Daughters of Eve Book

My Lois Duncan jag continues with Daughters of Eve and it's the best from the author I've read so far, a big, unwieldy but enthralling thriller with so much going on between the notes that it even develops a minor key in the paranormal. This one was first published in 1979 and revised by the author in 2011, not so much due to changes in technology or fashion, but in politics, with a high school in a fictional Michigan town curiously frozen in an era before feminism. Dry as a tinder box, this conservative setting provides the fuel for the charismatic art teacher and adviser to a club called the Daughters of Eve to ignite primal retribution within her students, with tragic results.

The ambitious novel introduces ten teenage girls as their school year begins at Modesta High School. Three underclassmen have received invitations to join the Daughters of Eve, a national organization that raises money for the community and promotes sisterhood; the Modesta chapter restricts its roll to ten. Members are sworn to secrecy and no outsiders are admitted to meetings. The new class each have secrets: freckled Kristy Grange, whose older brothers Peter and Niles have been excused from domestic work which falls on Kristy with both parents eking out a living; Laura Snow, an overweight teen with no friends and poor self-esteem who's in love with Peter Grange; and delicate Jane Rheardon, whose mother exhibits symptoms of battered wife syndrome from Jane's abusive father.

Daughters of Eve is led by president Erika Schneider, "the coolest girl in the Senior Honor Society" toiling on a top secret science project involving rats which has virtually no competition on its way to the state level science fair; club treasurer Madison Ellis, cheerleader and homecoming queen, is dating Peter Grange but refuses to go all the way with him and threaten her modeling career with a pregnancy; club secretary Ann Whitten, budding artist whose future is uncertain when her farmer boyfriend Dave proposes marriage. The other members of the club are finding their voices. Kelly Johnson is a bright girl who has lowered her expectations to a middling career as a secretary.

Holly Underwood has musical talent on the maternal side but has seen her mother squander that talent by marrying young and sacrificing for a husband and children; Paula Brummell plays basketball but laments the sad state of the neglected girls' program in comparison to the boys'; Tammy Carncross has writers for parents and is known at home as "our oracle" for her "funny feelings" which often portend the future. Faculty adviser to the Daughters of Eve is Irene Stark, art teacher from the Windy City who far from being pretty or hip looking, has earned the respect of the students for her attentiveness and ability to find solutions to their challenges.

Remember all of these names because there's going to be a test later.

During the initiation ceremony in the art classroom, Tammy Carncross has a vision of candle wax turning blood red and hit with a nauseous feeling, bolts as quickly as she can. She resigns from the club, only to reconsider. Kristy reveals to her new sisters that her parents have asked her to resign due to obligations at home. The others are outraged that Kristy's older brothers Peter and Niles aren't expected to help and begin to see a pattern of discrimination: Scholarships are determined by male faculty and male students seem to be awarded more often than female students. The boys' athletic department receives funding and priority while the girls' department is left in disarray.

Rebellion begins. Kristy refuses to resign from the club and accepts grounding by her parents, ultimately bringing her mother over to her side. When her brother Peter protests the amount of time his girlfriend Madison is spending on Daughters of Eve, in addition to being an "ice queen" when they're alone, she breaks up with him on the spot. Peter takes his urges to a girl he can manipulate and begins hooking up with lonely Laura, keeping their activities down at the creek on the QT. Jane speaks to her mother in a failed effort to get her to leave her abusive father. Kelly's perfect parents divorce when her father leaves her mother for another woman, stoking Kelly's isolation and hatred.

"You need your friends more than ever now," her mom had told her. Concerned about her. Loving her. Worrying over Kelly, not over herself. Wonderful, self-sacrificing Mom, and what had it gotten her? A load of crap, that's what. A load of shit, is what Madison would call it--outspoken Madison, who called a spade a spade. Kelly had never called anything by an ugly curse word like that. Words like "shit" weren't used in the Johnson household. Maybe that was why Madison didn't have any hang-ups and Kelly did.

