Except for some background in Chapter 2, the narrative of Thy Brother's Wife proceeds rapidly, in clearly specified chronological order. The style is simple, almost terse, and the fictional characters are intertwined with the nonfiction setting and history.

The most literary aspect of the novel is its use of allusion to construct its role as "Holy Thursday," the first book of The Passover Trilogy. A note on the Jewish and Christian Passover, treating it as a springtime feast of liberation and renewal, precedes the narrative and explains the function of passages from St. John's Gospel which are used as epigraphs to major sections of Thy Brother's Wife. By emphasizing the links between Judaism and Christianity (and their links, in turn, with primitive fertility rituals), Greeley seems to broaden the boundary of his novel beyond the parameters of Irish Catholic Chicago. The first epigraph prays for community and for keeping...