Deirdre Sinnott’s potent historical novel The Third Mrs. Galway covers the early abolitionist movement in New York via the story of a multidimensional family.
Helen is young when she marries Augustin Galway, an older financier who’s the descendant of a slave owner. On her husband’s property, she discovers a pregnant runaway, Imari, and her son, Joe, in hiding. Having been taught twisted interpretations of Bible verses that painted runaways as disobedient, Helen is shocked to hear Imari’s account of what slavery is actually like. Still she’s ambivalent about helping. From this volatile opening, an intriguing story about moral duty, women’s strength, personal reckonings, and communities unfolds.
The book’s descriptions are brutal, urgent, and realistic. Oneida County’s river landscapes stand out, with descriptions of the industry on its canals, where the water is beautiful, treacherous, and full of potential. These images parallel the characters’ stories in subtle ways. Some tales conclude with death; other characters migrate.
As Helen awakens, moving from feeling inconvenienced by the runaways to risking her safety to keep slave catchers away from them, her story is interspersed with Imari and Joe’s recollections about their pasts and travels northward. Meanwhile, controversy over an impending antislavery convention reveals the Northern community’s divisive antebellum sentiments.
Secondary characters, including a free-born Black fishmonger whose challenges to others prompt tough choices, and the Galway’s influential cook, whose backstory is key to the book’s resolution, have warm interactions that flesh out the story. Augustin, who is limited by an injury and his opium addiction, is more of a background figure in comparison, though his secrets lead to a late, unexpected act of atonement.
In the intricate, relationship-based historical novel The Third Mrs. Galway, characters question civil disobedience and abolitionism; they also learn to be compassionate.
Reviewed by Karen Rigby
July / August 2021
KIRKUS REVIEW
Pub Date: July 6th, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-61775-842-3
Publisher: Kaylie Jones/Akashic
Link: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/deirdre-sinnott/the-third-mrs-galway/
When an abolitionist convention comes to Utica, New York, in 1835, mayhem both public and private ensues.
In this eloquent debut, a diverse cast of characters embodies the political, class, and racial upheavals of its time and milieu, and does it all in living local color. Helen, an orphan raised in a genteel finishing school for young ladies, is wed in a quasi-arranged marriage to Galway, a prosperous older widower. Her naïveté regarding the issues of the day—in school she was taught that Southern masters treated their slaves like family—is tested when Imari and her son, Joe, escapees from a Virginia plantation, turn up in Galway’s shed. Helen’s domicile is further disrupted when Galway breaks his leg in a drunken fall, ushering quack doctor McCooke into their midst, as lecherous as he is incompetent. Meanwhile, Pryce, a young man unsure of his career path, pays more welcome attention to Helen. The streets of Utica come alive, especially as observed by minor characters—Owen Sylvanus, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Alvan Stewart, a crusading lawyer leading the abolitionists, and Horace Wilberforce, a fishmonger and fixer. Utica’s section of the Erie Canal, where freighters are hauled by mules along a towpath, is vividly evoked. Slave catchers have arrived, not only menacing Imari and Joe, but rallying the mob against the abolitionists. Galway himself opposes abolition—instead, he advocates sending American Blacks to colonize Liberia. His servant, Maggie, who was formerly enslaved by his family, is a force to be reckoned with. Since Helen is the second Mrs. Galway, the title provides a clue to explosive family secrets. The text treads very carefully when treating the subject of slavery, and, occasionally, unavoidable echoes of today’s world lead to didactic moments that feel anachronistic. Often, when too many characters crowd into a scene, the logistics can verge on unintentional farce. But despite Sinnott’s extensive research into her hometown and its role in abolition, the pace is never slowed by excessive detail.
A localized but no less powerful look at the prologue to Emancipation.
MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
September 2021, Volume 20, Number 9
The Third Mrs. Galway
Deirdre Sinnott
Kaylie Jones Books
9781636140438, $41.95, HC, 336pp
Critique: With it's impressive attention to historical detail, "The Third Mrs. Galway" showcases novelist, researcher, and social activist Deirdre Sinnott exceptional flair for an inherently entertaining and narrative driven storytelling style. While "The Third Mrs. Galway" is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to community library General Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that it is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781617758423, $17.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).
HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
Editor’s Choice Pick
"This suspenseful novel vividly breathes life into the early years of the United States, and the burden of slavery the young Republic carries with it...This book engrosses the reader and does what historical fiction does best. In bringing the past into sharp focus, it shines a light on our present day. Highly recommended."