If you remember from last week, we have finally reached the end of Tuesday, the day of the hearing. Yes, really\u2014we\u2019re still on Tuesday. We\u2019ve been on Tuesday since March 27th. That\u2019s right, we\u2019ve spent three months on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Now that Peter has left the office and headed home, with a quick phone call to his mentor on the way, we turn to Gwen\u2019s evening.<\/p>\n
Gwen\u2019s night had not been pleasant. The empty house worked strangely on her mind. The previous evening she was able to talk with Casey for about three minutes just before the MacArthurs put her to bed. It helped Casey a lot. For Gwen it accentuated her own helplessness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And that\u2019s it folks. That\u2019s all we get. That is literally all we learn<\/em> about how Casey is doing with her foster family. Farris tells us that the phone call \u201chelped Casey a lot.\u201d How? Was she not doing okay? Did she feel reassured to hear her mother\u2019s voice? Did Gwen encourage her to try to enjoy her time with the MacArthurs? What did Gwen say? What did Casey say? This entire book pivots on child protective services\u2019 removal of Casey, and yet Casey herself is basically invisible.<\/p>\nBut frankly, there\u2019s something else I\u2019m becoming increasingly annoyed with, and that\u2019s Farris\u2019s writing. I\u2019ve tried to go easy on this because writing is hard and I get that being a novelist isn\u2019t Farris\u2019s day job. But at some points things become just plain confusing<\/em>.<\/p>\nAfter telling us that \u201cGwen\u2019s night had not been pleasant\u201d and that \u201cthe previous evening she was able to talk with Casey,\u201d Farris tells us that \u201cher responsibility to finish the written narrative of the events of May 11 and May 12 for Peter was good for her spirits\u201d and that \u201cafter she finished her assignment, she stepped out on the back porch and fixed her eyes on the swing set.\u201d Then he tells us that she thought of Casey and her mind started to wander (more on that in a moment) and then that \u201cGwen started and sat straight up in bed when the alarm sounded at 7:00 a.m.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so I am confused. Farris first makes it sound like it\u2019s the next morning by speaking of \u201cGwen\u2019s night\u201d and \u201cthe previous evening,\u201d then he makes it clear that the night has not yet happened and Gwen is up late working on writing out the narrative, because directly after the discussion of her writing the narrative and looking at the porch we are introduced to Gwen waking up to her alarm. I\u2019m beginning to suspect that this book did not have a professional proof writer, because I feel like such an individual would have caught things like this.<\/p>\n
Anyway, let\u2019s turn back to Gwen\u2019s mind wandering while looking at the swing set.<\/p>\n
As she let her mind wander, a plan to kidnap her own daughter began to take shape in her clouded mind. Perhaps we could go to California and live with Pam and Josh, Gwen thought. She quickly rejected that idea, realizing it would put her sister and brother-in-law in jeopardy. She also correctly perceived that it would be one of the first places the authorities would look for her if she became a runaway \u201cchild abuser.\u201d A better plan would have to be made.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Okay, first of all, Gwen has a sister?! I\u2019m fairly certain this is the first mention of a sister. And so I\u2019m left wondering, why has Gwen not called said sister? As someone with a sister, I can say for certain that she would be one of the first people I would call for solace should something terrible happen to me. Now maybe Gwen has a bad relationship with her sister, but she doesn\u2019t make it sound like that here. And while I get that novelists sometimes introduce things like this bit by bit, this just seems a bit abrupt.<\/p>\n
Note: A reader reminded me that Casey really should have been given to her father, Gordon, who appears to have joint custody. Gordon, of course, was not even brought up by anyone in Tuesday\u2019s hearing\u2014not by Gwen, not by her father, not by the judge, not by Gwen\u2019s lawyer, not by the prosecutor, and not by the social worker. And perhaps in part because of that, I keep forgetting about Gordon myself.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nBesides, wouldn\u2019t a sibling also be someone CPS would look at placing a child with when removing her from her parents\u2019 custody? I mean I get that this sister is out of state and the grandparents are clearly a better option, but still, wouldn\u2019t they at least ask? What other random family members does Gwen have around who are going to randomly pop in over the course of this book?<\/p>\n
But anyway, there you have it\u2014Gwen, our heroine, takes time to consider kidnapping her child and running. I suppose on some level this might be natural, but Farris doesn\u2019t present it as a bad option except to state that it is not tenable\u2014that she\u2019d be caught. The idea that kidnapping itself<\/em> might be bad is absent, as is any consideration\u00a0that\u00a0child protective services might have a role to play (albeit in this case, of course, their entire case is built on fraud). In other words, kidnapping is treated as wrong only<\/em> because Gwen would get caught.<\/p>\nNote that we haven\u2019t been told that Casey is being mistreated in foster care. The only issue here is that Gwen can\u2019t stand to be parted from Casey. And you know what? I\u2019m a mom, I get that. But if I were parted from my children I would worry about them primarily because I would be worried about whether they were okay.<\/em>\u00a0And we haven\u2019t seen that!<\/p>\nGwen hasn\u2019t worried about how Casey is doing, or about whether Casey is upset, or whether Casey is being taken care of. Nope. Nada. Instead, as she looks at the swing set before contemplating running, we\u2019re told only that \u201cCasey\u2019s face and giggle were all too real\u2014memories from the morning when Donna Corliss first invaded her life.\u201d It\u2019s not about Gwen worrying whether Casey\u2019s okay, it\u2019s about Gwen feeling sorry for herself<\/em>\u00a0that Casey\u2019s not there. And this<\/em> is Farris\u2019s heroine and model mother.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gwen hasn’t worried about how Casey is doing, or about whether Casey is upset, or whether Casey is being taken care of. Nope. Nada. Instead, as she looks at the swing set, we’re told that “Casey’s face and giggle were all too real—memories from the morning when Donna Corliss first invaded her life.” It’s not about Gwen worrying whether Casey’s okay, it’s about Gwen feeling sorry for herself that Casey’s not there. And this is Farris’s heroine and model mother. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[469],"class_list":["post-25997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anonymous-tip"],"yoast_head":"\n
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