Blog Tour: The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope by Rhonda Riley

The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope by Rhonda Riley (Ecco Books; 432 pages; $15.99).

 

Rhonda Riley

“My husband was not one of us,” Evelyn Hope reluctantly reveals.  “He remains, after decades, a mystery to me.  Inexplicable.  Yet, in many ways, and on most days, he was an ordinary man.”  So begins Rhonda Riley’s unusual, unique, and nuanced debut, The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope.  Riley immediately arouses the curiosity of readers and also hooks them.  For a few hours, nothing else matters.

Or that is how it was for me, at least.  I still cannot get Adam and Evelyn Hope out of my head, and that is a testament to Riley’s epic love story.  Riley fuses historical fiction with elements of mystery and the supernatural in The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope to create a story that crosses genres and beguiles until the very last page.

The tale is actually one big flashback.  After years and years of keeping the truth close to her chest, an elderly Evelyn finally opens up about her husband.  She can no longer keep silent after seeing a photo of her youngest daughter, Sarah, whose formerly Caucasian features have metamorphosed into Asian characteristics.  Evelyn knows the photo has not been altered; Sarah is Adam’s daughter, after all.

This is Adam’s story (the novel was originally titled Adam Hope: A Geography), but it is also Evelyn’s, for she is “the one left to do the telling.”  In her sage and sure voice, Evelyn attempts to explain the unexplained.

At 17, Evelyn is sent to work on her deceased aunt and uncle’s farm in North Carolina, where the soil consists of deep and hard red clay.  In the days just after World War II, Evelyn labors from sun-up to sundown but senses a change coming, though she has no idea how profound the change will be or in what guise the transformation will take.

One rainy day, Evelyn comes upon a puddle, which she thinks is full of nothing but water and mud.  She is beyond surprised to discover the body of a man there, a man who is very much alive, though strange and slightly misshapen.  Mud and scars cover the man’s body.  He must be a solider, she thinks, but far from the battlefield.  After she takes the man inside and cares for him, miraculously, he heals.  The kicker is that he also changes form.  To Evelyn’s disbelief, the man grows to strongly resemble her; the two could be twins, in fact.

Evelyn does not question.  To her, “Addie” is a gift.  “To have her come up literally from the land I loved seemed natural, a fit to my heart’s logic.  The land’s response to my love.  So when fate gave me Addie, I let her be given.”

We know Addie is special, and she continues to astound us, especially when Evelyn decides she is ready for marriage and children.  Addie changes form once again to become “Adam Hope.”  Riley creates a character, unlike all others, who literally takes on the image of others.  When Riley delves into the unknown, she takes us with her.

Riley also imagines a very tangible sense of fear.  Instinctively, Evelyn knows there are those who would not understand Adam in the way she does.  No one can know who or what Adam is or where he truly comes from.  The situation has the potential to become volatile, and both Evelyn and Adam know this.  Yet Adam counters:  “Do you know who you are, Evelyn?  Who all of you are?  Where do you come from?  You don’t know any more than I do.”

Clearly, Adam is from the land and of the land: he can be molded like clay.  Riley uses this unconventional character to give us a geography of a body and of love, land, and family.  Adam and Evelyn begin an idyllic life together; everything seems perfect and no one challenges who or what Adam is.  He communes with horses, people, and nature in a way that is reminiscent of how Edgar Sawtelle communicates with dogs.

Adam Hope pulls you in like a magnet and entices you to stay a while.  Before long, you are entranced by his beautiful music, his way with all creatures, and, above all, by Riley’s captivating and clear language.

Uncertainty, fear, and calamity soon mar the landscape of the couple’s happy home and force them to flee.  I could not help but draw comparisons to Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden.  Yet, Adam and Evelyn get lucky and find a new kind of Eden and a new home, at least until tragedy strikes their family again.

The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope explores the notion of the self versus the other; the familiar versus the strange; intimacy versus distance; and the known versus the unknown.  Riley takes us to places we have never been before in her animated and charismatic debut perfect for fans of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and The Time Traveler’s Wife.

This novel was sold at auction, with several publishers placing bids to nab Riley’s story.  It’s easy to understand why.  The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope is a beautifully and ingeniously told tale.  Adam Hope is an understated yet formidable character, a man who is otherworldly but never alien, astonishing and ethereal but never inconceivable. Riley gently reminds us that unconditional love and acceptance matter more than difference. 

Rhonda’s Tour Stops

Monday, April 22nd: Bookmagnet’s Blog

Tuesday, April 23rd: Kritters Ramblings

Wednesday, April 24th: A Chick Who Reads

Thursday, April 25th: Sara’s Organized Chaos

Monday, April 29th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Monday, May 6th: A Night’s Dream of Books

Tuesday, May 7th: Giraffe Days

Thursday, May 9th: Book Snob

Thursday, May 9th: Tiffany’s Bookshelf

Tuesday, May 14th: Bibliophiliac

I am giving away a brand new copy of The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope.  Giveaway ends Friday, April 26, at 5 pm ET.  I will use random.org to choose a winner.  Good luck!   

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Book Review: And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry

And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry (St. Martin’s Press; 272 pages; $24.99).

For Katie Vaughn, the first day of spring was always a day of firsts: the day she experienced her first kiss, the day she fell in love, the day she ran a marathon, the day she opened her boutique, and the day she vowed to love Jack Adams forever.  It was also the day she gave up her newborn for adoption in Patti Callahan Henry’s tender, sincere, and deeply poignant novel And Then I Found You, the April Book Club Selection for She Reads.

For Kate, the first day of spring held more than blooming daffodils.  It was still a day of firsts.  Kate had a ritual, a sacred ritual.  She made sure that she did something she’d never done before, something that would count as new on the first day of spring.  Six years ago she’d opened her boutique.  The year before that she ran a marathon with her sister.  Of course there was that trip to California with Norah.  Then four years ago the midnight swim in the darkest water with Rowan, the first time he’d visited her in South Carolina.  It didn’t matter what she did or said or saw as long as it hadn’t been done, or said, or seen before.

