How do you solve a problem like Ruth? She isn’t flighty, she isn’t a moonbeam you cannot hold in your hand and you actually can find a word that means Ruth: unremarkable. But even in the closed world of Christian communism, of which Ruth was born into, they cannot seem to place her. Kate Riley’s debut novel follows the titular character from childhood to her adult life in a closed community where property and labour are equally shared. Ruth’s story is one of mundanity, even in this unique community that refuses to progress in the way the modern world around it demands.
There are greater tales to be told of those in this community than Ruth’s. There are those that join her world later in life of their own volition and those that leave as quickly as they can and there are those punished for greater sins than Ruth could even dream of. But Riley keeps all of these on the peripheries of Ruth, with a protaganist so unsure of her place in this world and yet so obedient to the life that has been chosen for her that she doesn’t dare to ask questions.
It isn’t fear that keeps Ruth in check, or a need for praise of which she gets almost none, but a way of life closer to lackadaisical obedience. Even if she does fail at almost every task she sets her mind to, whether that be culinary skills, decorating or, in her bleakest moment, motherhood, Ruth is nothing if not consistent in her failings. Ruth is a logical woman even in the face of all that is contrarian, strict and often limiting about her world. It is all of Ruth’s oddities alongside the po-faced prose of community life that make this debut a humorous triumph and Riley a refreshing new author to watch.
Ruthby Kate Riley is out now (Transworld, £16.99). You can buy it from the Big Issue shop on bookshop.org, which helps to support Big Issue and independent bookshops.
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