I haven’t read historical fiction in a few months (since Waspish Widows) so I was really excited to jump into Testimony by Paula Martinac. Testimony travels to 1960’s Virginia, way before Obergefell v. Hodges, the case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the right for same-sex couples to marry is constitutionally granted, when society condemned homosexuality to the point of incarceration. Scary times, and this novel doesn’t water down our history—a point I adore.
Here’s a quick plot—
Gen Rider secured tenure at Baines College, a private school exclusively for white women, as a history professor specializing in “Negro” history. Tensions are high as an investigation starts after a gay man is caught in the park having sex with another man. Gen has always been careful to never show her true self in public, but when a neighbor spies her kissing another woman through her kitchen window, Gen is accused of inappropriate conduct with a student. What follows next resembles a scene from The Crucible as Gen must choose between a long-sought after career and, well, freedom.
I thought the multiple points of view throughout the story was really effective in understanding a variety of characters. We first get to live through the fear of the gay theater professor, Fenton, who was connected to the man in the park. Fenton feels the shame of his differences and tries to hide. The narrative is very interesting in that it uses the story itself to invoke outrage and emotion as opposed to spelling-it-out, so to say. There’s a matter of fact tone that I appreciated.
I also liked how the narrative addressed racial disparity. It’s difficult being gay in this time period, but worse is being black (and gay). Gen may have to move away to live a free life, but the black student who sought entrance to the college (which Gen ignored for the sake of her own tenure) was denied and needed to attended somewhere else further away while being plenty qualified for the better school. Let alone the struggle for equal rights that was briefly mentioned when Gen attended a NAACP meeting and (even briefer) through her curriculum.
What’s abundantly clear is the fear and injustice people had to suffer through just for being different. I am thankful to live in an era where the law is on my side, however, whenever a straight friend acclaims “It’s 20_insert year” as though that should automatically counter any belief that someone will be intolerant, I scoff at the naivety. Alas, there is change though and it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Testimony is a bright, dark story that well mirrors the time it encompasses. It will make you reflect and question, surely a mark of good fiction. With characters that are multi-dimensional and real to a fault, it’s hard not to empathize with everyone in this book. At the very least, Testimony will have you thinking.