In The Gates of Evangeline, Hester Young gives us a contemporary take on the Southern Gothic genre, while still satisfying the expectations of Gothic connoisseurs.
The story features Charlotte “Charlie” Cates, a young mother grieving the loss of her only child. In the wake of his death, she experiences several nightmares involving children who are in danger and are reaching out to her for help. When one of those dreams – of her close friend’s daughter – comes true, Charlie knows that she must act on what the dreams are calling her to do.
Safe to Proceed: No Plot Spoilers Ahead!
Overview
After her crippling loss and subsequent divorce, what Charlie thinks she needs is to get away from her life in the New York/Connecticut area. When a dream about a young boy in a boat coincides with a job offer from her editor, she jumps at the opportunity. He wants her to go down to the Evangeline estate in Louisiana and write a true-crime novel about a thirty-year unsolved mystery: the disappearance of five-year-old Gabriel Deveau.
Once there, Charlie falls into a web of family secrets and intrigue. The evidence in the case is conflicting – some of it points to an insider, but the family and staff have no motive. However, she soon discovers that the family members are lying to one another about several things. To confound all of this, a landscape designer from Texas is also staying at the estate at the behest of the Deveau matriarch. When he pursues a romantic relationship with Charlie, she doesn’t know what to think of this man whose southern ways are so different from her northern ones.
As Charlie learns more about the family and the people who work[ed] the estate both now and when Gabriel disappeared, she discovers that rather than leaving her pain behind, she is now hedged into a place where she has to face what she hasn’t been able to accept in the past. All of her questions about what she, as a mother, could have and should have been able to do to prevent her child’s death, assail her and, ultimately bring her healing.
In many ways, this is a story about atonement: the price that must be paid in order to atone for one’s failures.
Themes & Tropes
This story deals heavily with motherhood – on the part of both Charlie Cates and Hettie Deveau, who also lost a son. The primary theme is the extent to which a mother will sacrifice herself for her child. The way that Young approaches this – in retrospect – allows for a more comprehensive look at the subject.
She also includes several traditionally Southern Gothic themes and corresponding tropes.
- The Old South vs. the New South – this is typified by the Evangeline estate, which highlights the past and stands out in stark contrast against the modern era.
- Repression – in Southern Gothic writing, economic or racial repression is often presented as an undercurrent beneath the idyllic southern reputation. In the case of this work, Young presents that repression as a sexual one and uses one of the characters in the novel as the manifestation of that repression.
- Anxiety – the eldest Deveau son, Andre, represents the Southern Gothic theme of anxiety. Historically, this anxiety paralleled the South’s loss of its sense of identity after the Civil War. Young takes this idea and casts it on Andre, a man who’s struggling with his place in the family in light of his mother’s looming death.
Criticism
There have been some who have criticized Young’s characterization of the South. Native Southerners have commented in reviews that her portrayal of Louisiana is flawed and that her protagonist’s [very negative] perspective of the South is insulting.
I have a mixed perspective on that one. First, not being from the South, although I lived there for a time, I can appreciate the fact that a northerner probably isn’t going to portray that region as accurately as it deserves. As a writer who sometimes writes about places I’ve never lived, I can sympathize with the writer. However, as a reader, who also reads about places I’ve never lived, I can sympathize with the southern readers. I give her credit in that the writing comes across as a serious attempt to paint a realistic picture of the region. And a number of readers who commented that the regional details were less than accurate also said that they still loved the story. So take that as you will.
Second, as I read [with the knowledge of that criticism], I was torn as to what the writer intended. It’s one thing to say that the dialect and other Louisiana-specific details weren’t as authentic as they should have been. It’s another to say that the protagonist was wrong to have a cynical, northern attitude about the South. Protagonists are supposed to have flaws. They’re supposed to come to the table – like all humans – with certain prejudices and incorrect assumptions. Charlie certainly does.
At first I was a bit put-off by her character. She has a very supercilious, urban-provincial attitude that New York is the only civilized place in the world (or at least one of very few). I’ve lived in a lot of areas, some of them large urban centers, but many of them otherwise. I don’t care for big cities and I don’t care for that attitude. However, I read with the assumption that Young gave Charlie that personality intending it to read as a personality flaw. And the book’s ending supports that. I won’t give it away for you, but Charlie changes dramatically by the end – not in ways that are unrealistic, but in ways that contradict her former arrogance about New York. Thus, I’m willing to believe that Young wasn’t trying to demean the South, but was rather trying to point out a northern view of the South that’s incorrect, or at least incomplete.
Conclusion
As I mentioned, I was a very unsure about this book at the beginning. Charlie’s character was a bit much for me and the writing didn’t speak to me the way that some writing does.
However, I ended up enjoying the story and appreciating the solid plotting that went into the book. There were also several twists, one in particular, that a faint portion of my brain suspected…but there were enough red herrings that I really didn’t know what would happen. All in all, Young did a good job of pulling together a solid tale. And yes, I would recommend it.
If you’ve read it, let me know your perspective on the book.
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