Book Review: Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

Gloria Ramirez, an American-born Mexican girl is savagely beaten and raped by the white son of a well-connected West Texan localite, Dale Strickland. Although it starts with a lengthy and very powerful description of the circumstances surrouding the case, for most of the book it deals rather with the reaction to different women involved in the case as well as the condition of women in this Gd forgotten corner of America.
The action happens in the 1970s and there are some vague hints about the Middle East oil crisis in the background but it could be taking place any time in fact. There are prejudices by and against women, against mothers and non-Americans, non-White, Latin Americans that are currently still generously shared in the American public discourse.
In the background, more than one moral question: What does it really mean ´innocent until proven guilty?´, especially when it is clear who is the perpetrator? At what extent the good credentials - in the case of Dale Strickland the fact that he not even received a speeding ticket, and his father, a Pentecostal preacher, certified about the quality of his son´s character? Instead, Gloria was accused of being out in the night of the incident and her mother for not keeping an eye on her daughter.

Despite all evidences - Ramirez decided to not testify - he was not sent to prison. Wounded, physically and psychologically, she will finally leave America where she was born to join her mother, that was deported meanwhile, in Mexico. At a certain extent, Strickland is the result of social circumstances: ´The cops and lawyers and teachers and churches, the judge and the jury, the people who raised that boy and then sent him out into the world, to this town - everyone of them is guilty´. 

More than investigation about the circumstances of Gloria Ramirez´s terrible incident, Valentine is an investigation about lives of women. The women are the most important and complex characters of the books. Men are mostly absent - taking care of the cattle, drunk, killing themselves, buying busy around the oil rig, but their absence does not mean that women are free. They are forced to stay at home, give up their career, take care of children, be the victims of aggressive behaviors and random rapes. When they, as Mary Rose, are defending the 14 yo Gloria Ramirez, they are called many names, including ´race traitors´. 

There are many novels in the last years aimed to give a voice to voiceless women and Valentine is doing it in a news-like matter of fact way. Although for my taste, the narrative is too slow paced and meditative sometimes, and I favour a more dramatic, even aggressive story, the writing stands for quality and complexity and Elizabeth Wetmore is a writer would love to hear more about. 

Rating: 3.5 stars