Divorce

This tag surfaces in Saints — No Unhallowed Hand around the story of Susa Young Gates (“Susie”) weighing whether her commitment to the roles of wife and mother obligated her to remain in an abusive marriage. Her father, Brigham Young, had told her before his death that those roles were central to her success — but the narrative frames the question as genuinely open: “did that mean she had to stay in an abusive marriage?” In a dream, Susie encounters Eliza R. Snow, who explains why Brigham, in the spirit world, would now hand Susie an assignment he once would have given her husband: “He did not understand then. But he does now.” Kyle flags this passage as one of the book’s most haunting, noting in his synthesis the implied shift in perspective — that a parent’s understanding of a daughter’s situation might change after death.

Where this appears

• Saints — No Unhallowed Hand — Susa Young Gates’s abusive marriage and the dream of Eliza R. Snow reassuring her that her father “does now” understand; tagged #Divorce.