What Wild Women Do: Book Review

"If you go down to the woods today, you'd better not go alone," the old song cautions.

What Wild Women Do by local author Karma Brown is an intriguing riff on that warning, as any self-respecting Canadian understands instinctively: the unexpected can often happen in "the woods". It probably won't, but maybe it will!

Aspiring screenwriter Rowan and her fiancé, wanna-be novelist Seth, had found their ambitions stalled in the artistically competitive atmosphere of California. Determined to get out of their creative rut, the young couple moved to an isolated cabin in the Adirondacks.

They intend to put aside all urban distractions and seriously get down to their creative ventures. But before they have a chance to do this, they stumble on the unsettling story of a feminist crusader Eddie Callaway who disappeared without a trace in 1975.

The former socialite's camp, which had been founded to free the too-long repressed "wildness" in women, has disintegrated without the woman's leadership and slowly returned to the surrounding forest. Rowan is immediately intrigued. Who was this pioneering woman? What really happened to Eddie Callaway?

This is an unusual story well told about feminist solidarity experienced half a century apart, with at its heart a mystery that captures and holds the reader's attention to the last page.

What Wild Women Do is told from the perspectives of both Rowan and the mysterious Eddie. Well-defined sections prevent confusion between the two timelines and the subtle shift in style gives reality to the mores of the famous 'me decade' of the seventies. Rowan's story is told in the present tense.

This is Karma Brown's sixth novel, a body of work that includes the number one national bestseller A Recipe for a Perfect Wife. She is an award–winning journalist, published in SELF, Redbook, Today’s Parent, Best Health, Canadian Living, Chatelaine and others as well as several Canadian newspapers.

The author freely acknowledges that she came by her understanding of the seventies' hippy life and her knowledge of wilderness honestly. In her dedication to her parents, she thanks them for "a free-range, wilderness-filled childhood."

She grew up on an Ontario farm with her hippie parents and a younger sister, helping grow vegetables, tapping trees for maple syrup and tending to the animals. She now lives in Burlington with her husband, daughter, and a labradoodle named Fred.

This is a hard book to place in a genre. Encompassing a range of themes and unusual plot lines, it successfully mixes suspense and feminism with historical plot lines, perfect for these long dark evenings.