Crows Over a
Wheatfield covers the story of two families affected by domestic abuse and
examines the treatment of domestic abuse victims in court, but is a redemptive tale
as women from both families use the experiences to make their lives, and the
lives of other victims, better.
[Spoiler alert].
The initial story is one of a family with a brilliant and well known lawyer who, at home, is abusive, falling into violent and unpredictable rages. After the death of the protagonist’s, Melanie, mother, he brings home and marries a girl with whom he has been having an affair and their illegitimate child, Matt. The two children and his new wife suffer from his abuse with a final act causing a mental breakdown for Matt and the boy’s mother finally leaving the marriage.
Melanie seeks revenge in succeeding in her own law career, while finding the rest of her life hollow and empty. One summer she goes to stay with her stepmother who lives close to her brother and meets the people who have befriended them. Melanie becomes friends with Mildred, a close friend of her brother and the daughter of a Minister who runs the half-way house where Matt lives.
Mildred is married to a charismatic character, Daniel, by whom she has a son, Ben. Daniel, behind his charming façade, is a deeply controlling and physically abusive man, both to his wife and child who is terrified of him. The courts, however, refuse to recognise the abuse and put Mildred in a positive where she feels she has to flee with her child and go into hiding.
In the ten years she is away she opens the route of escape to other victims of abuse, and sets in train a “railroad” in the manner of Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad for black slaves. In supporting another case, she comes out of hiding once her son reaches eighteen, and the families are reunited. Melanie decides to resign her position and follow her heart.
This has probably been the most difficult book for me to read to date. I found the scenes set in court where lies were told and actions carried out in contravention of the safety of the children involved, resonated with my own experiences and triggered my post-traumatic stress disorder. Having said that, there is something healing about reading that you are not the only person with these experiences of the western legal system.
I also liked the fact that the book included a victim of abuse, Mildred, who didn’t conform to the stereotypes I had come across in other fiction. However, the father figure being a high-ranking lawyer did!
The author has drawn from her own experiences of being a defence attorney and has said that her exposure to the drama in court influenced her writing.
Awards:
Editor’s Choice for the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle.
A notable book in the New York Times Book Review
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