Shadow Tag

I just finished the latest book by Louise Erdrich. This one is called "Shadow Tag." The story is about a marriage set here in Minneapolis. The husband is an artist. He paints pictures of his wife. Many of his paintings demean her. The wife is a student who puts off finishing her doctorate to raise the children. The artist and his first born son are geniuses. The husband is, like other geniuses, crazy. The relationship is abusive to the wife, the husband, and the children. She tries to leave but he won't let her. When tensions rise in the house, the author writes about the behavior of the two dogs in the family. Dogs know. Dogs can read people and comprehend danger better than some humans. The wife gaslights the husband. Do you know gaslighting? Gaslighting is when a person tries to drive another person crazy by denying reality. I think the term comes from an old movie where someone tries to drive another person crazy by changing the lighting in a room and pretending it didn't happen. The wife in this story gaslights her husband by keeping two diaries. She knows he reads her hidden diary so she writes things in there to upset him while she keeps her real diary in a safety deposit box at a bank. At one point in the story the wife is talking with her eldest son's teacher at a school conference. The teacher tells her he saw the bruise on her son's forehead. He knows the father hurt the son because the son told him so. The teacher tells the wife that she HAS to protect the son from his father. The teacher doesn't want to hurt the son by telling the authorities so it is up to the wife to make sure he is safe. The task is impossible. The wife asks the teacher if he will testify in her behalf at a custody trial. The teacher said he would but that would mean he would get himself in trouble for not reporting child abuse so he won't. As incredible as this sounds, it's totally believable for me. I can see a teacher doing that - not all teachers, just some. This is one messed up marriage. Erdrich writes a different story from all the other ones I've read from her. This one is so much sadder and more poetic. I know she was once married to the author Michael Dorris. I hope this story isn't based on her own experiences in marriage because I would not wish this marriage on anyone. I liked the book though.