Doreen Woods, the protagonist in Boulder author Janis Hallowell’s new novel, is a happily married dentist dedicated to treating the uninsured. She’s also a fugitive, having successfully dodged the law for the past 30-odd years.
“She Was,” the Boulder author’s follow-up to her 2005 debut novel, “The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn,” follows Doreen’s transformation from a radicalized war protester to an anonymous soccer mom.
The brief release of former Symbionese Liberation Army operative Kathleen Soliah on March 17 adds depth to Hallowell’s prose, but “She Was” can easily stand on its own merits.
As a teenager, the former Lucy Johansson set off a bomb meant to disrupt a military recruiting post at Columbia University. No one was supposed to be harmed in the blast. America was still at war in Vietnam, and Lucy and her like- minded radicals figured tactical violence was the only way left to affect foreign policy.
The explosion killed an innocent, a kindly janitor who wasn’t scheduled to work that night. Lucy is stunned by the news and goes into hiding.
With the help of her brother, Adam, Lucy forges a new identity and starts a fresh life as Doreen Woods. She marries the über-patient Miles, gives birth to a son, Ian, and creates a suburban fantasy that ensures that her old life remains a secret.
Her manufactured reality starts to crumble when one of Doreen’s former comrades, Janey Marks, discovers her new identity. Janey wants to turn Doreen in so that the authorities will let her husband, an imprisoned radical, out of jail early.
Doreen may have only days, if not hours, before she’s captured. But how do you tell your family you’ve been living a lie, or that you may not see them again for a long time?
The novel opens with the act that set Doreen’s life down its dark spiral. Louis Nilon is working his way through Columbia’s corridors, his mind focused on mopping the floors and hearing “The Fight of the Century” — the Muhammad Ali/Joe Frazier title match — over his transistor radio.
Hallowell’s text here is razor sharp, detailing Louis’ work ethic with quiet dignity. And few writers could match her depiction of Adam’s battle with multiple sclerosis.
“She Was” offers a deeply anti-war sentiment, from flashbacks in which U.S. soldiers commit brutalities in Vietnam to references to the number of lives being lost in Iraq.
That leaves the reader in a quandary. If Doreen’s actions were immoral and far-reaching, what should the modern anti-warrior do? That may be too complicated a question for any novel to answer, but the book bravely raises it all the same.
What’s most fascinating about “She Was” is Doreen herself, or rather, her moral compass. She dodged punishment for decades and appears remorseful, but one senses that her regret over Louis’ death might not reach to her violent methods.
“She Was” sustains a steady level of suspense for such a character-driven piece, but it loses steam during the final chapters just when it should be reaching its emotional peak. Partial blame goes to the secondary characters, including Doreen’s husband and son. The author idealizes them to such an extent that their reactions to Doreen’s secret past rob the book from some potentially devastating passages.
Miles’ reaction might be understandable, but aren’t teenagers like Ian surly even during the best of times? It’s all too neatly packaged, as if the author couldn’t bear to judge Doreen as harshly as the law might.
Instead, the novel turns trite in its final pages, including a metaphorical peach pie that Miles and Ian gawk at while the reader is left to ponder its bigger import. Another literary gimmick, a winged creature which flutters near Adam as his condition worsens, also falls flat.
“She Was” connects two of the most contentious periods in modern U.S. history via a character who epitomizes her country at its most conflicted.
Christian Toto is a freelance writer in Denver.
Fiction
She Was, by Janis Hallowell, $24.95