The plot of And Then I Found You is as swiftly-paced as the current of Katie’s beloved South Carolina River.  Katie is successful and in a loving relationship with her boyfriend, Rowan.  When she accidentally stumbles upon an engagement ring he bought for her, Katie comes to a crossroads of sorts.  She thought she loved Rowan, but now she finds herself unsure.  The problem is Jack, her first love and the father of Luna, the baby she gave away all those years ago.

To go on with her life, Katie feels like she has to see Jack and talk to him.  Maybe then she can have the closure she needs.  But once Katie travels to Birmingham, Jack’s home, old feelings resurface for them both.

Henry tells the story from the very different perspectives of 35-year-old Katie and 13-year-old Emily Jackson, Katie’s biological daughter.  I truly admired how Henry managed to realistically capture both points of view.  In And Then I Found You, Henry also takes us back and forth through time to provide windows into Katie’s past, crucial moments we must know to better understand her and the narrative. 

And Then I Found You is told with such honesty and heart because, for Henry, it is very personal.  Life often imitates art, but sometimes art can imitate life.

In the story, Katie has two younger sisters.  One, Tara, is a writer.  When Emily begins an online search for her biological mother, links to Tara come up over and over.  Emily contacts Tara through Facebook; this social media connection leads to a reunion.

As Henry explains in her letter to readers at the front of her novel, And Then I Found You is loosely based on a true story.  Henry’s sister placed her baby up for adoption over 21 years ago.  “It was the most heartrending, courageous and difficult decision she had ever made, and we all wept with her when she handed her baby girl to an anonymous, yet hand-chosen family,” Henry writes.  Then, one day, two years ago, Henry received “a Facebook friend request from a young girl with the same birthday as my adopted niece.  It was too much to hope for, almost too miraculous to believe.  But it was true: My sister’s daughter, my niece, found us on Facebook.”  Henry emphasizes the awesome power of social media in her story, and simultaneously inspires and moves us, yes, to tears.

Henry drew me in from the very first page, and I read this novel in one sitting, as I could not tear myself away; I had to find out what would happen.  I was surprised to enjoy this novel as much as I did.  Initially, I worried it would be too sappy and too romantic for my tastes, but my concerns were for naught.

Passionate, stirring, and full of sentiment, this is a story about first love, family, mistakes, forgiveness, and second chances.  I predict readers will fall in love with And Then I Found You, a perfect read for book clubs because it’s so easy to like Henry’s characters.  And Then I Found You is destined to become one of the summer’s hottest beach reads.  Throw this title in your beach bag but don’t forget the sunscreen and sunglasses!

For more reviews, discussions, and giveaways, visit She Reads.

Patti Callahan Henry

Interview with Rita Leganski, Author of The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow

Interview with Rita Leganski, Author of The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow

Rita Leganski

Jaime Boler: Thank you, Rita, for letting me interview you.  I have to tell you how much I loved your magical story.  Through his silence, Bonaventure Arrow spoke to me, and I heard him loudly and clearly.  I’m very pleased that She Reads chose it as the March Book Club Selection.  Did you always want to be a writer?

Rita Leganski: I’ve always enjoyed writing, whether it was a school assignment or just as a pastime. At times in my life when I’ve felt unsettled, story writing helped me through. When I decided to return to school as an adult, I deliberately chose to study writing.

JB: Reading this very Southern story, I was surprised to learn you grew up in Wisconsin.  You began reading Southern writers at a very young age.  How old were you?  Who were your favorite authors?

RL: I suppose I was in middle school when I was transported to 1930s Maycomb, Alabama, by Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Huckleberry Finn did his part as well in luring my imagination southward.  As my tastes and abilities grew more sophisticated, I added Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, and William Faulkner to my list of favorites.

JB: How have these beloved Southern authors influenced your writing?

RL: I think their greatest influence on me has been their artistry with voice and tone, as well as feeling at liberty to bring in supernatural influences and just downright crazy folks. Those writers taught me to let the setting actually be one of the characters.

JB: Prior to beginning this story, had you ever visited New Orleans or Louisiana?

RL: I had never been anywhere in Louisiana before going there to do research for Bonaventure Arrow. One doesn’t merely go to New Orleans; one experiences it. Everybody should try it at least once. If for no other reason, go for the beignets – fried doughnuts covered in confectioner’s sugar!

JB: One of my favorite things about New Orleans!  The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow began as a short story when you were in graduate school.  When did you begin working on the story? And how did you come up with Bonaventure Arrow?

RL: I began the short story in May of 2009 and completed it in June. It was my very last assignment before graduating with a Master’s in Writing. The professor had pleaded with us to give him something different, so I decided to try my hand at magical realism. I can’t honestly tell you how I came up with Bonaventure Arrow; he was just always there.  In the original thirteen-page short story, he is nine years old (not seven) and William has been killed in Korea. As I recall, the only characters in it were Bonaventure, Dancy, Grandma Roman, and Trinidad Prefontaine. That story did make its way into the novel, but well into it. It comprises the scene in the kitchen with the Blue Bottle fly and the scene in which Grandma Roman takes Bonaventure to Bixie’s.

JB: Bayou Cymbaline, though fictional, feels so real.  How did you come up with this “magical, haunted, and lovely place steeped in faith and superstition—the ideal home for a gifted little boy who could hear fantastic sounds”?

RL: I needed to locate the story in a unique place, one that was near enough to New Orleans to be under its influence, but not overshadowed by it. I have referred to my fictional town as a metaphorical house of God because it was home to so many different types. I named it Bayou Cymbaline because of associations and semantic characteristics of those nouns.  Bayou sets it geographically and Cymbaline was borrowed from Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Cymbeline (I changed just one letter to make it my own). Like that Shakespearean play, THE SILENCE OF BONAVENTURE ARROW deals with innocence and jealousy.

JB: Your use of magical realism is close to the divine.  I’d put your name right beside Isabel Allende and Yann Martel.  How did characters like Bonaventure and Trinidad and others and even your setting allow you to use this literary tool to your advantage?

