July 11, 2005 - Between the Lines: Of Dogs and Mockingbirds

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Between the Lines: Of Dogs and Mockingbirds
By Lee Ann Alexander
July 11, 2005

Book News
Did you join the masses of American literature students who read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school? Perhaps then, you also learned a little information behind the landmark novel’s author, Harper Lee. The operative word is “little” because Lee’s secretive life and avoidance of media attention is infamous. To Kill a Mockingbird was her first and only novel. Whether overwhelmed by the attention given the novel and the Oscar winning film that followed or simply reclusive by nature, the enigmatic Lee has been virtually invisible since the publication of the novel in 1960. Just recently, Lee made an extremely rare appearance to be honored by the Los Angeles Public Library. To read the full account, click here and here.

This news reminded me of some of my other favorite articles on this fascinating writer and human rights proponent:

Roy Newquist Interviews Harper Lee (1964)

Article Originally Published in Rogue (1963)

This month I join the Los Angeles Public Library and many other countless admirers in saluting Harper Lee.

Report Card
I am back from vacation and happy to report two thumbs up for both books I read. My reading could have stood a little more diversity, and I could have done more of it, but the fact remains that at least I read something for a change. And what struck me about my summer reading was how much I enjoyed it. I love the feeling you get when you’re about two-thirds of the way through a book and you realize just how much you’ve become attached to the characters. My real challenge now is to extend reading beyond just vacation fare. Recently reading has become a luxury and reward reserved for time away from work, but I long for the day when I can grab a book at least once a week and immerse myself in a world apart from reality and yet wholly my own.

Ya-Yas in Bloom by Rebecca Wells

Overall Grade: C
Style and Artistic Appeal: C
Plot/Storyline/Content: B
Christian Friendliness: C

As promised, I dug immediately into Rebecca Wells’ third Ya-Ya novel with much anticipation. I had read several early reviews and thought I knew what to expect. And, yes, the narrative pace was not tightly structured, as reviewers noted. But I quickly recognized why. In a celebration of oral storytelling, Wells uses a special narrative device. She employs the role of a raconteur, or storyteller, to narrate the novel by arbitrarily recalling various adventures of the larger-than-life fictional sisterhood. We do float anecdote to anecdote, but I can accept that because I recognize that as a trait of the storyteller. So the basic structure of the novel was not surprising.

What did surprise me, however, was the new tone of the novel. While the previous Ya-Ya novels were ultimately charming with their folk feel and celebratory women’s rhetoric, they were clogged with loads of dark, turbulent family drama. Abuse was inseparable from normal family behavior in these fictional characters’ lives. Religion was also a complicated monster. Ultimately, a mutated version of South Louisiana Catholicism emerged as an elixir for the characters of the first two novels, but it was set against the backdrop of tyrannical organized religion and was ineffectual at best. Religious figures were demonized, men were portrayed as powerless nuisances, and the melancholy characters were virtually hopeless but for their girlhood friendship.

The new tone of the novels, however, feels like an abrupt departure from the previous two Ya-Ya novels. Perhaps it’s a reflection of the author’s own circumstances, but for whatever reason, the new novel comes off downright tender. There are only the slightest hints of family dysfunction. We are presented scenes of warm family moments, the beginning of friendships, and the affirmation of faith. Even with its non-linear storyteller structure, the novel comes to a crafted conclusion in which all the characters unite, emotional healing occurs, and religion is championed as the hope and lifeline for family survival.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is a Christian text, but the resounding conclusion of the novel presents a theme based on the hope offered by Christian faith and family relationships. These positive vibes are a far (and welcome) stretch from Wells’ original novels. While it may seem an awkward transition and abrupt departure from past novels, it’s pleasant to see an affirmative portrayal of faith, competent male characters, and healthy family relationships. This change may have left readers wondering what happened, but it’s a change for the best.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Overall Grade: B
Style and Artistic Appeal: A
Plot/Storyline/Content: A
Christian Friendliness: D

It’s been a long time since I’ve been excited about a contemporary novel from a literary standpoint. I’ve read some entertaining books here and there, but this novel is the first I’ve wanted to applaud for its literary value in quite some time, as have others. After the first page, I was thinking of Winston Groom (author of both Forrest Gump novels and more), but The Curious Incident supersedes that because the work’s purpose is larger than just entertainment. In the Forest Gump novels, I could feel Groom reaching for the laugh. I could feel him arranging dialogue for the greatest comic effect. In The Curious Incident it’s all about telling the story. Haddon focuses on sharing the main character for who he is, just so that his story can be told.

