Judith Favor

Author

  • Home
  • Books
    • Friending Rosie: Respect on Death Row
    • Friending Rosie on Death Row (Pamphlet)
    • Sabbath Economics (2020)
    • 52 Weeks of Love & Money
    • The Beacons
    • The Edgefielders
    • Silent Voices: A Family Memoir
    • Spirit Awakening: A Book of Practices
  • Judith’s Work
    • Stillpoint California
    • Spiritual Direction
    • Ghost Ranch
  • ABOUT JUDITH
  • BLOG
  • Contact

The Compromise… a love story

February 5, 2019 By Judith Favor

by Eleanor Scott Meyers

ESMeyersPRESS, Claremont CA, 2018
Paperback, 282 pages, $18.95
Available online through Powells Bookstore and Amazon

Ruth meets Cassandra early in her marriage to Ed and gradually becomes central to a quietly piercing, entirely credible three-way love story that sustains an unwanted child, a large extended family, a small Midwestern town – and the reader – until death do us part.

Beloved lesbian commitment is not the book’s only, or even principal subject. One of the pleasures of The Compromise is how sturdily it takes shape in a rural Kansas community during the Depression and how carefully it skirts the high drama to which same-sex-advocate storytellers often resort. Readers will find no treachery in this novel, only delicately nuanced restraint as two women and one man bond in friendship through the hurts, doubts, joys and challenges of a permanently lopsided relationship. Son Taylor eventually “unriddles” his unconventional upbringing to uncover the legacy of being parented by a threesome. His wife Margaret, firmly rooted in the author’s own experience, speaks potently to the questions of generational pain that haunt our times. Her wise, calm voice testifies to the faith, hard work and enduring love that bring grace into the present.

This tri-fold romance unfolds at a deliberate clip with a sharp eye for peripheral detail. Meyers writes in muted, controlled images; she likes to show us the rooms her characters inhabit, the implements they use and the aprons they wear. Many scenes take place in dining rooms and kitchens; the story opens in a cemetery and closes after a funeral. Latter chapters detail the complexities of aging as Margaret helps Ruth and Ed wrestle with decisions about where to live, what to discard and how to manage their final years.

The Compromise is clearly the work of an artist who loves her subjects. In her first novel, Eleanor Scott Meyers gifts us with generational hope, faith and love conveyed in subdued, emotionally layered prose. Her sturdy characters comforted me as I kept vigil at my son’s deathbed. They will speak to Friends facing old age, a testimony to what love can do in complex personal relationships warmed by simplicity, truth, peace, integrity and community.  Book discussion groups will find this novel rich in meaning.

Judith Favor is grateful for this loving glimpse into a rural Midwestern household upheld by Quaker values.  She is a member of Claremont Meeting in California. 

 

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: biography, Eleanor Scott Meyers, historical novel, Midwest

  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Please Join My Subscriber List

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Buy on AMAZON

    Friending Rosie: Respect on Death Row by Judith Favor banner image link

    PAPERBACK | KINDLE


    For more information:
    Page Publishing

    Buy on AMAZON

    Sabbath Economics by Judith Favor banner image link

    PAPERBACK | KINDLE


    For more information:
    Readers Magnet

    Buy on AMAZON

    52 Weeks of Love & Money: The Companion Journal for Sabbath Economics by Judith Favor banner image link

    PAPERBACK | KINDLE


    For more information:
    Readers Magnet

    Buy on AMAZON

    The Beacons novel by Judith Favor banner image link

    PAPERBACK | KINDLE


    For more information:
    Apocryphile Press

    Recent Posts

    • Interfaithfully Speaking: Connecting Interfaithfully with People in Prison (Claremont Courier Article)
    • Friending Rosie Book Review by Jon M. Sweeney
    • Composing Your Spiritual Memoir
    • Friending Rosie: Page Publishing
    • 52 Weeks of Love & Money: The Companion Journal for Sabbath Economics — PUBLISHED!
    • Epiphany Writing Retreat
    • Greg Richardson’s Generous Review of Sabbath Economics
    • First Stack of Author Proofs!
    • Sabbath Economics published on November 11, 2020
    • WRITING FOR CHANGE IN CHALLENGING TIMES
    • Big-Hearted Democracy
    • A Mother’s Heartlines


    RELATED LINKS

    • "As It Is: Spiritual Journaling" online e-course signup page for Judith Favor at Spirituality & Practice
    • EarthPeace Monument Constance and Don Waddell’s dream of a lasting symbol to represent efforts to bring about peace to the world is now becoming a reality.
    • Ghost Ranch Website Education & Retreat Center
    • Stillpoint California
    • Facebook
    • Instagram

    RELATED LINKS

    • Stillpoint California
    • EarthPeace Monument
    • "As It Is: Spiritual Journaling"
    • Ghost Ranch Website

    TAG CLOUD

    As It Is online class Author Event biography blurbs book photo Chapters classes Coaching Counseling Democracy Drafts Eleanor Scott Meyers Friending Rosie Friends Journal Ghost Ranch Heartlines historical novel Jon M. Sweeney Journaling Midwest online class Pilgrim Place Preview prisons published Quakers Readings reflections Rosie Sabbath Economics seminars Shalem Society Silent Voices Spirituality & Practice Stillpoint testimonial The Beacons The Edgefielders The Friend Magazine travel weeklong What Canst Thou Say William Dolphin workshops writing

    CATEGORIES

    • Announcements
    • Book Reviews
    • Books
    • Contemplative Memoir
    • Essays
    • Excerpt
    • Ghost Ranch
    • Interviews
    • Quakers
    • Questions
    • Retreats
    • Spiritual Direction
    • StillPoint
    • Workshops

    Copyright Judith Favor ©2021, All Rights Reserved