The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison
Abe and Ruth Winter, the couple at the center of Bainbridge Island author Jonathan Evison’s new novel, “The Heart of Winter,” are a quintessential “opposites attract” love story. And yet, against all odds, their 70-year marriage does succeed — due to stubbornness as much as love and devotion — through the happy years as well as the tragedy of losing a child, infidelity, illness and deferred dreams.
From his first blind date with Ruth, a vivacious, outspoken student at UW, at Bob Murray’s Dog House in Belltown, Abe realizes “he was born middle-aged” yearning for “routine and order and responsibility” and “to settle down and root himself like an oak tree.” Ever the pragmatist, as Abe sees it, his winning qualities with Ruth are likely to be “his punctuality, his hygiene, his willingness to be persuaded, to compromise, to show up.” In stark contrast, Ruth’s free spirit is fueled by poetry, her progressive political beliefs and dreams of someday living in Paris.
By anyone’s reckoning, their first date was a catastrophe, but Abe manages to get a second proper dinner date with Ruth by betting that he can best her in bowling (which he has secretly been practicing under the tutelage of a classmate in exchange for beer). He also checks out poetry books from the library in hopes of being a better conversant on topics of interest to Ruth.
Fast forward to an unplanned pregnancy and hasty marriage. Ruth, alone at home while Abe works a mind-numbing job as an insurance underwriter, mourns her lost dreams of college life and world adventures as she counts “the days until motherhood with equal parts dread and hopefulness.”
Five years into their marriage and with a third child on the way, without consulting Ruth, Abe plots the young family’s escape from their routine life in Seattle by purchasing a farm and 5 acres on Bainbridge Island, where he has talked his way into a job as an insurance agent at Bainbridge Island Insurance. Initially incensed that Abe would take this step without consulting her, Ruth comes to love the ramshackle farmhouse and rustic, slower-paced life of the island.
But this new-found pastoral life is not all moonlight and roses. Abe’s dedication to excelling at work to support his family leaves Ruth feeling lonely and isolated. When their eldest daughter, Anne begins dating a barefoot hippie named Gonzo, how to deal with Anne’s rebelliousness gives Abe and Ruth something to disagree about besides their different political ideologies. Then a tragedy involving their younger daughter, Karen, explodes the family, “scattering them in every direction.”
Later in life, when a loose tooth turns into a life-threatening diagnosis for Ruth, the marriage faces a final crisis and tender coming together as Abe struggles to support Ruth in retaining some of her precious independence, despite the protestations of their worried children who think he may not be up to the task of caring for her at home on the farm.
Evison’s ninth novel is a tribute to the possibility of long and sustained marriage, of coming together in mutual support despite fundamental differences of opinion and values, and of how small moments of forgiveness, sacrifice and compromise can add up to a lifetime of love.
Told from the perspective of Abe nearing the end of his life, now rheumy-eyed with “hair gone thin and white as spider silk,” “The Heart of Winter” is a tender, poignant reminder of the fleeting nature of time; in Abe’s words, “time did not march on methodically, minute by minute, day by day, it sprinted away from us in mad bursts, a thief in flight.”
Learn more about how this big-hearted novel came to be at 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12 when Village Books in Fairhaven welcomes Evison back to the Readings Gallery in conversation with local writer/director/actor Les Campbell. Info: villagebooks.com.
Lisa Gresham is the collection services manager for the Whatcom County Library System, wcls.org.
(Originally published in Cascadia Daily News, Tuesday, January 7, 2025.)