Novel about multi-generational Catholic family (in the midwest?) with messed up relationships - young man and woman are stuck in a car in a blizzard and have to get married

[brenna]

Read around 2010ish maybe? This novel is about several generations of the same religious family, I think in the midwest. They all have challenges with relationships and are emotionally isolated, in large part because of the rigidity of their religious beliefs, but also because of their broader culture.

SPOILERS BELOW






Early on you learn that the middle generation couple had to get married when they were young after their car got stuck during a blizzard and they had to spend the night together.

The grandparents/oldest living generation have been married for decades but are alienated from each other. As the novel goes on, you learn that the husband was a cruel and sadistic man who sexually abused his wife. The wife was young and excited to marry him, and had a new nightgown for their wedding night, which he rips. Her mother lives with them, and he's abusive to her in front of her mother. There's an upsetting scene where he hits her on the head and rapes her by the outhouse. She becomes pregnant with twins (?) from the rape and she and her mother kill the twins. They stay married and apparently never discuss it.

[Rainbowheart]

Behind Closed Doors?

[brenna]

Rainbowheart wrote: "Behind Closed Doors?"

Thanks for this! Unfortunately this is not the same book - the one I'm remembering wasn't a thriller.

[Rainbowheart]

Does anything on these lists look familiar?

Religion in Literary Fiction

Domestic Violence in Fiction

[brenna]

Hm, unfortunately not!

[Rainbowheart]

We Sinners?

[Hannah]

The ice storm by Rick moody?

[brenna]

Sadly it’s not either of those!

[Rainbowheart]

Were they definitely Catholic and not some other religion?

[brenna]

They could have been some kind of Protestant..?

[Rainbowheart]

At Weddings and Wakes?

[Kris]

Google Books preview of At Weddings and Wakes by Alice McDermott - Rainbowheart's suggestion:

https://books.google.com/books?id=MWL... There are different cover images.

[brenna]

It sounds like an interesting book, but I don’t think it’s the same one! I did remember another plot point that I think is part of the same novel (?) about a very sweet maiden aunt who always wears a head wrap/turban. She wears it because when she was young she was wearing a fancy hat and was attacked by a bird whose talons tore her scalp. She makes sense of the story by believing that she was being punished for vanity.