RL: Wow! What a compliment! Thank you very much!  Magical realism sets writers free. It invites the fantastic, the unbelievable; the downright bizarre to come into reality and both change it and leave it alone. After all, it’s reality that acts as a measuring stick for the magic. Bonaventure and Trinidad move through the same reality as everyone around them, yet they are set apart by their otherworldly gifts. New Orleans is kind of the same way; it’s a place of commerce and residences, but there’s also this ever-present vibe that’s not quite namable. Joy dances with sorrow in New Orleans. This duality of natures worked to my advantage because it gave me leeway to let the supernatural in.

JB: Who is your favorite character in the story?

RL: Coleman Tate. He was an interesting character to write.

JB: What was the most difficult thing about writing this book?

RL: The toughest thing was to keep the flow going while trying to tell backstory. Preserving some sense of chronology was difficult; it seemed I had to constantly move whole sections to do it. Probably my most interesting difficulty was to bring in an element of suspense AFTER the novel had been completed. Believe it or not, The Wanderer was not part of the original version.

JB: How fascinating!  I can’t even think of the story without him.  What kind of research did you do?  Find anything you’d like to use in a future story?

RL: Even though THE SILENCE OF BONAVENTURE ARROW is a work of fiction I wanted to get it right, especially when it came to Catholicism and New Orleans. To that end, I adhered to only credible sources. I spoke to historians, archivists, and folks in New Orleans during the time I spent there doing research. I also consulted various digital collections and online libraries as well as consulting with people in Catholic ministries.

I save all my research. No doubt, I’ll reach into it for some future story.

JB: So many early readers love Bonaventure.  Has the advance praise surprised you at all or did you always expect Bonaventure to pull at the heartstrings of readers?

RL: I can honestly say it has surprised me. It’s such a different sort of story that I wasn’t sure how it would be received. I only knew how much I loved Bonaventure.

JB: Ever thought of moving to the South, but especially to New Orleans?

RL: Not really, my family is in the north. But I’ll definitely return to the South for vacations.

JB: What do you like to do when you are not writing?

RL: I love to read, knit, and crochet. I also love to renovate – give me a paint brush and some wood flooring and I’ll be happy for a long, long time. I’m an exercise freak, too. My husband and I enjoy travelling, hiking, and snowshoeing. He loves to cook, but I need a map to find the kitchen.

JB: If a reader asked you to give her a list of five Southern writers that you consider required reading, who would be on your list and why?

RL: Carson McCullers – She’s best known for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, but The Member of the Wedding is actually my favorite McCullers work. I also love her very long short story The Ballad of the Sad Café. Her characters are works of art. She finds the extraordinary under layers of human weakness.

Harper Lee – There are no words to adequately praise To Kill a Mockingbird. Scout Finch may very well be the best reminiscent narrator ever.

Flannery O’Connor – Though she wrote a few novels, O’Conner is best known as a master of the short story. She had a gift for exploiting the peculiar and bringing about endings that manage to be both fascinating and macabre as they blindside you. If I had to pick a favorite work of hers it would be a tie between “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “The River”.

Tennessee Williams – He had a gift for bringing charm to the gritty. His titles are some of the best: “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” are a couple that pull you right in.

William Faulkner – If you want to learn how to write quirky characters, read Faulkner.

JB: An amazing list!  Which book or books are you currently reading?

RL: I just finished THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY by Rachel Joyce. I loved it.

I’m currently reading THE SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

JB: Those are actually two of my favorite novels.  Will you go on a book tour?  If so, which cities are you visiting?

RL: Yes, I will tour. It’s in the planning stages at HarperCollins.

JB: What do you hope readers take with them after reading The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow?

RL: That when it comes to forgiveness, accepting it is just as important as offering it. Also, I would hope that readers would become in tune with the miraculous that is all around us all the time.

JB: Are you working on anything new?

RL: I’ve actually begun three different projects. I’m hoping that sooner or later one of them overpowers the other two.

JB: Thank you, Rita, for a wonderful interview!  May you venture forth into bestseller land.

RL: Thanks for inviting me!

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The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow is the She Reads March Book Club Selection.  For reviews, a chance to win a copy of the book, and discussion, visit She Reads.  I am also giving away a brand new copy of the story.  Please fill out the brief form below.  I will choose a winner using random.org on Friday at 3 pm ET.  Good luck!

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Book Review: Wash by Margaret Wrinkle

Wash by Margaret Wrinkle (Atlantic Monthly Press; 384 pages; $25).

            Two singular individuals, Richardson and Wash, bookend Margaret Wrinkle’s wisely assured debut, Wash.  Wrinkle, an Alabama native, uses Richardson and Wash to explore the inherent contradictions of slavery and freedom.  Although Richardson is white and Wash is black, the two men are both bound: Richardson by convention and Wash by the color of his skin.  Wash may be fiction, but Wrinkle writes this tale so credibly and accurately that the Old Southwest, with all its mayhem and turbulence, comes alive in her skilled hands.

Richardson had fought for freedom from tyranny in the Revolutionary War and had served his fledgling country in the War of 1812.  His father was an indentured servant.  During his last stint as a soldier, Richardson was captured by the British and chained as a prisoner of war.  His brief confinement, for him, was akin to being enslaved.  He did not like it very much.

By 1823, Richardson had settled in Tennessee and decided there was no more profit to be made in cotton.  Instead, he believed, the real money was in the procreation of slaves.  The United States government had banned slave importation from Africa in 1808; thus, the buying and selling of “countryborn,” or American-born slaves, was in high demand.

For Richardson, it’s pretty simple, really—he wants to make money.  He comes up with the idea to loan out his slave, Wash, to be a kind of “stud” to his neighbors.   The other masters line up to make appointments with Wash.  Every weekend, Wash visits certain female slaves and lies with them.  A slave midwife, Pallas, accompanies him to record their names and any resulting pregnancies and/or births.

