REINVENTING RUTHIE

Ruth Ann Templeton’s “world faded to black-and-white” when her husband, Drew, became involved with another woman and wanted out of the marriage. Six months into their separation, Ruth awakens in the hospital. She learns she lost control of her car and has no memory of the incident. Bruised and battered, Ruth returns to her Seattle home to recover. Drew moves back in to help manage their two teen daughters. He pushes the eldest, good-girl Nichole, to consider college in California, which Ruth doesn’t want, and resorts to bribing the bratty, younger Harriet, who is particularly antagonistic to Ruth, to do her homework. Ruth’s parents also struggle as her father descends into dementia. Ruth meets her father’s doctor, the terse Victor Huff, then encounters him again when she’s alone at the vacation cabin that she and Drew bought after Nichole was born. Victor, staying nearby, is also separated. As he and Ruth forge a connection, various incidents and players complicate matters, leaving Ruth again dazed in her car, this time leading to a much happier place. The narrative is full of surprising twists, with Ruth’s final fate registering as rather a shocker (given the bitterness that has come before). The author provides an intriguing psychological undertone to Ruth’s journey via her disassociation while in her car (“I look out the windshield to see the road is a serpent unhinging its jaw, ready to swallow me again. I will enter its warm belly and find rest.”). Some of Ruth’s interactions are less compelling than others; still, her ultimate self-affirmation is appealingly simple and direct: “I know I can make it on my own, but I don’t want to.”

An expectation-defying tale of female empowerment.