Under the Witness Tree

Rating:
Summary: The Past as Prologue
Review: I bought this book and read it in one sitting. I bought it based on the blurb on the back cover: Sherman's march to the sea, an old plantation, family secrets and entanglements, the beautiful Erin Hughes, what could be better? I didn't expect to find so much in such a small package though. If I tried to list all the various plots and subplots, this review would be as long as the novel I am strongly recommending. I'm still trying to fathom how the author accomplished this.
Main character Dhari Weston has a life that is becoming too typical of us all: she is busy with deadlines at work, overwhelmed with care giving for a mentally unstable mother, over burdened with guilt and a secret fear that her mother's condition might be genetic. She has a girlfriend, but she doesn't have enough time to even speculate whether Jamie is being faithful or not. (How busy is that?) On top of everything, she inherits a Southern plantation from an aunt she never knew: one more thing to take care of. Taking time away from the job, the girlfriend who needs watching, the mother's undiagnosed but very real illness, she flies to Atlanta, determined to handle the sale of the property quickly and get back on track.
There she meets the appealing Dr. Erin Hughes, brought in to research the provenance and history of the place she inherited, and Nessie Tinker, an old friend of her aunt's, and as facts from her family's past are revealed, so is her affection for both Nessie and the lovely Erin. More complications in a too complicated life. Unwillingly drawn into the secrets from the past, including an extramarital relationship during the Civil War uncovered in dairies and letters, and reluctantly admitting to an attraction to Erin, the appeal of the old plantation, and her family's hidden background, Dhari finds herself revealing secrets of her own, facing fears, struggling to overcome them, and doing something people like her find all too difficult to accomplish: letting go of some of the responsibility for things she can't control or change. All of us should take a step back and look at what we sacrifice in our too busy lives. And we should take the kind of chance Erin and Dhari take, when presented to us.
I was born and raised in the South, and graduated with a degree in history, so I can attest to the accuracy of the research that must have gone into this work. The characters were deftly drawn, the settings believable, the plots intriguing. Only one mystery is left: how did so much get crammed into so few pages? Nessie, Erin, Dhari, Jamie, her brother Douglas, her father, her mother, especially Erin's father, even Pippin the dog, all are delightful and fully realized. As a writer myself, I have nothing but praise for the job done here by Ms. Martin. This is an excellently researched, well written, and very entertaining book.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly written
Review: Cardboard characters, insipid dialogue, barely believable plot..Look, just because a book has two (or more) lesbians written in a sympathetic fashion doesn't make it good. The lesbian fiction market has been overrun with uber-Xena fantasy, the vast majority poorly written. Don't waste your time on this unless you really like uber-Xena.

Rating:
Summary: Remarkable
Review: I am wondering what book the reader who called this a uber book read. It certainly wasn't the Under the Witness Tree that I just read. Marianne Martin is not a uber writer nor has she ever been one. Her characters bear no resemblence at all to Xena or similar fantasy characterizations.

I have found this book to be exceptionally well-written, with flesh and bone characters that breathe and feel pain and that I expect as I read to be able to even speak to. Ms Martin's Dhari Weston is so real in her emotions and fears that I wanted to step in and take her hand and say that things are going to be all right, and to be someone for her to talk with. But, right on cue, the author gave her Erin Hughes, with her own fears to share and a wonderful sensitivity to love and emotion.

And of all the characters in all the books that I have read, I have to say that the character of Nessie Tinker is now a favorite. She is a brilliant creation, ancient and wise and so real that I could actually feel my arms around her tiny self. Ms Martin has shown through her ability to create fully realized minor characters like Nessie Tinker and Jake Hughes, Erin's father, and Lela Weston, Dhari"s mother, how fine authors make a book like Under the Witness Tree so good.

This is a treasure of a book in so many ways: because the characters are realistically flawed and carefully balanced with life's successes and failures, because the story is so uniquely drawn between the past and the present, and because of its attention to authentic historical detail. And I would be amiss if I did not add that I believe this author writes some of the best love scenes I've read. She captures the eroticism of love between women as much through what is going on in the character's head as through the physical act itself. She makes sex romantic and that is one more way that she sets herself apart from the pack.

This is truly a remarkable book, one you should not miss.