“Wash” is short for Washington, a name Richardson bestowed on him at birth, a very common practice at the time.  As Wrinkle writes, Wash was the “first negro born to” Richardson, and he “wanted a name with some weight to it.”

When Wash does his duty, he travels deep inside himself, a technique he learned from his shamanistic West African mother.  Wash does not enjoy his position, even when it gives him opportunities not given to other slaves.  Wash would rather be with Pallas.

As the years pass, many children are born from Wash and the slave women.  Richardson gets a cut of exactly $200 for each child that is born.  Wash sees the irony.  Richardson gets “more than he bargained for” when Wash’s face and his ways begin “to crop up on most places round here. “  Richardson gave Wash “a big man’s name,” a name that Wash lives up to as he makes his “own country.”

Despite the money Richardson rakes in, he finds it difficult to sleep most nights.  He and other slaveholders like him worry that their slaves, who increasingly outnumber whites, will slaughter them in their beds as they sleep, just as Denmark Vesey planned to do in Charleston in 1822.  This fear was truly palpable for white masters.

Ironically, as whites fought in the revolution, taking up arms against their oppressors, their black slaves emulated their owners’ behavior time and again.  Most often, slaves resisted by running away, refusing to work, breaking tools, poisoning food, stealing animals, and many other minor rebellious acts.

Wrinkle truly shows just how “peculiar” the “peculiar institution” of slavery was in Wash when Richardson visits Wash at night to talk to him in the barn, Wash’s preferred place of rest.

A veteran of two wars, Richardson knows he himself fought for freedom from a tyrannical power.  He understands that holding men in bondage is antithetical to revolutionary ideals, but he is only one person and cannot abolish racial slavery.

Listening to Richardson at night, Wash entertains the thought of killing his master.  But Wash knows such an idea is futile and would mean his own death sentence.  So he listens to Richardson’s rationalizations and confessions, but sometimes Wash retreats deep inside.

Richardson does not like the idea of racial slavery, but he is shrewd enough to know that black servitude is too deeply entrenched socially, politically, culturally, psychologically, and economically.  Both Richardson and Wash are thus bound.

They are not the only ones.  Richardson’s daughter, Livia, highly intelligent, is bound by her gender.  William, Richardson’s son, seems to be the only character strong enough to strain his bonds as he marries a woman who is part African American.

Wrinkle provides the reader windows into the lives and workings of a motley crew of people in Wash, making the whole story richer and more satisfying.  Wrinkle provides fascinating insights into her characters and into the Old Southwestern frontier.  Wash is an intriguing character-driven story woven with history and African cultural traditions.  Wrinkle shows slaves and slave owners were constrained, bound together, despite the revolution.  Readers will learn more about the paradox of freedom and slavery in Wash than in any history book because Wrinkle brings it all to life so eloquently and masterfully.

Margaret Wrinkle

Book Review: Man in the Blue Moon by Michael Morris

Man in the Blue Moon by Michael Morris (Tyndale House Books; 400 pages; $13.99).

 

“Wars and plagues” can get people thinking it’s the end of the world.  Such a bleak outlook only worsens when American boys die on foreign soil, when families lose their homes to foreclosure, and when a dangerous flu ravages communities.  No, we’re not talking about wars in Afghanistan or Iraq.  Neither are we discussing America’s most recent economic crisis.  And no, this is not H1N1.  The place is Dead Lakes, Florida; the year is 1918.  World War I rages in Europe, and the Spanish flu rapidly spreads.  Ella Wallace, though, has more important things to worry about than wars and plagues in Michael Morris’ timely novel Man in the Blue Moon.

Ella, Morris’ protagonist, is a woman ahead of her time.  Ella’s future held great promise as a teen, when she dreamed of studying art in France.  That dream died when Harlan Wallace and his handle-bar mustache walked into Ella’s life.

Her aunt tried to warn Ella, “[Harlan’s] a gambler at best.  A con artist at worst.”  Ella paid her no attention, which was too bad because her aunt was right about Ella’s future husband: he was a gambler and a con artist.  After they married and their union produced three sons, another label was added to Harlan’s repertoire: alcoholic.

For Harlan, alcohol and gambling did not mix well.  Harlan placed a bet on a racehorse and lost Ella’s land, the inheritance her father passed down to her.  Before he died of typhoid fever, her father begged Ella never to sell her birthright.

One by one, Ella had been forced to sell her father’s possessions to pay off her husband’s debts.  “His gold watch, the diamond-studdied tie clip, and the curls of hair that her father had maintained until death belonged to President Lincoln” had all been sold.  The land was the only thing Ella had left and was very important to her.  You could even say the land was special.

“The tract of land that sat on the Florida panhandle was thick with pines and cypress.  An artesian spring fed a pool of water that local Indians claimed could remedy gout and arthritis.  The acreage had been in her family for two generations.”

Artist rendition of Ella’s land in Man in the Blue Moon

Harlan did not care.  He lost the property anyway to the story’s principal antagonist, banker Clive Gillespie, a vile, dishonest man.  To Clive’s chagrin, Harlan later won the land back in a drunken card game.  Things got worse when Harlan traded his alcohol addiction for opium.  One day, he just disappeared, leaving Ella to manage their country store alone.

This is not the life that Ella imagined.  She can’t help but think people talk about her reversal of fortune: “What has become of Ella Wallace?  What would her aunt think about her now?” she imagines them wondering.  For Ella, it is difficult raising three boys as a single mother while working and managing the store.  Ella and her family live a hardscrabble life.  One thing they have an abundance of is love.

When it comes to the world outside, though, sometimes Ella feels as if it’s her against the world.  Widows, she figures, are treated better than women whose husbands just up and disappeared.  The gossip-mongering citizens of Dead Lakes look down on her.  Ella, despite all the gossip and hateful looks, is proud and determined.

Ella needs that determined spirit once her mortgage comes due.  She reads in the newspapers about all the homes that the bank is foreclosing on.  Hers could be next, to Clive’s glee.

Clive has an agenda, and Ella stands in his way.  He has a reason for wanting Ella’s property, and he will fight and connive to get what he wants.

