Walnut Hearts

Childhood sexual abuse. Three dirty words describing a dirty little secret. Though it happens with alarming frequency, we-society, families, even mental health professionals-don't want to talk about it. We want to pretend it's not there or at most that it happens only to people who are somehow different than we.
And yet, you will see in the Abelard family bits of yourself and your loved ones. Your heart will race with anticipation along with Gussie's, as she meets Michaul for the first time. He's confident, handsome, mannered, and incredibly sexy. You'll feel the fire of their early relationship and understand why Gussie falls so easily under his spell. "She hadn't counted on the Good Lord enough, she thought, who had simply led someone as perfect as Michaul Abelard to her." And so you will understand her confusion when it seems to be going wrong. It just can't be. And when it becomes undeniable, you will pray that he'll be different next time. For that is the cycle that traps us.
"...'Michaul,' Gussie began hesitantly, 'he was the only man I ever loved. Truth is, I loved him too much. Too much. That's how it began. He used my love for him as a way to take all I loved away from me.'"
The pain of Gussie's realizations is magnified when she sees that her husband's abusive ways have manifested in her son. Later, his daughter would "[feel] a bolt of true love for [her father] pierce her chest. She hated [him], but the hatred lived in her guts, somewhere nameless, dark and smelly." "I kept secrets," she said.
This is a story of the secrets of four generations of Abelard women, but it is also a story of our own wanting to see the good, denying the bad, hiding from the pain. It's too hard to think about, so we don't.
And yet, Jackie Glover's Walnut Hearts will keep you coming back for more. Once you are introduced to Theresa, you won't rest until you know the whole truth. That is the power of this story. The reader feels compelled to learn more, to understand, to somehow make sense of it. Victims of abuse will certainly see their own stories in this, but so will those who have stood to the side, afraid to ask. Every parent should read this book. Every therapist should read this book.
The story begins in 1920. The book ends in 2001, but it is evident that the story is not over. The Abelard women find their collective voice through Gussie's granddaughter. Thousands of others will too. She ends with "What can be done? And when?" If this book leaves you asking those questions, Jackie Glover has indeed accomplished her goal.
Mary Beth Shea, Ph.D.