe culture shock begins souring a fairy-tale romance. The couple’s bickering, familial melodrama, and Christine’s shocking, if overblown, reaction to the discovery of CJ’s sexual kinks chip away at their happy future together. While there are moments of blissful matrimony, the bad times outweigh the good. After multiple marriage counseling sessions, a pastor’s antiquated attempt at resolution, and a refusal to accept her husband’s fetishes, Christine is forced to reevaluate her future with CJ in Oklahoma. Though drawn as a novel, the story is based on true events. As the distressing ordeals are presented throughout the book, Christine’s likability greatly diminishes as she refuses to even discuss or attempt to understand her husband’s fetishes and repeatedly shames him instead. But her resolve and determination to save her marriage are honorable, and these qualities make her tale resonant and memorable. Holly is a natural storyteller, and each scene bursts alive with emotion, atmospheric details, and realistic dialogue. Her prose flows smoothly and seamlessly from one episode to the next as Christine’s life with her husband becomes, for her, a living nightmare. Conversely, some readers may come away with more sympathy for CJ, whose only crime seems to be accepting himself and the way he expresses his sexuality.

A cathartic tale about family, honesty, and disillusionment from a writer with great potential.