Ella is desperate to pay the note on the land’s mortgage.  But she can’t do it alone.  Then, as if in answer to a prayer, Harlan’s alleged cousin, Lanier Stillis, shows up in Dead Lakes.  He’s a rather shadowy and mysterious man, a picaresque hero, who proves his worth to Ella in a very unexpected way.  When a crisis hits close to home, Harlan again stands by Ella.  He seems to be a good and decent man.  But is he telling Ella the truth about his past?  Is Lanier Ella’s second chance at love?

Morris writes with a voice that is authentically Southern because he is Southern (he is a fifth-generation native of Perry, Florida).  Southern culture and Southern characters come naturally to him.  Because he is a Florida native, old Florida comes alive in his story.  Morris charms readers the same way the springs mesmerize those who come to take a dip in their magical waters.

Man in the Blue Moon is rich with historical details.  Morris carefully weaves key issues, people, and events into his story.  The strongest of these is his depiction of the 1918 Spanish Flu.  He uses a chant “I had a little bird/Its name was Enza/I opened up the window, and in-flu-enza.”  Variations of this rhyme were very popular during this time.  Morris also illustrates the anger of families whose sons returned home from battle only to die from the flu.  As the illness wreaks havoc in Dead Lakes, Morris shows how the flu devastated families, communities, and towns.

In addition to the flu epidemic, Morris also shows two very different ways of life in old Florida.  Ella and her family drive a horse and buggy; others own a car.  Cotton export is slowly giving way to fishing and tourism.  Morris even gives a nod to the oyster industry in nearby Apalachicola, the oyster capital of the world today.  As one way of life wanes, another dawns.  This is very apparent in Man in the Blue Moon.

With talk of a distant war, foreclosures, and a fatal flu, Morris gives readers a timely tale.  His story takes place almost a century ago, yet it is so relatable to us today.

If you love historical fiction, then Man in the Blue Moon is required reading for you.  Morris’ writing is always genuine and satisfying.  His story is a tale of one family’s struggle and of a town that will either come together or be torn apart.  There is much to admire within these pages, in particular the character of Ella.  I daresay she would fit in well in 2012; maybe she would have a blog and be part of She Reads.

Morris enthralls and captivates readers with Man in the Blue Moon, the She Reads November Book Club selection.  To discuss the story, connect with other readers, and even meet the author, go to She Reads.  Don’t forget to enter the extraordinary giveaways there, one of which is guaranteed to make your eyes sparkle.

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More with Jonathan Odell

In a New York Times March 13 review of The Healing, author Jonathan Odell was deemed “too white” to have written such a book.  He is a white man writing about black slaves, yet he does not shy away from any subject.  The Healing is set on a Mississippi Delta cotton plantation.  Granada is born a slave, yet the mistress takes a special interest in her since her own daughter died of cholera.  Everything changes on the plantation with the arrival of Polly Shine.  She is a healer, but she is also a slave.  Polly wants Granada to be her apprentice, against the wishes of the mistress.  The acclaimed healer, though, gets her way and stirs up both blacks and whites in The Healing.  Odell creates a character-driven story in which slaves are players and not pawns.  I recommend it for fans of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Kathryn Stockett.

I recently interviewed novelist and Mississippi native Jonathan Odell, author of The Healing, for the Mobile Press-Register.  You can read the Q&A here.  The piece has been edited for length.  With the paper’s permission, I would like to share with you what did not make the paper.

JB: What was the most difficult part about writing The Healing?

 JO: Structure. I couldn’t get a handle on it. I tried writing it linearly, going from the death of Amanda Satterfield’s daughter Becky, to bringing up Granada and ending with Gran Gran and Violet. It just didn’t work. The energy, tension was all wrong. Then I tried doing it in flashbacks. That was fatally boring. Then an author friend read it and said, “You know, this is in its essence about story, and the power of story to heal. Why don’t you structure it that way, as a story told by the old woman to the young girl? I knew she was right the moment she said it. When I framed it that way, it worked beautifully. I really liked how it put Gran Gran and Granada right up next to each other, so we can see that it is also Gran Gran who has been wounded and needs healing as well as Violet.

JB: The Healing is amazing and I must ask if you received any rejection letters for your manuscript before it was ultimately given the green light?

JO: It was uniformly rejected when I sent it out in the previous linear form that I mentioned above. I waited another 2 years, discouraged, humiliated. My partner got sick of my depression and told me to get over it. He told me it was a story that needed to be told, I was the only one who could to tell it, so stop feeling sorry for myself and do my job. That’s when I chose 6 of the best writers I knew (including my partner) and gave them a draft and said, I can’t see it, why does this just lay there like a dead fish? Their feedback was not all on target, but opening myself up to the outside world like that, unfroze the book in my own mind, enabling me to see other possibilities.

When I finished the rewrite, literary agent, Marly Rusoff, bless her heart, took it right away. It was so polished by then there was no need for rewrites. Within the month Marly had sold it to Nan Talese.

JB: What is it like working with Talese?

JO: I’m still reeling from that. I’ve talked with her only once, the day she accepted the book. She called and the caller I.D. read, Random House. Trembling I picked up the phone, “Jon, this is Nan.” I don’t remember much after that, except that this literary icon had dialed my number, ON PURPOSE, to rave about something I had written.

My editor is a very talented woman named Ronit Feldman who worked closely and skillfully (and tactfully) with me to get the book ready for market. It was a fun process, and so much different than working with a small press, who had my first book out in four months. Nan bought the book in the fall of 2010, and they have used that time to ready the book, as well as the market for launch. Polly Shine has been very well served.

JB: Do you have any advice for anyone working on a first novel?

 JO: Show your work to others when you are ready, but be VERY careful whom you choose. I rely heavily on other’s impressions during the writing process. But the readers I select know the difference between telling me what they would do if they were writing this novel (not helpful); and telling me what I need to hear to write the story that I’m trying to tell (very rare). They want me to achieve my vision, not help me achieve theirs.

