That Recoil of Nature

by Rod Dubey

It is 1952 and Emilie Gagnon —with no family beyond that of her husband Marcel and their kids— is the victim of Marcel's intensifying physical abuse. Emelie's sole support in the remote town of Wegebow, is Dr. Madeleine MacQuigau, an outsider, who attempts to elicit the help of the police, the Catholic church, and eventually her own husband to stop the violence. But Wegebow is a nothern town where such things are not acknowledged and families stick together. Maddy knows her patient will soon be dead unless something is done to stop Marcel. She must decide whether or not to help Emelie commit the one act that will end the attacks forever. "Here was the perversity of the situation in its starkest form," Maddy would write later. "No one had the moral integrity to protect this woman or her kids, but if Emelie were to do so herself she'd become a criminal and they would probably kill her!"The effects of Maddy's decision will reverberate through the lives of two families for many years, including that of her son Lawrence after he reads his mother's journal in the 1970's and evaluates her actions in the light of the ideas of his own time.