We’ve all read about terminally ill people and how they face death; we may have known friends or family who bravely lived their last days on earth, knowing they were their last days. Five Days in May: A Novel by Ninnie Hammon brings us Princess, a barely educated woman facing death in 5 days via the electric chair.
Five Days in May is set in Oklahoma in the early 1960s, before DNA evidence, before women would be believed when they said rape or molestation or assault. With an enormous tornado fast coming we have four people whose lives mingle:
Jonah whose beloved wife Maggie has advanced dementia. Maggie swears and smears excrement all over and has become violent. Jonah has a prescription for sleeping pills he intends to use to over-sedate Maggie in what he sees as an act of love, not murder.
Mac MacIntosh is a successful pastor whose wife died and now his faith is dead too. He contemplates suicide or resigning from the ministry.
Joy MacIntosh is Mac’s daughter, 16, pregnant and scared. She decides to get an abortion. Joy is adopted but doesn’t know it.
Princess, aka Emily Prentiss, not quite 30, convicted of murdering her toddler sister and sentenced to death.
Princess asks for a minister and the prison warden asks Mac to step in. Princess is barely literate but gifted to know things she should have no way to know. Things like Joy’s pregnancy, an accident in a guard’s family.
The novel walks us through all four people’s pain and with the tornado of the century bearing down on them, how they each respond. Princess has a deep secret which Mac manages to figure out, but he has time to save only one person, not two, before the tornado hits. Will he choose Joy and Joy’s unborn child, or Princess?
Jonah could leave Maggie outside for the tornado but risks his own life to bring her in.
Gift for Character
Ninnie Hammon is incredible at building real people, not characters in a novel. The people act as you would expect them, even Princess who faces her imminent death with peace.
Hammon’s gift for people extends to the other characters: The villain, Princess’ supposed step father, is bigoted, ignorant, nasty and as mean as a person can be. He too is believable. We can visualize the minor characters such as the warden, prison guards, Joy’s despicable boyfriend because they too are people, not words on a page.
Be Aware
Some of the characters, especially the stepfather, are truly despicable, with cruel vocabulary and thoughts. The plot is a bit contrived and we can see the twist coming.
Summary
Five Days In May is not an easy read. Mac, Joy and Jonah hurt so much it is hard to read about them – you will feel right alongside – and the whole murder and execution tale is difficult. The stepfather is horrible, another person who it is painful to watch and listen to.
Nonetheless it is 5 stars.
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