JB: What is your writing process like?  What would a typical day of writing be like for you?  Do you type at a computer or do you write in long-hand first?  Do you need absolute silence?  Do you ever listen to music while you write?

JO: If I’m creating from scratch, the day looks like a lot of research, reading out-of-print books for dialect and phrasing, for attitudes. And then perhaps 2 hours of writing. I’m exhausted after 2 hours of making things up.

But if I’m editing, I can go for 18 hours at a time, day after day. I love editing, probably too much. When language sings, I’m in heaven.  I listen to music without an evocative melody and without understandable words. I love Phillip Glass. Monastery choirs are nice.

Most everything I do is on laptop. No matter how brilliant, my handwriting makes my work look juvenile. That’s very discouraging to me. I look smarter on a computer screen.

JB: Another Mississippian, Jesmyn Ward, won this year’s National Book Award with her novel, Salvage the Bones.  How would you feel if your novel was nominated for any literary awards?

JO: That feels remote at this stage. I used to spend sleepless nights in bed being interviewed by Oprah. That never came to any good so I try not to do that to myself. At this point I’m at that stage of being afraid that I won’t be noticed by critics and then being afraid when they do. The book has been out [since February 21], and I’m feeling a little shell-shocked.

Odell was born and raised in Laurel, Mississippi, and now makes his home in Minnesota.  He is also the author of The View from Delphi.

 

Meeting Jonathan Odell at Lemuria Books

I have conversed with author Jonathan Odell via this blog and finally had the pleasure of meeting him in person yesterday.  Mr. Odell appeared at Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi, on March 7.  He signed copies of his newest novel The Healing at 5 pm and then read from the book at Lemuria’s Dot Com Building at 5:30.

Jonathan Odell

Mr. Odell arrived early.  He met Lemuria staff and then signed about 400 books.  He still had some time before the signing began so he popped downstairs to Broad Street Baking Company and Cafe for a break and a latte.

When 5:00 came, my mother and I were the first of his fans waiting in line.  My mother and Mr. Odell spent some time catching up.  They both attended R.H. Watkins High School in Laurel, MS.  My mother was a childhood friend of Mr. Odell’s twin brothers, Doug and David.  She remembered Mr. Odell being in the band.

Pam Boler and Jonathan Odell

Mr. Odell was so friendly not only to us but to everyone who attended.  There was a fair-sized crowd.  He took his time talking to us and inscribing and even lining books.  Everyone remarked on how personable he was and how much they adored The Healing.

Jonathan Odell and me (bookmagnet)

Book signings at Lemuria are a joy to attend.  It is always great to see Zita, Lisa, Maggie, and Joe.  We were sad, though, to miss Nan.  It is also wonderful to catch up with friends we first met at Kathryn Stockett’s signing of The Help in May of last year.  We love seeing Susan and Wanda!

You just never know what treasure you will find at Lemuria.  For example, in one of the rare book rooms, my mother came across a very special John Grisham book.  My mother, it has to be said, loves Mr. Grisham; he is her favorite author.  She opened a signed copy of The Runaway Jury to read “Official 5/22/96 Lemuria Signing Elbow Book.”  Puzzled, she asked what it meant.  Joe Hickman explained Mr. Grisham liked to write quirky things in a few novels to see if they would end up on the internet for sale.  This particular copy was what he rested his elbow on as he signed books.  What a find!  It took some persuasion on my part, but she bought it.  Now she has a message for Mr. Grisham: She will treasure it always and never put it on Ebay.

John Grisham's "Elbow Book"

You will not want to miss an author coming to Lemuria next week: Alex George, author of A Good American.  Mr. George is very friendly and loves to discuss his novel.  He will be at Lemuria Books in Jackson, MS, on March 14 for a signing and a reading beginning at 5 pm.

Book signings are a great way to make new friends and meet your favorite authors.  Just as we were lucky enough to meet Mr. Odell.  I urge you to pick up The Healing.  It is one of those rare novels you will cherish for years to come.

Thanks, Mr. Odell, and thanks, Lemuria!

 

 

 

Oxford Who?

The following article is my first in The Review of Jones County, one of my local newspapers.

The Healing by Jonathan Odell (Nan A. Talese; 352 pages; $26).

            Author Jonathan Odell writes that American slaves and their descendants “have strived and survived as a proud of community and, in spite of every adversity imaginable, infused the larger American culture with a richness like none other.”  Their story is our story, he maintains.  What a story he tells in his second novel The Healing, to be released in February 2012.  Historically accurate details and characters that seem to come to life on the page populate the book.  The African-American slaves in Odell’s world are players, not pawns; they are active, not passive, participants in the oppressive and repressive institution that was slavery.  The slaves try to forge identities for themselves and their families while slave owners do their best to suppress their attempts.

Nothing, however, can stop Odell’s Polly Shine.

Odell previously wrote The View from Delphi.  He currently lives in Minnesota but was born in Laurel, Mississippi, the hometown of this reviewer.  The Healing is very personal to him as this novel works to heal the wounds slavery, segregation, and racism have left behind.  In the author’s note to the reader, he recounts several instances of his early life in which he saw racism firsthand.  His note is very revealing and allows readers a chance to see into his mind and his heart.  In fact, I urge readers to read it first, as it will give you great insight into the author and his mindset.

Set on a cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta, The Healing began when the twelve-year-old daughter of Benjamin and Amanda Satterfield died of cholera.  Mistress Amanda was distraught, even enraged and unstable, and took a baby from one of the Satterfield slaves to raise as her own.  The mistress renamed the baby Granada and exiled her true parents to the swamps.  Mistress Amanda dressed Granada in the clothes of her dead daughter and paraded her before friends and neighbors.  Granada loved the clothes, for the clothes made the mistress notice her: “The clothes made her more than beautiful.  They made her visible.”  The sight of Granada, an African-American slave in the clothes of a white girl, appalled the whites.  The mistress also had a pet monkey named Daniel Webster who perched on her shoulder.  Here, Odell is rather heavy-handed.  The reader is meant to compare Granada to the monkey; they are the same in the eyes of slaveholding whites.  Perhaps Odell does not think readers would fully grasp the meaning without the presence of the monkey.  Granada was just a slave, no matter how many fancy clothes she wore; she would never be the daughter of the mistress.  She merely mimicked the world of the whites, and her emulations were met with disdain.  As Granada tried to curtsy “like she had seen white women do,” the monkey pulled her hair, making her tilt to the side.  She looked to see the reaction: “The women had dropped their eyes to the floor, looking red-faced, as if they had been slapped in church….”  A man who watched her “hid his mouth behind his hand and coughed loudly.”  The man’s eyes, Granada, saw, “danced with a wicked merriment.”  Her mimicry only made Granada ridiculous, since “tying a scrap of red on a straw broom don’t make it no Christmas tree.”  This worked even without Daniel Webster, although the monkey served a purpose later in the novel.

