A wife folds herself into an uncomfortable chair next to a hospital bed, willing her preteen daughter to live. A husband hovers near, unwilling to share his private thoughts. Their faith holds them prisoners in the room. Only the sacrament of marriage and their child bind them to each other now — their relationship frayed at the edges, a victim of mutual neglect.
Their faith and all its connotations — confidence, trust, proof, loyalty — are being tested.
They also have a college-age son. He's not welcome to share their pain because his quest to discover his true self through various religions is indirectly the reason why his sister lies in a coma.
In Matters of Faith, Florida author Kristy Kiernan's second novel, the narration switches between Chloe, the family's wife and mother, and Marshall, the son, as they navigate their different paths in tragedy.
Marshall is trapped in the almost-adulthood superiority of that first year at college. His family's idiosyncrasies play on his nerves while he's showing off his new girlfriend. His shallow self-absorption is grating, and readers will long to shake him from this ironic immaturity.
Meanwhile, Chloe's loyalties have her twisting in the wind: If she forgives her son, does that mean she loves her daughter less? Will her need to keep both her children safe drive her emotionally absent husband, Cal, further away?
Kiernan's compelling narrative offers a heartbreaking study of the fragility of family ties.
Her characters are just as likely to turn away from helping hands as they are to blurt the truth, like Chloe's pained exclamation, "I hate myself, and . . . I hate you a little too."
But Kiernan doesn't dwell on solemnity, because underlying this sadness is hope — Chloe, Marshall and Cal just need enough faith to find it.
Jennifer DeCamp can be reached at jdecamp@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8881.
Matters of Faith
By Kristy Kiernan
Berkley Books, 317 pages, $14
Kristy Kiernan will be a featured author at the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading on Oct. 25.
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