The Curious Incident is a 2004 novel by British author Mark Haddon about a young autistic named Christopher who knows every prime number up to 7,057, but has an aversion to the color yellow and can’t stand to be touched. Christopher begins investigating the death of a neighborhood dog and reporting it to the audience in the form of a book he is writing, complete with delightful illustrations. Somewhere along the way, the events revealed by his investigation overwhelm his book documentation and we are plunged into Christopher’s present effort to deal with the crushing events life hurls at him.

Haddon presents this story so delicately, so honestly. (I can’t tell you how excited I was to read this book.) It could have easily plunged into a humorous vein, capitalizing on the eccentricities of a character with special needs (a term Christopher abhors). But Haddon went beyond that. What we are allowed to explore is the human side of a vulnerable character not all that different from any one of us in many basic ways.

I don’t know if you could appreciate this book if you’re just looking for a formulaic read. But if you can appreciate the way an author loves a character and offers him up with tenderness and complete honesty, you’ll understand my praise for this finely crafted novel. My hope is that American writers will take a lesson from this outstanding British novel.

Final Comments: It’s All About Faulkner
In formal study, scholars like to throw around a two-dollar word called “intertextuality.” Intertextuality basically means that all literature is somehow connected. It’s an almost mystical concept contending that literature exists in its own world, free of time and spatial boundaries. In this world, all works of literature are linked to one another and some way reference one another.

It’s interesting that of the two books I chose, I identified elements of William Faulkner’s style in both. I’m not alone in noticing the Faulkner connection in The Curious Incident. There’s no way you can read The Curious Incident and not think of Benjy from The Sound and the Fury. The same mental and emotional complexity is conveyed here, sans the stream of consciousness language.

On the surface, Ya-Yas in Bloom is a far cry from Faulkner, but I can see where the narrative structure could have been patterned upon As I Lay Dying, another great Faulkner classic. In each novel, we gain the perspectives of different key characters. This diversion from the traditional linear narrative pattern with a single narrator reinforces the complex interwoven relationships and adds a layer of depth to the content. Plus, it’s just more stylistically impressive and offers a richer text than the monotony of the traditional single narrator.

Classics Remembered
The Faulkner intertextuality gives me occasion to highlight my favorite Faulkner novel for this month’s classic pick. As I Lay Dying, first published in 1930, explores the complexity of family relations amidst the challenges of rural life in the South in the 1920s. A Southern family embarks on an epic journey to bury their mother. As mentioned, Faulkner uses multiple characters and narrators in an impressive display of his ability to draw together unique perspectives from multidimensional characters.

Reader Recommendations
This month one of our readers shares a tip for those who like Christian mysteries set in the South. Patricia Sprinkle writes a series called “Thoroughly Southern” that includes good pleasure reads with no lofty literary themes or devices to bog the relaxed reader. These novels center around a southern magistrate in her early sixties who gets involved in mysteries. They feature dead-on colloquialisms readers may recognize, and most notably, the content is Christian-friendly. Our reader contacted Sprinkle to thank her for writing clean mysteries, and Sprinkle responded that she vowed when she began writing not to ever write anything that a 14 year-old couldn't read. Thank you, dear author, for that commitment and this delightful series, and thank you to our reader for this great recommendation.

Lagniappe
http://www.futureofthebook.com/ —This site announces that it is dedicated to the “preservation and persistence of the changing book.” While the site design leaves a lot to be desired, the content offers much of interest for anyone concerned with the future of the book and its conservation. There are weekly additions, usually in the form of traveling exhibit reviews or library preservation news.

For Fun
http://www.notesinthemargin.org/

ninetyandnine.com

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Lee Ann Alexander is writing ninetyandnine.com’s book column every month until they stop printing books. (Happily for us, she thinks she’s getting the best end of that deal.) This month, she’s also our “A Month in the Life” blogger.