If "Emmeline" is a novel it is Judith Rossner's sixth…. A prefatory note explains that the author heard about Emmeline from one Nettie Mitchell, 94, who knew her when "she herself was a child and Emmeline an old woman." Nettie herself might be a fictional device, but even if she is not, responsibility remains with the author to make the title character, her ordeal, relationships and milieu real. (p. 13)

It is often discourteous and unnecessary to reveal a novel's plot, but in this case unfortunately the crudeness of the plot cannot be ignored: it thoroughly undermines the book's literary character.

[After giving her baby up for adoption], Emmeline stays at home for many peaceful years, working hard while her parents age and her siblings grow up and get married. Finally, in the era of the Civil War, she abandons her resolution to remain single and permits herself to be...