The Widow's War

The Widow's War has been on my reading list since a librarian recommended it to me last fall. Given the title, it shouldn't spoil the story to say the main character, Lyddie, is a widow, made that way by whaling. Knowing that, I expected something along the lines of Ahab's Wife or even Hetty Green. But while whaling is certainly central to the story, The Widow's War is more more focused on women's rights in Colonial America than on the principal way by which the male population of Cape Cod makes its living. In that sense, its heroine has much in common with those of They Fought Like Demons (real heroines) and One Thousand White Women (imagined), for Lyddie yearns only to know freedom in all of its forms.

Edward Berry was a whaler, his wife long accustomed to managing in his absence. It comes as a shock, then, that his will renders her a ward of her son-in-law. Edward's death sets the stage for Lyddie's war. It is a war that will pit her against family, friends, and church, for her desire to direct her own life is so counter to the times as to estrange her from everything and everyone she once held dear.

Sally Cabot Gunning has endowed Lyddie with an endearing, determined nature, couple with a stubborn streak a mile wide. I couldn't help but alternately cheer for Lyddie and be utterly exasperated by her choices. Like a real flesh and blood human, Lyddie is complex, equal parts sympathetic and obnoxious. This, too, rings true.

In the end, if I did not love The Widow's War, I liked it very much and have no qualms about recommending it to avid readers of historical fiction. Those with a penchant for colonial-era literature should particularly enjoy it.