Books perform many functions. They entertain,
yes. They are also portals to many thoughts, feelings and experiences that one may
not live otherwise. Then there are books that sensitise reader to mindsets,
emotions and behaviours that may seem difficult to fathom but have strong roots
and basis. This book achieves all three.
Dr. Nydia Rogers is the Chief of ER at
Riverview Hospital. Professionally she is a dedicated doctor and personally she
keeps mostly to herself. She has one friend, one of the nurses, Trudy, with
whom she goes back decades. While Nydia runs the department efficiently she
faces constant haranguing from Dr. Goddard about her gender and sexuality. Not to
mention that Goddard is also lackadaisical about his work and blames her for
pulling him up. Inexplicably, she keeps a civil tongue in her head with his
despite his disgusting vitriol.
Jo Powers is a cop mostly working in cases
of domestic abuse. While responding to one such attack, Jo is hit on the head
by the wife of the perp aka, the woman being beaten up, herself. Thus Jo finds
herself in the ER and under Nydia’s ministrations.
The two women have a magnetic pull towards
each other till Nydia learns that a cop and immediately shuts down creating a
massive gulf between the two of them. The connection between them draws them
irresistibly towards one another. However, Nydia has a past that she hasn’t
dealt with and the going in rocky – till past issues are resolved.
Writing about Domestic Violence and
Intimate Partner Violence can never be easy and in this one, that forms a large
part of the context and character development. Right in the beginning, Hoil
underscores the fact that people in an abuse situation often make excuses for
the person abusing them (ref: the woman being beaten was the one who swung the
baseball bat on Jo) and a depressing number of people go back into their toxic
environments.
Jo has been witness to domestic violence as
a child. However, her mother removed Jo and her sister, Electra, from the acidic
environment as soon as their father turned on the girls. Jo is healed and grown
up to be a sorted, steady person. The love between the mother and the two girls
forms Jo’s bedrock. Since she is a well-adjusted human being, Jo can do her
work effectively, taking joy in the miniscule percentage of people who get out
of their putrid environments with law intervening at just the right moment. The
past exposure to violence and the love that now surrounds her makes Jo capable
of loving with an unwavering staunchness that may not have been understandable
otherwise.
Nydia is psychologically a much more
complex character. The extent of her past experience is revealed slowly through
the narrative but right from the start, you know there is much more going on
with her. When she freezes Jo for being a cop, you know that there are layers
to her. Through the story, she flip-flops, lashes out and has irrationally
strong negative responses that she unleashes on Jo. Jo remains staunch and
stalwart through it all, figuratively holding Nydia through her roiling
emotions.
Before you get an idea that Nydia is just an
unreasonable handful, we’d like to clarify, she is also loving and giving in
perfect ways. There is one moment when Nydia looks at Jo, has overwhelming
emotions and thinks that she never wants to stop feeling that way about Jo. This
was one of the most beautiful moments of love we’ve seen. And this, right here,
is Hoil’s achievement. Nydia fluctuates rather wildly and widely, but Hoil
writes in a way that you can somehow sympathise with her. You are right there
with Jo in wanting to soothe. In wanting to understand. In wanting to protect. In
wanting to engulf Nydia in love.
The relationship between Nydia and Jo is a
fine balancing act that Hoil addresses superbly. At one point, when as a reader
you feel okay, now this is just too much, Jo responds in the exact same
way. In her conversation with her friend, Duncan, she expresses the exact same
sentiments that you feel about the emotional rollercoaster that Nydia and their
relationship is. With that Hoil scene and exchange, establishes that Jo is not
a doormat and not unaware of the yo-yoing. She is fully cognizant and is choosing
Nydia over and over. That is what love should always be – you choose
someone in their completeness. And this scene strengthens the romantic aspect
of the story immeasurably.
The psychological conditioning that the
environment you are brought up in has a very, very far-reaching impact. Without
overtly stating this, this fact is laid bare in the fact that Nydia allows
Goddard’s insubordination, venom and attacks for as long as she does.
(On reflection, it is easy to see why Nydia’s
emotions go haywire when her relationship with Jo starts. In order to exist, Nydia
has suppressed her feelings and memories. As her emotions for Jo grow, the
Pandora’s box of all her emotions is opened and she is just churning with all
these feelings she hasn’t named or acknowledged. It is little wonder that she
is all over the place.)
Sensitisation to others, an understanding
of other ways of being and an ability to empathise with reactions that could and
would seem irrational – this book achieves these and creates a profound impact.
Reading it was a definite emotional growth for us.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
