The Stolen Marriage

Hickory Dock

There are readers who love damsel-in-distress novels. Diane Chamberlain’s The Stolen Marriage falls firmly into that category and would satisfy her fans.  Others might find it jarringly old-fashioned, though it accurate in depicting life in the US in the 1940s.

The book is set in the American South around World War II, when pretty Tess Demello is waiting to marry her childhood sweetheart. Her fiancé, Vincent Russo, is a doctor who goes off to deal with a polio outbreak in Chicago and takes much too long coming back.

Distressed by his absence and apparent indifference, she goes to Washington on a trip with her friend Gina, and after too many drinks, wakes up next to a man she just met. Henry Kraft is a furniture tycoon from a town called Hickory, and the strong, silent type, who also lost his control due to intoxication. 

 A few weeks down the line, Tess finds herself pregnant, and her Catholic upbringing prevents her from going ahead with a back alley abortion. Instead, she goes to meet Henry for help, and he offers to marry her.  She cannot bring herself to face Vincent, so she agrees to the proposal, even it means breaking her own heart and that of Vincent, not to mention the two families.

Henry’s mother, sister and the wealthy social circle of Hickory hate Tess and make to attempt to hide it. They look down on her ambition to be a nurse and want her to become another vacuous high society, like Violet, the girl Henry is supposed to have dumped to marry her. Tess is utterly miserable, though she tries very hard to adjust.  Henry treats her well, but obviously does not love her.

Several passages make one gnash one’s teeth in irritation, but then Chamberlain deals with topics like racism, class snobbery, women’s independence and public health.  Eventually Tess does find her voice and  purpose in life.  Which makes the melodrama that went before worthwhile.

The Stolen Marriage

By Diane Chamberlain

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Pages:  384