The Evidence Against Her: A Novel

by Robb Forman Dew

Book Overview

Set against the landscape of a turn-of-the-century small midwestern town, this is a classic story, a love story, a story of a family that readers will ache to follow into the next generation. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316095575
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.9" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Loved it!

I loved this book! It was very disappointing when I got to the end and had to let the characters go. I recognized so many people I know/knew in the characters and was therefore fascinated with them. I highly recommend this book to people who love to study other people (and may learn something about themselves in the process).

a REAL book with substance! Wonderful!

Lovers of the sort of fiction Jan Karon writes won't like this book, and it is a waste of time for them to read it. This is an astonishing work of lierature that is nevertheless accessable to any good reader. It is a whole world given to the reader to ponder for years after finishing the book. Is there Evidence? Of what and about whom? I think this is the best book I've read in decades, and if you're a fan of Jane Austen or Edith Wharton or even Carol Shields you will love this novel! I'm jealous of anyone who hasn't read it yet! Happy reading!

A rare gem.

I received this book as a Christmas gift and I just got around to reading it. What a pleasant surprise! (And a refreshing break from the flood of novels about contemporary dysfunctional families.) The seductive cover does not mislead -- inside these pages is a powerful story, but this is a gentle kind of power -- the power of family bonds and subtle domestic dramas. The author tells us the Scofield family stories in a distinctive voice that can only be described as discreet. It's as if a loving aunt were recounting the family's history for us. I haven't read anything else by Robb Forman Dew, but I am going to search out her earlier novels, and I'm looking forward to the sequel to this one.

Magnificent! A "Corrections" Antidote

This is a magnificent novel: gorgeously written, heartbraking, funny at times...it's the work of a laureled American novelist at the height of her powers.I began reading The Evidence Against Her yesterday around 10 a.m. and could not put it down. It is the story of two families living in late 19th- and early 20th- century Ohio, but it could just as easily be set in Chekhov's Russia or Lawrence's England, for its appeal and its message are universal. The story focuses on luminously-drawn Agnes, the unwitting anchor and scapegoat of a troubled family. I have no doubt that Agnes will eventually take her place beside Hardy's Tess, Austen's Emma, Tolstoy's Natasha, and the other great female protagonists of Western literature.This is a literary novel, but it is also deeply entertaining. Dew is one of a handful of writers currently working who manages to be both at once. This is a novel to be read at least twice, I think: first for the thrilling story and second to savor the richly textured prose and exquisitely observed scenes. I plan to start it again soon.Don't miss this book!

The icing is beautiful but the cake is even better

I saw this book displayed, and the cover is so seductive that I picked it up and began to look through it. I was captivated by the first sentence which is one of the great openings of any book I've ever read, including A Tale of Two Cities. This is a complex tale about familial myths, and how they evolve, that shape the way we look at the narrative of our lives. And this is one of the only books I've ever read that explores the lives of girls at school, among many other things. At times it's endearingly amusing and at times it's searingly sad and sometimes heartbreaking. This is a book into which you walk as if you're sinking into a dream. It is slow paced and visual and increasingly mesmerizing. I emerged from it so sorry it was over. It's a whole world Dew gives us, and the writing is transcendent! It illuminates the fact that any person is always living his or her regular life while managing all sorts of emotions simultaneaously, and the author never judges the characters but leaves that for the reader to do if we choose. The ending is a shock and is entirely earned. I loved this book and think it will become a classic. I'm trying to find this author's previous books but they seem to be out of print.