Through Our Own Wrong Eyes by Florence D’Angelo

A family’s survival and history are coiled together through love, courage, and sacrifice in this evocative historical novel.

Through Our Own Wrong Eyes takes readers back to the 1930s and introduces readers to a young and resilient woman whose fragile innocence and strength anchors a tumultuous marriage that shapes the course of her family’s history and future.

Spanning more than forty years, the novel begins in Lamar, Colorado amid the hardships of the Great Depression. Ruby, just fourteen years old at the time, starts to date twenty-six-year-old Paul Oscar, a restless wanderer with a thirst for more than what life had set out for him. After six short months of courtship and without the knowledge of either of their families, the two elope and get married.

Together, this unideal and unconventional couple begins to build a life and family of their own, weathering some of America’s most defining and turbulent chapters, such as the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the sweeping economic and industrial evolution that reshaped the country, all while navigating the uneven balance of their own relationship, as it both sustains and scars them in equal measure.

Through Our Own Wrong Eyes smoothly intertwines historical moments and tension, making it more than just a background setting. D’Angelo emotionally illuminates the hardships and struggles of this era through Ruby and Paul’s relationship, from the choices they are forced to make just to survive to the uprooting and moves across states, the limitations and the wrenching poverty they, and many other families disrupted by the economy, had to endure.

For Ruby in particular, these pressures are felt most sharply in her role as a young wife and mother trying to hold her family together. However, her strength, resilience, faith, and determination form the backbone and bond of the household, especially during the periods of Paul’s absence when she had to carry more of the weight or had to deal with his alcohol addiction and abuse.

Their struggles do not remain confined to their marriage alone but extend into the lives of their two sons, Oscar and Roy, as well. D’Angelo successfully illustrates the emotional and personal impact Ruby and Paul’s relationship has on the boys as they grow into adulthood and follow their own paths.

Despite the hardships woven throughout Through Our Own Wrong Eyes, D’Angelo never lets Ruby and Paul’s flaws as individuals, as a couple, or even as parents tell the whole story. In an unexpected way, she also showcases the deep love and devotion between them. We see this in Ruby’s loyalty and unwavering support toward Paul and in Paul’s own tender moments toward her. “What are you laughing at, my Miss Ruby? Feels like home already, doesn’t it?…You’ll see, Ruby. I’ll make you proud of me. Just you wait and see!”

Bittersweet and evocative, Through Our Own Wrong Eyes is a sweeping and powerful novel that carries the emotional weight of an entire generation. The novel, in simple terms, encompasses loss, love, and strength during tumultuous times.

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