Review: The Evolution of Annabel Craig

The Evolution of Annabel Craig by Lisa Grunwald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Don't judge this book by its cover, as I mistakenly did; it is much more serious than the cover seems to portray.

This book was an interesting look at the Scopes Monkey Trial. It shows how the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, coped with this so-called crime of teaching/mentioning evolution in the classroom. It also deals with a husband and wife who inevitably get caught up in this trial -he, because he is a lawyer, and she, because she is talked into taking photographs of the trial.

The book starts out quite depressing, with a lot of tragedy in Annabel's life, and at times, it gets even worse than it was at the beginning.

It was an interesting look at how many people looked at education vs. religion at the time.

It was a little too religious for me, but it was a fascinating book nonetheless.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher, the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS: "A young Southern woman sets out on a journey of self-discovery as the infamous 1925 Scopes Trial tests her faith and her marriage in this moving novel from the author of Time After Time and The Irresistible Henry House.

“Lisa Grunwald is a national treasure. . . . An essential American story from a master craftsman.”—Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone

I had never questioned a miracle, witnessed a gunfight, or seen a dead body. . . . I had thought I knew exactly what I wanted and what I didn't. Before the summer was over, all that and much more would change.
 
Annabel Hayes—born, baptized, and orphaned in the sleepy conservative town of Dayton, Tennessee—is thrilled to find herself falling quickly and deeply in love with George Craig, a sophisticated attorney newly arrived from Knoxville. But before the end of their first year of marriage, their lives are beset by losses. The strain on their relationship is only intensified when John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution at the local high school.

Foreshadowing today’s culture wars, the trial against Scopes is a spectacle unlike any the country has seen. William Jennings Bryan—a revered Southern politician—joins the prosecution, pitting himself and his faith against the renowned defense attorney Clarence Darrow. Journalists descend in a frenzy, thrusting the town and its citizens into the national spotlight. And when George joins the team defending Scopes, Annabel begins to question both her beliefs and her vows.

As the ongoing trial divides neighbor against neighbor, it also divides the Craigs in unexpected ways. But in the midst of these conflicts—one waged in an open courtroom, the other behind closed doors—Annabel will discover that the path to her own evolution begins with the courage to think for herself."