I have reviewed Katie, Bar the Door by Ruth Hull Chatlien for Reader’s Favorite.
Can anybody predict the expiration timelines of the sufferings caused by repressive religious teachings, loss of a parent, and rape? In the women’s fiction, Katie, Bar the Door, Ruth Hull Chatlien (the author) attempts to answer this question. As long as her father was alive, Katie lived under the protective shield of his care and love. However, when he passed away, that shield was abruptly snatched from her, leaving her open to deceptions and her mother’s ironclad and orthodox rules. During her teenage rebellion years, when her boyfriend, Ritchie, insisted that she get physical with him, she found herself aroused by his longings. Although her religious teachings resounded in her head, encouraging her to turn down Ritchie’s advances, she found herself attracted toward the forbidden desires. Nevertheless, Ritchie took advantage of Katie and forced himself on her. Instead of realizing that Ritchie had raped her, Katie blamed herself for, as her mother had said, “provoking him.” Unaware that these smoldering suppressed feelings were burning her from the inside, she threw herself into her career and moved forward in life. Yet, now and then, these unresolved griefs from the past set her on destructive paths, threatening her chance at a happy life.
He had been naive. Why hadn’t he seen that religious conservatives had a vested interest in the status quo? Apparently, his department chair wouldn’t countenance any scholarship that cast doubt on the holy trinity of God, democracy, and American capitalism.
– An excerpt from the book
Katie, Bar the Door is a book written in no rush. Ruth Hull Chatlien gives her readers a chance to understand everything about Katie: her childhood, her relationship with her father, her annoyance toward her mother, her dreams and hopes, and everything in between. It works in the book’s favor, mainly because the topic of Katie, Bar the Door is quite sensitive. One simply cannot explore the impact of unresolved feelings and sexual abuse in a matter of limited pages. So, when you pick up Katie, Bar the Door, you must devote your heart and soul to the story. It was heartbreaking to see Katie living a lonely life in the absence of a supportive parent. The patient writing of Ruth Hull Chatlien creates a window inside her characters’ innermost sentiments, helping the readers bond with them. The switch from the first person to the third person and back to the first person narrative was a tad confusing. Having said that, the descriptive scene-setting, tasteful execution of a sensitive topic, engaging storytelling, and relatable characters have worked together to establish Katie, Bar the Door by Ruth Hull Chatlien as a must-read women’s Fiction.
“… You’re like a long-term prisoner who gets pardoned. You’re afraid to walk outside. Freedom is in your grasp, but it terrifies you.”
Closing my eyes, I tried to picture myself in a place without walls, able to go in any direction I wanted. Impossible.
– An excerpt from the book
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