Rating:
Summary: History and Love Combine
Review: Under the Witness Tree is a beautiful love story set in the South, with connections back to the Civil War and family secrets since that time. Dhari Weston discovers a great-aunt she never knew when Anna Grayson dies and leaves Dhari her historical mansion. Dhari wrestles with what to do with her new property, whether to sell it immediately or leave her fast-paced, stressful job in Michigan and move to Georgia, where the pace of life is much slower.

I read this book in one sitting, being simply unable to put it down. The characters are so well drawn that by the end of the book I felt as if I had several new friends, and I could relate to the struggles and issues they faced. I recommend this book heartily to anyone who loves a good love story.

Rating:
Summary: Note to Readers
Review: Under the Witness Tree is a saga of love with its roots extending back to the civil war. When Anna Grayson dies and leaves her estate to Dhari Weston, a niece she has never met, she opens the window on family secrets that have been kept for over a hundred years.

Although it is being advertised here by Bella Books, Under the Witness Tree will be published by another press and is scheduled to be released in the Fall of 2004.

Rating:
Summary: So happy Marianne Martin is writing again!
Review: Under the Witness Tree is a wonderful novel with rich characters and a great story to tell. It's delightful to see Marianne Martin writing again. Her Sage Bristo stories were partially responsible for my addiction to lesbian written fiction. I won't bother repeating everything that Lori Lake so clearly said about this book. I just wanted to add my words of praise for it.

I also have to add that there's a really destructive practice on Amazon by people who have obviously not read a book, like the reviewer below who claims it's poorly written uber when it simply is not an uber book, never was and the writer hasn't written fanfic or uber in her life! This person didn't even read other reviews that would have clued them in before maliciously attacking it.

I don't know what motivates this behavior! It's unfair to the writers and other readers and those who do it ought to be ashamed of themselves for their deceit and deliberately painful remarks directed at people they don't even know. It's just plain mean and I hope that Ms. Martin can successfully ignore such a spiteful, ignorant review.

You won't regret a minute spent reading Under the Witness Tree. I devoured it in two evenings and dwelled on the story for days afterward. Fiction of this quality that tells stories of lesbian lives are rare, so don't miss it!



Rating:
Summary: Midwest Book Review, February 2005 Issue
Review: When an estranged great-aunt she's never met dies and leaves Dhari Weston the ancient Grayson house outside Atlanta, Dhari is both curious and irritated. Traveling from Michigan to dispose of the old monstrosity sounds like a lot of extra work, and Dhari's life is already far too full. Her time and energy are taken up by her job as a grant-writer for an AIDS coalition, a less-than-committed girlfriend, and serious problems in her family of origin. Little does she know that she's at the crossroads of change and is about to be sorely tested by new experiences.

Erin Hughes, a professor well-versed in Civil War era architecture and history is brought in to assess Anna Grayson's house, and Dhari feels an unexpected attraction to her. Dhari also meets the elderly Nessie Tinker, descendant of the slaves who worked the land in the 1800s and who eventually became landowners and neighbors to the Graysons. Nessie served as caretaker and friend to Anna Grayson, and unbeknownst to Dhari and Erin, Nessie knows many of the secrets of the past-some of which go all the way back to Civil War times-that the two women are exploring.

Dhari is gradually drawn in to the mysteries of the old house and its former occupants, but at the same time, her wandering girlfriend and mentally ill mother back in Michigan exert pressures upon her that keep her stressed and worried. Dhari has her own secrets, and as the story is revealed, the reader gradually comes to understand the depth of her pain and the extent to which she has gone to prevent anyone from knowing about it-even her girlfriend. When she lets slip to Erin some vital details, Dhari is appalled. "She'd been first-time lucky that Erin Hughes thinks the bones in her own closet shine just as bright white as hers. Most people, however, aren't that honest. They lock their skeletons up behind propriety and self-protection and make choices that to the casual observer seem entirely normal. Just like Dhari Weston. It's the closer inspection, the one that rattles the door, that has to be avoided" (p. 103).

The ways that Dhari ends up "rattling that door" make for an engrossing read. The book itself is slight, but the issues raised and the secrets revealed make for powerful and unforgettable reading. This book was entertaining, and the way the pieces all came together was ultimately quite satisfying. Read it for the tight plot, for the mystery, for the romance, and don't miss this engaging story. ~Lori L. Lake, reviewer for Midwest Book Review and author of the "Gun" series