A NAME UNBROKEN

Proffit follows up his historical novella Scapegoat (2025) with a return to the story of his ancestor Susannah North Martin, who was hanged for witchcraft in Salem in the 1690s.

The author combines his own story of coming to terms with his identity as a gay man while seeking conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War with that of his ancestor Susannah, tragically executed during the Salem witch trials. The novel also incorporates the story of Joseph Ring, one of the men who accused Susannah of witchcraft. Along the way, he weaves together storylines and genres to create something that’s hard to categorize but even harder to put down. He presents much of the book as a series of brief, enchanting prose passages that feel more like interconnected pieces of flash fiction than chapters; the author labels the structure of the book by using the language of missals and hymnals: canticles, preludes, and so on. Sprinkled among these elements are sections written in verse, as well as notes, commentary, and memoiristic passages. The overall effect is dreamlike, following the logic of a montage. Overall, the work feels a bit like an impressionistic painting, with each element intriguing and beautifully rendered but impossible to fully process, except holistically. The soaring writing, dreamy organization, and thematic clarity create a book whose substance far outpaces its brevity. Proffit beautifully, honestly, and realistically reflects on the othering that he experienced as he relates it to Susannah’s. Even so, the parts that feature his ancestor are easily the strongest, largely because he portrays her as such a compelling and steady character. Her calm, firm refusal to cower in front of her accusers, or even accept their premise, is inspiring; she delivers a barrage of retorts imbued with a righteous, defiant, and matter-of-fact certainty: “I believe a lie, repeated until it feels like scripture, can make even a girl believe what she performs. I think you give too much credit to Satan and not enough blame to yourselves.”

A three-part story that’s enlivened by an ephemeral, dreamlike structure and musical prose.