A review of Emily Fridlund’s “History of Wolves,” by Stephanie La Rose. CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Also by Stephanie La Rose, “Turn Away” published in The Normal School, a literary magazine https://www.thenormalschool.com/blog/2024/3/13/stephanie-la-rose
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(Spoilers) In Emily Fridlund’s Man Booker-Prize-Finalist novel History of Wolves (Atlantic Monthly Press 2017), something or someone is stalking Linda. Or is Linda a lone wolf, desperate for her pack, only to discover the pack is more dangerous than surviving solo on the northern Minnesota ice?
The teenaged protagonist Linda grew up in a failed commune where she remains, having been abandoned by her parents, with a woman who loosely raises her. Although this strand of the novel is about a different cult than Christian Science, Linda’s displacement, dissociation, and vulnerability will be familiar in this satisfying indictment of parents who martyr their children as the Supreme Court supposedly forbade. We ex-Christian Scientists understand that, in fact, this martyrdom, this neglect takes place daily in dark, hidden corners.
In the novel’s second strand, Linda babysits for a small child in a Christian Science family. You should know, since this would be difficult to wander into unwarned, that this little boy dies of medical neglect. Fridlund’s depiction of the domineering father, the loving but passive mother, the veneer of privilege and education, the mounting dread, the secret illness, and how Linda’s upbringing primes her to be used, abused, neglected, yet silent are all pitch perfect.
A third strand is Linda’s vulnerability to a male teacher. This theme also might be familiar to our group of ex-Christian Scientists (at least it is to me – I fell in love at twelve with a twenty-six-year-old man who pursued me and didn’t understand the relationship was predatory and related to my Chirstian Science upbringing until I was in my twenties in law school). Predators know who to target, and Linda remains confused about the relationship’s nature because every single relationship in Linda’s life is confusing. Those meant to protect, abandon and abuse.
I picked up this book in an independent bookstore in 2017 without any idea it was in part about Christian Science. I read it in a fever. I hope I have not ruined its page-turner quality with spoilers. I have thought about History of Wolves thousands of times and re-read it twice. I wrote Fridlund to thank her for getting the Christian Science strand spot on and asked if she was raised in a Christian Science family. She was not, but, as some in our group know, she grew up Christian Science-adjacent and attended Principia. This novel is, in my opinion, outstanding. It helps explain how cults damage children in ways both obvious and subtle.
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