Merrilyn A

Johanna Moran's first published novel presents an intriguing problem to Henry Oades and his two wives, Margaret and Nancy. The novel takes place at the end of the Victorian period when moral attitudes where either black or white. The book takes place in 1890 and ends in the first part of the 20th century. The book will appeal to those who enjoy, and are curious about, people's attitudes and mores in the changing American and English cultures. The book has an interesting moral dilemma which becomes a driving, egregious narrow journey with a multitude of detours and dead ends constructed from the architecture of the era of Victorian mores. How this dilemma affects the people, who happen to be bound up in the circumstances, and how they handle the consequences of these societal hurdles drives the course of The Wives of Henry Oades. I found the book cumbersome in some parts and the characters guileless. I found the legal situation intriguing and one of the most interesting parts of the story. I think that women will find the relationship between Margaret and Nancy unusual, to say the least. The Wives of Henry Oades is not a page turner but, because of its twists and turns it will keep the reader involved in the outcome.