Virtuous Women is a complex novel of faith in a changing world. Hope Wagner is being raised in a fundamentally religious family. Her mother dies giving birth to her eleventh child, but the father refuses to seek medical attention, feeling both that physicians are shysters and that the life or death of his beloved wife is the will of God. Hope, at fifteen, assumes the role of mother to her ten siblings. She cooks all the meals, supervises the children in their chores and behavior, homeschools them, does the laundry, shoes for the groceries, and is woefully unappreciated. The father, Micheal, is a staunch unrelentingly man, a deacon in a fundamental sect whose interpretation of the Bible appears akin to the Taliban’s interpretation of the Koran. Women are helpmeets permitted no interests outside the home. There is no room in Michael’s eyes or those of his God for errors of any sort, much less sin of any sort. Hope is forced to set aside her dreams and her prospects for marriage and a lifestyle unlike that of her father to care for his home and children.
The prose is simple, eloquent, yet understated, in keeping with the no-frills lives of this family. Goltz skillfully navigates the intersection of fundamental Christians living in a world that no longer suits them. These are the MAGA base. Michael’s sons are “future warriors in the battle to bring American and the world back to Christ” while his daughters, if not “raised to understand the importance of Christian motherhood, they would abandon their families and be deceived by the lies of feminism and worldly self-fulfillment.” Overall this is a thought-provoking novel that looks at the darker side of fundamentalism and shows how the patriarchal structure of the family perpetuates the oppression of children, leaving then no autonomy in the pursuance of their own lives. This book will definitely haunt you.
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Virtuous Women (Quiet Publications, March 5, 2024) is available through:
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