Rossner's theme [in Emmeline], as in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, is that sex has a chaotic potential that goes well beyond the individual's control. Sex—whether prompted by desire or a variety of other nonsexual needs such as the need for affection—can blind, overwhelm, even destroy an otherwise ordinary orderly life, and Rossner wants a slow scrutiny of just how this comes to pass: how does it happen that a God-fearing Bible-toting 13-year-old in Puritan New England would consent to sexual relations at all, much less with an older married man? How does it happen that Stephen Maguire, a decent man as Rossner characterizes him, would allow himself to have adulterous sex with a child? And how does it happen that a woman could later marry her own son?
In search of answers to the first two questions, Rossner evidently immersed herself in Lowell's history, including facts about wages, working hours, living accommodations, and job descriptions of the young women who came to work in the mills…. [But] a political consciousness about labor history is neither Rossner's interest nor her strong point. Much of the information, not successfully kneaded into the narrative, could have been omitted.
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