Author Addie E. Citchens opens her debut novel with ferocity and flair:
“Reverend Sabre Winfrey, Jr., believed without a shadow of a doubt that an idle mind was the devil’s workshop,” she writes. “But an idle hand belonged on a behind.”
Dominion is the story of the Winfrey family of the Mississippi Delta. Rev. Sabre Winfrey and his wife, Priscilla, have five sons. He is the prosperous and respected pastor of the Seven Seals Missionary Baptist Church. He also owns the town barbershop, a radio station and various pieces of real estate. Priscilla has a bad hip — and an alcohol and pill problem. Their youngest son, Manny, is a talented musician and star of the high school football team. They call him Wonderboy. He also has inherited his father’s misogyny and sense of sexual entitlement. And we get to know Diamond, an unrooted girl who devotes herself to Manny. The Winfrey family seems righteous on the surface. But just below, a darkness simmers and threatens to reveal a much more sinister reality.
Citchens was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and raised as a church kid, and her background breathes life into this debut. In a recent episode of the League of Extraordinary Readers podcast, the author says she grew up noticing that “there were men in the pulpit and women in the congregation.” In southern Black communities in the early 2000s, which is when her novel is set, “girls were handed responsibility, while boys were handed power,” Citchens says. She set out to explore the timeless hypocrisy of religious leaders behaving badly, and the result is an explosive and disturbing novel.
Peppered throughout the story are excerpts from church programs. These “From the Minister’s Desk” columns are attributed to the Rev. Winfrey but in fact written by his wife. The scriptural messages hint at what’s happening behind the scenes, as well as Priscilla’s effort to communicate what she can’t or won’t say out loud:
“As in water, face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man,” she writes. “Hell and Destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.”
The story is told primarily through Priscilla and Diamond’s points of view. Citchens nails the alternating narrators, and the women’s voices offer a vivid portrait of the church and its people. The story taps into toxic masculinity and the dangers of a boys-will-be-boys mentality when it comes to men in power. The women in this novel know what’s really going on, though they often choose to look the other way. Regardless, they don’t have the permission or the will to call it out, and so accountability remains elusive.
One key plot point is somewhat confusing, but the story moves at a thrilling clip. Dominion explores themes like generational trauma, sexism, poverty and privilege. And though much of the violence happens off the page, there’s also an unflinching examination of how some communities protect sexual predators while silencing victims.
At just over 200 pages, the novel manages to weave a comprehensive story with true-to-life dialogue and plenty of personality. Ultimately, it’s a provocative look at the crushing power of patriarchy.
