After Eden by Valerie Miner

Abstract

b o o k R e v ie w s Married to a Daughter of the Land begins by interrogating the prevailing historical viewpoint that powerless Spanish-Mexican women married powerful Euro-American men to gain mobility and power that they would not have had in a Latin society. Her first challenge to this viewpoint involves the difference between British-American common law, which severely restricted women’s rights to control property and which viewed a married woman as “a legal dependent ‘covered over’ by her husband” (14), and Spanish marriage laws, which “allowed women to maintain a separate legal identity when they mar­ ried” (15). This differing view of marriage made the role of women’s choices “broader and more dynamic than previously supposed” (15). After situating the two cultures and their views of marriage, Casas goes on to illustrate the complexity of relations between the cultures through personal stories of various women and their marriages. She looks at the role of class and status in marriage choices, as well as the ways in which kindred systems, such as the compadrazgo (godparent) relationship affected legal and economic rela­ tionships. The third chapter, “Marriage and the Myth of Romantic California,” explores the recontextualization of interethnic marriage into a romantic myth that attempted to “portray the invasion of California as largely untraumatic for the invaded peoples” (80). The last two chapters show how the changes in the legal system from Mexican to US law and the breakdown of traditions of honor and kinship caused traumatic experiences for the landholding SpanishMexican families, especially for women. Maria Raquél Casas has used the personal stories in her book to “get away from ‘romantic’ ideas about California’s past and to focus instead on the his­ tories of real lovers, families, kinship alliances and cultural exchanges” (177). This book reminds those of us interested in the past and the future of the American borderlands that history and culture are made from the lives of real people in all their complexity. After Eden. By Valerie Miner. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. 245 pages, $24-95. Reviewed by Andrew Wingfield George Mason University, Fairfax, VA The title of Valerie Miner’s novel, After Eden, works two ways. The book’s name refers to the hard phase of life protagonist Emily enters with the sud­ den death of her long-time lover. It also gestures toward the myriad versions of paradise that energize the characters who populate this book, which is set in Mendocino County on California’s north coast. Everyone in this comer of California is after some kind of Eden. Loggers dream of unimpeded access to old-growth trees. Environmental activists fight for forest protection. Pot growers want to be left alone. Vintners plant rows of grapes that will one day, they hope, produce fine wines. Mexican pickers desire steady work and toler­ W e s t e r n A m e r ic a n l it e r a t u r e S p r in g 2 0 0 8 ance from their Anglo neighbors. Pomo Indians seek reconnection with their ancestral homeland. Religious zealots are hot to drive Darwin from the schools. The women of Beulah Ranch, a group of lesbians living lightly on a piece of collectively owned land in the coastal hills, do their best to shape and sustain a community founded on respect and reciprocity. The Beulah Ranch women are well educated, capable, and committed. Emily is an accomplished regional planner. Salerno, her deceased lover, played jazz saxophone professionally. Ruth is an artist, Virginia a biology teacher, Eve a forest ranger, and Lindsey a winemaker. In their spare time, these women tutor migrants, demonstrate against clear cuts, and play softball for the Fallen Angels. Emily’s grief-induced emotional withdrawal never really threatens to overtax this sisterhood’s capacity to nourish and heal. Miner lavishes attention upon the intricate workings of the Beulah community and the dramatic yet fragile landscape where the women dwell. Through observant Emily, we experience a year of Mendocino storms, fogs, dry spells (and fires), moon cycles, owl sightings, coyote songs, sunrises, and starry nights. Emily is trained to study how...