The spiritual and the sexual are linked. This connection can be a site of euphoria, as depicted in the Bernini sculpture “Ecstasy of Saint Teresa,” or it can be an exploitable intersection of emotions and responsibilities. Addie E. Citchens’ debut novel, Dominion, explores both sides of this complicated dynamic.
The Winfrey family is ruled by pastor patriarch Sabre Winfrey, a devout and domineering man whose powerful preaching belies his less-than-godly sexual appetite. Sabre’s wife, Priscilla, has put up with one affair (that she knows of) and dutifully raised their five boys, the youngest of whom, Emmanuel or “Wonderboy,” is not just dashing but also a musical and athletic savant. At the advent of the new millennium, Sabre is the respected leader of the Seven Seals Church, most of their children have left for college or careers, and Wonderboy is entering his senior year as a stellar student and varsity quarterback. This does not mean Priscilla can be idle, though, as she soon begins to sense something amiss. The reverend is growing even hornier than he’s ever been holy, and while Wonderboy has always been popular with the girls around their town of Dominion, now one girl, Diamond, is starting to hang around him more than usual. As Priscilla interrogates the sex lives of her husband and son, she starts to see that the foundation of faith that she’s built her life on is more fraught than she ever realized.
Dominion is told primarily through the perspectives of Priscilla and Diamond. Giving these two voices the main stage allows Citchens to reveal not only the subjugation of women under patriarchy but also the seductive power of masculinity when it is bound up in holiness. Diamond is a teenager susceptible to the manipulative advances of a boy from a good family, but her dynamic with Wonderboy doesn’t leave her without agency. Even as Wonderboy bounces from girl to girl, Diamond’s reflections on his infidelity and immaturity, not to mention the actions she takes in retribution, are some of the best parts of the book, showcasing a character aware of her contradictory desires and her lack of worldly knowledge. Early in the book, Priscilla thinks little of Diamond, wondering why her mother would have given her a “stripper’s name,” but as Diamond becomes more entangled with the Winfrey family, Priscilla reconsiders her surface judgment. The interactions between these two women set the stage for a powerful cultural analysis, one which is sure to influence masculinity discourse for years to come.
