The Confessions of Frances Godwin is told in the end-of-life recollections of widow and retired high-school Latin teacher Frances Godwin. She narrates her story in a no-nonsense, practical Midwest voice, yet faced with death and loss, she mostly wants to understand the spiritual value of her life. Despite growing up in a strong Polish Catholic farm family in Illinois under a matriarch who believed that homemade pierogi and a full church confession were central to living a good life, Frances strayed from the church and fell in love with her Shakespeare professor, Paul. While attending a postgraduate Latin seminar in Rome, she met up with him and soon became pregnant with their daughter, Stella--all before Paul divorced his wife and finally married Frances. Despite Paul's good humor, Frances never quite shakes the nagging guilt over her adultery and out-of-wedlock pregnancy. When a grown Stella takes up with a thuggish ex-con and Paul develops aggressive lung cancer, Frances finds herself racking up more sins, guilt and remorse to protect her family.
The complex but homespun Frances, who genuinely wants to understand her life and live her last years well, carries the work. Like Robert Hellenga's previous novels The Fall of a Sparrow and The Sixteen Pleasures, this story is based in the heart of the Midwest with significant interludes in the ancient cities of Italy. He even throws in an imagined dialogue between Frances and an irreverent God and somehow makes it work. Although the story ranges wide, The Confessions of Frances Godwin is firmly rooted in the culture and values of Hellenga's perfectly rendered Midwest. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.