Books
Born in China in 1932 to missionaries, Katherine Paterson has dedicated her life to literacy. Her family returned to the USA when the Japanese began perpetrating their madness. Author of more than 30 books for teens and young adults, she has been honored with many awards. I was fortunate that Jacob Have I Loved, published in 1980, was among a recent donation to the floating book shop. Set on a small island in Chesapeake Bay, it is the story of a family’s struggles, a first person account of one of the daughters, a twin whose sister is gifted musically, the star of the community who charms everyone. The narrator is resentful, angry. When America enters WWII, she drops out of school to help her dad crabbing and oystering, which she had been doing on her own in her little boat from an early age. Her sister is sent to a music school, financed by the island’s prodigal son returned after a long absence. The author does not soft soap the characters, especially the cranky, Bible-quoting grandmother. It is an honest, grounded portrait of the human condition told in unpretentious prose and dialogue. The title does not refer to any of the characters. It is a Biblical reference. The 263 pages of the large paperback edition read like considerably less. As beautiful as the novel is, I wonder if most modern youngsters would find it passé, boring, and irrelevant to their lives. That would be a shame. Is it feminist? Yes, but it is also realistic, faithful to its times. After the protagonist continues her education through her mom’s home-schooling, aces the state’s exams, and wins a scholarship to college, she is stunned when a university counselor suggests she forget about becoming a doctor and become a nurse instead. Most writers today would have her defiantly going on to prove the naysayers wrongs. Instead, Patterson has her transfer, study nursing and become a midwife. I bet it happened that way for most female medical aspirants back then. 69,000+ users at Amazon have rated Jacob Have I Loved, forging to a consensus of 4.2 on a scale of five. Paterson’s most famous book is The Bridge to Terabithia, which has been adapted twice, to the small and big screen. Two other of her works have also made it to film.
It’s only August 23rd. The Baltimore Orioles have 24 games left. Last night their pitching staff surrendered its 259th home run of the season, now the all-time MLB record.
My thanks to the gentleman who loves sports literature, who bought books on Davey Johnson, Tim McCarver, Keith Hernandez and Bo Jackson; and to The Quiet Man, who purchased The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King, a culinary mystery and a western; and to Ira who selected Retiring Well on a Poor Man’s Budget: 1,001 Ways to Stretch Your Income and Enjoy Your Golden Years by FC & A Publishing, and Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken, which had to have been on Fox Mulder’s shelf; and to the sweet elderly woman I hadn’t seen in a while, who found a novel in Russian to her liking; and to the woman who overcompensated me for a cook book.
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