Damnation Spring

The wife of Rich and mother to Chub, Colleen is one of Davidson’s point-of-view characters. She is a 34-year-old woman who grew up near Klamath, in a house now lived in by her neighbor Joanna. She is Enid’s sister, but sadly her parents are now dead. Death haunts her: her eight miscarried pregnancies linger strongly with her. This is something readers learn almost the second Davidson utilizes Colleen’s point of view, as she reflects on her latest loss and its chilling effect on her relationship with Rich: “They’d hardly spoken since the hospital at Easter. Miscarried, as if, five months pregnant, Colleen had made some stupid mistake…” (12). Her love of kids and desire for a second child motivates much of Colleen’s behavior throughout the novel. She is an amateur midwife to the community, for example, helping Melody Larson with her tragic birth. But she also pines for a brother or sister for Chub, going so far as to hope Daniel gets her pregnant during their sex together. The same desire also contributes to her jealousy towards Enid, who has a large family: “Enid uncrosses her legs for two minutes and a baby pops out,” she says, when exasperated with Rich over trying for another baby (199).