The Half Wives

Pelletier’s (Accidents of Providence) excellent second novel chronicles May 22, 1897, as it unfolds in San Francisco for Marilyn Plageman; her ex-pastor husband, Henry; Henry’s mistress of 10 years, taxidermist Lucy Christensen; and their daughter, Blue. After their son, Jack, died on his second birthday, Marilyn rebuffed her husband’s affections. Four years later, Henry met Lucy and began an affair with her. Marilyn has remained in the dark for many years, volunteering for charitable causes and longing to communicate with Henry while pushing him away. On what would have been Jack’s 16th birthday, everyone is on a path that leads to the cemetery where he is buried. Henry’s running late for his annual ritual of planting flowers at Jack’s grave site because he spent the night in jail after fighting to save the cemetery from being disinterred and turned into oceanfront property. Marilyn plans to disrupt Henry’s routine; she brings along an orphaned child she befriended at the opening of an orphanage. Blue is recovering from having fallen through a skylight at a pump station where Lucy was trying to glean information for an article she planned on selling to the local paper. Lucy, who has managed to stay away from Henry for four months, is worried about how the separation will affect Blue, who longs for her father’s company, and feels the need to bring Blue to see Henry at the cemetery. Pelletier’s writing is moving and enthralling and conveys the conflict at the heart of the book: “He was never going to marry you,” Lucy tells herself, “But he’s not married to Marilyn either. He’s yoked to that child in the ground, that child the city wants to move.” Pelletier keeps readers hooked right up to the book’s satisfying conclusion. (Apr.)