Official Review: The Serpent Beguiled Eve by Acacia Slaton

[Melanie_Page]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Serpent Beguiled Eve" by Acacia Slaton.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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“The Serpent Beguiled Eve: Healing the Wounds of Abandonment, Betrayal and Shame” is an autobiographical book about a woman’s choice to marry a man about whom she had reservations and how a few years into their marriage he left her to live openly as a gay man.

There is much in the book that is admirable. The author writes well; lucidly, fluidly and in a style which allows the reader to keep turning the pages. The chapters are short, only three or four pages. The story begins with the effect the couple’s separation (he is a soldier in Afghanistan), is having on their elder daughter and then backtracks to cover their early romance, marriage and struggles. Much of the early part of the book deals with the author’s relationship with her future husband, other relationships and the reasons why she married him, despite having significant misgivings.

The book details their marriage and her early concerns, her discovery of his infidelities and their eventual breakup and divorce. The last few chapters speaks about her life after divorce. It is written from the perspective of one who is an evangelical Christian and as such some might find the author’s outlook on aspects of her story a trifle perplexing. She places reliance on dreams, seeing them as God-ordained guidance and much is made of the advice given to her by various spiritual advisors.

The topic is a potentially controversial one and Slaton does her best to treat it as even-handedly as she can, given the depth of anguish her discovery of her husband’s choices has obviously caused her. She described the efforts she made to help her husband but always there is the sense that he does not want to change. She does not fall into the trap of becoming overly emotional and events are described matter-of-factly although the hurt comes through, particularly when she recounts her daughters missing their daddy.

This said, the book does her errant husband no favours. He comes across as confused, deceitful and uncaring. With this in mind, I think that my main issue with the book, and the reason why I have given it three stars, despite the quality of the writing, was that it does not fulfil its declared purpose. The author has taken pains to detail her thoughts, emotions and actions prior to and during her marriage but very little is said about her emotional life after the end of her marriage. The author claims that she had forgiven her husband for abandoning her and her children, but doesn’t really relate anything substantive that shows forgiveness.

I raise this point because the subtitle of the book is “Healing the Wounds of Abandonment, Betrayal and Shame”. That led me to suppose that the book would be predominantly about this healing, either hers or theirs. Instead it takes a long time to get to the point and then the book ends. Therefore I don’t feel that the book achieved what it set out to do. It offers an awful glimpse into an unenviable situation but I believe that it does not really elaborate how a person can heal and move forward.

I have given “The Serpent Beguiled Eve” 3 out of 4 stars. It effectively relates the suffering of a family affected by molestation, addictions, dysfunction and infidelity, but falls at the last fence.

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The Serpent Beguiled Eve
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[ALynnPowers]

Sounds like an interesting read. Thanks for the review!