Everything changed on the plantation with the arrival of Polly Shine, who had “bird feathers stuck out of her braids this way and that, and around her neck she wore a ponderous necklace made of gleaming white shells.”  Polly was “as skinny as a river bird, and draped over her shoulders was a mangy wrap made from the fur of some animal Granada imagined being too ugly to ever have lived.”  Odell was at his very best when he wrote her scenes.  Satterfield purchased Polly from North Carolina for the grand sum of five thousand dollars.  The other slaves speculated as to her purpose there: “She was too unsightly to be thought of as frolic in bed for the master.  She was too far past her childbearing years to multiply the stock.  Though she seemed nimble enough, it was hard to imagine her being brought all the way from North Carolina for field work.”  The reason for her presence was soon revealed:  Polly was a healer, and the master hoped she could cure his slaves of the “blacktongue,” a disfiguring and painful disease.  The master gave Polly lots of leeway.  Polly even chose Granada to be her apprentice, causing a battle of wills between the mistress and the slave.  Polly, however, emerged as the victor, leaving Granada furious and saddened.  Polly did things her own way.  Although she was a slave, she was really her own boss.  I loved her and considered her Odell’s richest, most well-developed character.  She stirred things up on the plantation so much so that nothing would be the same after her arrival for Granada, the Satterfields, or her fellow slaves. For example, Polly told Granada that Master Satterfield “can’t give you your Freedom.  The Yankees when they come can’t.  I can’t.  If you think any somebody can, then you always going to be their slave.”

Readers will appreciate the meticulous research Odell conducted for The Healing.  He combed through archives and listened to the Works Project Administration’s interviews with former slaves recorded in the 1930s.  Odell also talked to numerous descendants of former slaves.  His hard work paid off as historical accuracies abound in his novel.  Odell painted a picture of a world in which house slaves believed they were better than field hands.  That was true.  Slaves were hierarchical.  In the novel, the master had an affair with a slave named Rubina, a typical practice.  The mistress knew of her husband’s affair and hated him (and Rubina) for it.  This, too, was historically accurate.  In fact, many mistresses treated any children from such dalliances cruelly.  In The Healing, Satterfield named his slaves and this sometimes occurred.  Not all masters named their slaves, however.  Ella, Granada’s natural mother, originally gave her daughter an African name, Yewande.  In the slave south, slaves could not come and go as they pleased.  Written permission from the master was required.  Odell showed readers the same was true for Polly Shine.  Slaves also resisted slavery through rebellion.  Their resistance might be active (revolt) or passive (everyday rebellion).  Near the end of Odell’s novel, we saw Satterfield’s slaves engaging in rebellious acts against the master.  Therefore Odell gave us a story that very well might have happened, even if it was fiction.  Nothing he writes was inaccurate or not plausible.

The world of Odell’s imagining is one in which readers will want to immerse themselves.  Filled with both historical accuracy and vivid, rich, detailed characters, The Healing proves Odell is an up-and-coming author.  The Healing recalls earlier greats such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.  I believe Odell will receive great acclaim.  With The Healing, he will certainly put Laurel, Mississippi, on the literary map.  Oxford who?

 

Unlucky Fifteen

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson (Grand Central Publishing; 336 pages; $25.99).

            Fifteen is not a lucky number in the Slocumb family.  Fifteen is, in fact, the unluckiest of years for Slocumb females in Joshilyn Jackson’s A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, her fifth novel.  A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty has now replaced Gods in Alabama as my favorite of Ms. Jackson’s novels.  Ms. Jackson writes her newest saga with sass, hilarity, and a whole lotta love as she introduces us to three generations of women: Big, Liza, and Mosey.

 

“Every fifteen years,” Big reveals, “God flicks at us with one careless finger and we spin helplessly off into the darkness.”  “There’s no natural explanation,” Big explains, for “the hold the number fifteen has” on her family.  Big was fifteen when she gave birth to Liza.  History often repeats itself.  When Liza was fifteen, she gave birth to Mosey.  When Ms. Jackson’s book begins, Mosey has just turned fifteen.  Ye Gods!

 

For as long as Mosey can remember, Big and Liza have preached the perils of teenage pregnancy and motherhood to her.  Although Mosey is not sexually active, she hoards pregnancy tests kits.  This is hilarious considering she is a virgin.  Mosey likes to see the minus sign come up and then she buries the strip in the backyard.  A little odd?  Yes, but the negatives are like her talismans.

 

The Slocumbs live in Mississippi, the home state of this reviewer.  I applaud Ms. Jackson for tackling the subject of teenage pregnancy and presenting it in such an insightful manner.  In 2009, Mississippi ranked first in the nation as the state with the highest rate of teenage pregnancies.  The numbers are not likely to go down.  Sadly, our society romanticizes teenage pregnancy and motherhood especially.  Just look at MTV, for example, with its “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom.”  Ms. Jackson shows us it is difficult to raise a child when you are still a child yourself.

 

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty is about more than teenage pregnancy.  Liza suffers a stroke, affecting her speech and motor skills.  Big thinks installing a pool in the backyard will be good for her daughter.  Aquatic physical therapy might be just what Liza needs to recuperate.  The only obstacle is a willow tree which happens to be Liza’s special tree.  After the tree is cut down, it becomes apparent that something was buried there.  In an old locker, the Slocumbs find the skeleton of a dead baby.  Whose baby is it?  What happened?  Was it a natural death?

