In structure, tone and theme, “Ruth” owes a debt to Evan S. Connell’s wonderful 1959 novel, “Mrs. Bridge” — a debt author Kate Riley freely acknowledges.
Like “Mrs. Bridge,” “Ruth” is written in close third person and structured in short, flat chunks of anecdote and description. The story follows a slightly baffled but obedient woman trying to fit into a life of conformity.
Born into a fictitious, strict Anabaptist commune in 1963, Ruth is, like all women in the religious colony, destined to become a passive and obedient wife. Any imagination or nonconformity is tamped down. Vanity is squashed, as are most emotions. Women wear kerchiefs over their heads and dress in long, homemade skirts provided by the collective. (“Fabrics were assigned and sometimes punitive.”) Mirrors large enough to show the entire face are not permitted.
Ruth is a believer, and she does her best but she cannot obliterate her thoughts, which are sometimes wickedly funny and at other times seething and rebellious.
Her beauty-loving mother, Esther, had hoped to name her Maybelline Raisinette, and Ruth later in life hoped to name her own daughter Idea. But bestowing names — as with so many other responsibilities — is a job for the men. Maybelline Raisinette became Ruth, “the ugliest Biblical name [Esther] knew,” reminding her of “nothing so much as a tuber,” and Idea became Gretel.
Women’s desires are not acknowledged, much less indulged, and when Ruth brings a school friend for communal dinner, the friend whispers, “You’ve got to get out of here. You can stay with my family as long as you need.”
But like Mrs. Bridge, Ruth clings to her cage and quietly fears what lies beyond.
Much of the book’s quirky humor comes from Riley’s deadpan tone and her juxtaposition of odd details — Ruth’s brother painted a portrait of the Virgin Mary that is “careful and menacing.” The women in an old photograph look ”like rats in kerchiefs.”
