Amity & Sorrow
Peggy Riley, 2013
Little, Brown & Co.
312 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316220880
Summary
A mother and her daughters drive for days without sleep until they crash their car in rural Oklahoma. The mother, Amaranth, is desperate to get away from someone she's convinced will follow them wherever they go—her husband.
The girls, Amity and Sorrow, can't imagine what the world holds outside their father's polygamous compound. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of Bradley, a farmer grieving the loss of his wife. At first unwelcoming to these strange, prayerful women, Bradley's abiding tolerance gets the best of him, and they become a new kind of family. An unforgettable story of belief and redemption, Amity & Sorrow is about the influence of community and learning to stand on your own. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Raised—Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—N/A
• Awards—Bridport Highly Commended Prize
• Currently—lives on the North Kent coast, UK
Peggy Riley is an American writer and playwright living in England. She recently won a Highly Commended prize in the 2011 Bridport Prize. Her short fiction has been broadcast on BBC Radio and has been published in "New Short Stories 4," Mslexia Magazine, and as an app on Ether Books. Her plays have been commissioned and produced off-West End (London), regionally and on tour. She has been a festival producer, a bookseller, and writer-in-residence at a young offender's prison.
Originally from Los Angeles, Peggy now lives on the North Kent coast in Britain. She is currently working on her second novel, which will be set in the women's internment camp on the Isle of Man during WWII. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Peggy Riley...has an engaging way of raising mysteries, then deferring their answers. How exactly does a man talk a wife into sharing him? Who set the temple fire just before the escape? Why is Amaranth grateful for Sorrow’s miscarriage?... One of the conceits and pleasures of an escape-to-society story—cutting across genres from memoir to novels like Emma Donoghue’s Room—lies in lifting the escapee’s blindfold and watching her relish the dailiness of life...like a foreigner to Earth.... A shimmering first novel...delicately stitched, finely patterned and poetic.
Dylan Landis - New York Times Book Review
A literary page-turner.... Her writing is clear, crisp, chilling.
Reader's Digest
(Starred review.) [A] harsh but compassionate look at nature vs. nurture through the lens of a polygamous cult. Sisters Amity and Sorrow were born and raised by their mother, Amaranth, the first of the 50 wives of a self-proclaimed prophet, the leader...of a doomsday sect. When a confrontation with the law results in gunshots and a fire, Amaranth grabs her teenage daughters, steals a car, and drives for four days....explor[ing] this new world, meeting people and making...choices for the first time.... Riley’s mastery keeps this unusual tale from descending into melodrama, and she makes no easy choices.... A fierce and disturbing novel.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) [An] accomplished, harrowing debut.... Riley's descriptive prose is rich in metaphor.... [and] the haunting literary drama simmers to a boil as it deftly navigates issues of family, faith, community, and redemption. —Ann Kelley
Booklist
The eponymous title refers to the daughters of Amaranth, the first wife (out of 50) of Zachariah, Messianic leader of a Doomsday cult. The novel opens with Amaranth on the lam with her two daughters, trying desperately to put some distance between herself and Zachariah.... Amaranth has recently become so spooked by Zachariah's growing megalomania that she feels she no longer has a home.... Through flashbacks we get glimpses into the lives Amaranth, Sorrow and Amity have led with Zachariah, shielded from the world and subject to his apocalyptic paranoia.... Simple in style but complex in tone, this book raises troubling questions about the power of doomladen cults, and their leaders and followers.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How are names used as metaphors in the novel?
2. What is the meaning behind how names are given (i.e., attribute names for the children and the family name shared by the Bradleys of Oklahoma), and do you think they serve a purpose?
3. How does the writer explore the bond between Sorrow and Amity? In what ways is their relationship typical of the bond between sisters?
4. The children in the polygamous community were illiterate. What are the implications and impact of that type of ignorance? Is a faith that is designed to keep its believers ignorant and isolated a "true" faith?
5. How can blind faith be dangerous? Was Sorrow brainwashed or devout?
6. Who defines what makes a family, and is there a true definition of family anymore? Do you think these polygamous women are a "true" family?
7. Are there scenarios that can justify a polygamous lifestyle? What are the benefits of a polygamous community to the wives in Amity & Sorrow? Do you think Amity will be drawn to live a polygamous lifestyle?
8. What role did meth play in the story? What did that add to the plot or reveal about the community?
9. Is it a fair exchange to join a faith and a family to "get clean"? Who gets more out of the exchange—the individual women or the family in total? Does a faith that offers a safe place of healing appeal to you, or is it a kind of con?
10. One of the hardest decisions a mother can make is to turn against her child. How does Amaranth struggle with this decision? Do you think she makes the right choice?
Caution: Spoiler Alert
11. To what extent was Sorrow a victim? Or did she become a willing participant when she returned "home"? At what age should children be responsible for their actions?
(Questions issued by publisher.)