 

Ms. Jackson’s novel has many plot twists and turns as Big, Liza, and Mosey undertake their own unique journeys in the book.  Ms. Jackson alternates among the Slocumb women to tell her story.  The narratives of Big and Mosey are told in the first person, and I identify more closely with them.  Because of Liza’s stroke, her account is told in the third person.  Although I find myself not connecting as easily with Liza, her account is authentic as the stroke has damaged her body and her mind.  Ms. Jackson really shines as she writes for Big and Mosey.  Each has a distinctive voice.  For example, Big refers to You-Tube and Craigslist as “the You-Tube” and “the Craigslist.”  Mosey, meanwhile, is a typical teen, wowing us with her quick text-speak.  Both are equally engaging.

 

Other characters also stand out.  I smile whenever I read about Mosey’s friends, Roger and Patti.  Some of Jackson’s minor characters are typical of small towns in which there is little to do but gossip.  Ms. Jackson uses the character of Coach Richardson to remind us of the ever-increasing prevalence of improper teacher-student relationships.  She also shows how drug use, particularly meth, has become part and parcel of small-town life and what a detriment that drug abuse is for all of us.

 

Despite what dirty, long-buried secrets are uncovered in A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, Ms. Jackson knows that families must not be linked through blood ties alone.  The Slocumb family teaches us that families can be made even if we’re not born into them.  Love means more than blood.

The Lost Saints of Tennessee

The Lost Saints of Tennessee by Amy Franklin-Willis (Atlantic Monthly Press; 320 pages; $25).

 

The Lost Saints of Tennessee is the debut novel of Amy Franklin-Willis, an eighth-generation Southerner born in Birmingham, Alabama.  She was “raised on the tall tales” of her father’s “Huck Finn-like boyhood” growing up in Pocahontas, Tennessee, and those recollections inspired her multi-generational family saga.  Although her story is set in the fictional town of Clayton, it serves as a “love letter” to her father’s hometown.  The Lost Saints of Tennessee also “pays homage” to her grandmother, who “made the best corn bread in the world, smoked cigarettes in the bathroom so she wouldn’t set a bad example for her grandkids, and made strangers feel like family and family feel beloved.”  And that is exactly what you will feel for the Coopers and the Parkers as you read this book: these characters become like your family, and you will not want to let them go.

 

Franklin-Willis tells the story in two distinct yet compelling voices, Ezekiel “Zeke” Cooper and his mother Lillian Parker Cooper.  Both first-person narratives speak to us back and forth through time from the 1940s to the 1980s, revealing the ups and downs, tragedies and triumphs, of a family.

 

Zeke is not at his best when we first meet him.  Recently divorced from his high-school sweetheart, Jackie, distant from his two daughters, and still distraught over the tragic death of his twin brother, Carter, Zeke plans on killing himself and his beloved old dog, Tucker, in a motel room in Pigeon Forge.  Because this is primarily a story about redemption and second chances, Zeke fails in his suicide attempt.  We breathe a sigh of relief, because we are already invested in the story and in its characters.

 

Little by little, it is revealed that Zeke and his mother are somewhat estranged.  He cannot forgive her for what she did to his twin, who was forever damaged after having the measles as a toddler.  There is just too much on Zeke’s shoulders, and he wants to get away from everything.  Luckily, he finds an alternative to suicide.  Zeke had briefly stayed with Lillian’s cousins on a farm in Virginia when he went to college there.  Georgia and Oz are childless and have not forgotten Zeke after all these years.  In fact, they think of him as their son and open their home to him.  On the Virginia farm, Zeke becomes a new man, learning about farming, working through his problems, and even finding a second chance at love.

 

Lillian, meanwhile, discovers she has lung cancer.  “Isn’t it amazing when you think about it—that a machine can see right through your skin, through your blood, and see what’s wrong inside?”  She must have surgery to remove her lung.  Her first-person narrative really allows you to see what the family has been through and why certain choices were made in the past.  Interestingly, Zeke sees her as a bad mother, yet as I read Lillian’s account, I came away with the feeling she was anything but.

 

Parents, Lillian tells us, are not supposed to have favorite children.  But she and her husband “took up favorites pretty early with the boys.”  Her favorite was Zeke.  Lillian had wanted Zeke to escape the confines of Clayton.  Her dream was for him to go to college.  “You see those lights up in the sky, Ezekiel?  You see the brightest one” she said.  “That, my boy, is you.  Don’t let anybody tell you different.  You’re one of the chosen ones.  God will strengthen you.  That’s what your name means.”  It was Lillian who persuaded Zeke to go to college in Virginia, and it was Lillian who kept the truth from him after a horrible accident.  That catastrophe was the turning point in the relationship between mother and son.  Nothing would ever be the same between them until Lillian’s surgery brings the whole family together.  A new chapter then begins for the Coopers and the Parkers.

 

            I did find a few faults in the novel.  Franklin-Willis is at her best when writing for Zeke and Lillian, but she tends to use too many stock characters.  For example, Jackie takes on the role of jealous, whining, unhappy ex-wife.  His older daughter, Honora, is mad at her father and seems to want to hurt him in any way she can.  So what does she do?  She turns to a boy who breaks her heart and ruins her reputation in Clayton.  Zeke’s love interest in Virginia is a divorced rich girl who rides horses.  Zeke’s twin, Carter, has the exact kind of life and death you would expect from someone with mental retardation.  The real problem with Franklin-Willis, then, is that her story is often too predictable.  She is much better at writing this family’s past than she is at describing their present.  Lillian’s voice is particularly strong, and her remembrances mark my favorite part of The Lost Saints of Tennessee.

 

If you’re looking for a feel-good story about family, love, redemption, and second chances, Franklin-Willis delivers all that and more.  The Lost Saints of Tennessee is a heart-warming debut from a talented up-and-coming Southern author.  I hope we see more of her.