That's why I can't go downstairs, Kelly told herself now. It's because I have a hang-up. A hang-up about being stupid, which, in its way, was just as terrible as being cruel because both things hurt equally in the long run. Her mom had trusted in love, and that was stupid. Her mom had built her whole life on the premise that she was half of a perfect couple, and now she wasn't anything. She was a cartoon character, walking around the house, emptying ashtrays that didn't need emptying, cooking big meals that no one could eat, changing sheets that didn't need changing, and it was all so stupid because she should've known. She should've known!

Laura urges Peter to take their relationship public by taking her to the homecoming dance, but realizing he ruined a good thing with Madison, Peter charms his ex back. Attending the dance with Madison, Peter not only stands Laura up on the night of, but his younger brother Niles pays Laura a visit in the hopes she'll put out for him too. Forcing himself on her, Niles is fought off by Laura, but subjects her to a stream of insults before he leaves. Shame and a bottle of sleeping pills spell Laura's resignation not only from the Daughters of Eve, but force her to leave Modesta. Miss Stark--aware that Laura had gotten herself into a sexual relationship she wasn't equipped to handle--is able to determine the identity of the creep with Kristy and Madison.

"That bastard! Freaking bastard!" Madison brought her clenched fist crashing down on the surface of the table. "And I thought he'd changed, that he really cared about me and about our relationship! How could I have been such an idiot!"

"You're not an idiot," Tammy said, trying to soothe her. "You believed what he said, and why shouldn't you? There was no way you could've guessed this was going on with Laura."

"I believed him because I wanted to, that's what was stupid. And Laura--well, at least she had the excuse of not having a lot of experience. I can see where she might fall for this crap, but with me--I've been going out with guys since middle school! I should've known better!"

"So should Laura," Kelly said coldly. "Maybe she hasn't had dating experience, but she had a dad who walked out on her and on her mom. That should be enough right there to teach her that you can't trust men."

"We don't really know--" Ann began.

"Of course we do! Irene and I had a long talk about that very thing the other night. All of us know a whole lot of things deep inside, but we close our eyes and our minds to them. Like Madison just said. We believe what we want to believe. It's easier than standing up for ourselves."

Lois Duncan sculpts with a blunt instrument. Inspired to write about a fanatical, charismatic adult who exerts influence among his pupils, Duncan's story morphed from one about a youth pastor to one about a feminist high school teacher. As a result, some feminists have accused the author of anti-feminist bias while some anti-feminists believe that Duncan is as guilty as Miss Irene Stark of pushing a feminist agenda on teenagers. Miss Stark isn't chiseled with a great deal of nuance and some of her counseling techniques seem completely inappropriate for a story taking place in 2012. Then again, if Modesta is lost in a time warp, maybe Miss Stark knew she could get away with more.

The novel is titled Daughters of Eve and its power is its raw, honest depiction of teenage girls who are strong together but vulnerable to the priorities and whims of adults when alone. The club meetings evolve into discussions of gender inequality and as the teenagers begin to ask questions, I found it fascinating how many of them thought that the problem was in some other family, rarely their own. Unwilling to write about a club and focus only on two or three characters, Duncan's inkwell is deep here. She's able to explore not only gender inequality, but domestic and sexual violence, abortion and the less overt pressures women experience daily to subordinate their lives.

The broad canvas of the novel also has the effect of multiplying the suspense. Duncan does a skillful job of placing her characters into positions of vulnerability in very short amount of time. The author draws out whether Madison will have sex with her creep boyfriend or Ann will reject her scholarship to marry or Jane will suffer the same domestic violence as her mother. If it sounds over-the-top, it is, but Daughters of Eve doesn't need to manufacture its evils. Duncan exposes how many exist under the surface of the perfect high school and explores ways to survive them. By the last page, there wasn't any doubt I was being let go from the grip of a master storyteller.