<\/a> pregnancy. Viola Garland is covering up the identity of a child, a murder and, most fascinating of all, the ambiguous sexuality of her daughter.<\/p>\nThe story opens in 1936 in Reyes County, Kentucky, when Viola is eighteen and pregnant. The events that unfold around the birth of her child will have far-reaching consequences to the present day. Viola is worried because her husband, Den, a miner, might not be at home when she goes into labor. Her friend and neighbor, Janie, is also pregnant, and the two women comfort each other despite Janie\u2019s violent husband, Bick\u2019s, disapproval of Viola.<\/p>\n
In this passage right before the babies are born, Viola ruminates on her concern over Janie\u2019s situation:<\/p>\n
\u201cShe suspected that Bick would hit Janie when he found out she and Viola had been together. There weren\u2019t as many bruises and marks since Janie had gotten pregnant, but there were still signs. Viola couldn\u2019t figure out how someone as sweet as Janie could be married to a man who would hit her. And what about the baby? Would Bick hit the baby?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bick is a truly menacing character and provides a stark contrast to the many women that populate the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cBick was well thought out,\u201d Newman said. \u201cI wanted to see how far he would go. What would push him? What was important to him? What would lead him to violence?\u201d<\/p>\n
Viola and Janie give birth on the same night. Viola, alone because Den is in the mine and there is no time for her to get help. Janie is attended by the narrow-minded charismatic leader of Bick\u2019s evangelical church and his wife. Neither birth goes as planned. In a harrowing and dreamlike passage, the lives of all the characters are altered in unforeseen ways by the two births. The secrets begin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI dreamt this story like a movie,\u201d Newman said. \u201cThis is something that really disturbed me. I dreamed the characters of Viola and (her daughter) Doris. I wrote an outline and then I did a lot of research\u2026. I wrote it before Jeffrey Eugenides\u2019 Middlesex came out. It sat in a drawer for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Doris grows up, she has a secret that she doesn\u2019t quite understand herself. Why don\u2019t her genitals look like her sister Nadine\u2019s? Why aren\u2019t her breasts developing?<\/p>\n
Ultimately, it is the jealousy between the sisters that reveals Doris\u2019 secret in the most humiliating way possible. Stuck in small-town Kentucky in the 1950s, Doris feels that there is no other option but to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cRelationships with sisters are very complex and competitive,\u201d Newman said. \u201cAdd a boy and it\u2019s like fire and kerosene coming together. I drew on something that happened with me and my sister. We both liked the same boy in high school. I thought about how cruel I was, wanting to humiliate her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doris\u2019 story of surviving as a runaway is, in many ways, the strongest part of the book. The scenes of her life in Cleveland don\u2019t have nearly the drama that some of the earlier scenes contain, but Newman is really able to delve into her character. The writing is more assured, and several of the characters that Doris meets are quickly and adeptly developed. Doris emerges in this section as a stable and wise centerpiece to the novel. Against the odds, she finds her way in the world. In a way, Nadine has done her sister a favor by freeing her to live in the wider world.
\nHowever, Doris, like Newman herself, returns to her Kentucky home. Newman, who worked as a journalist throughout the Midwest, returned to her rural Kentucky roots eight years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoris wanted to go home,\u201d Newman said. \u201cWe spend the first half of our lives trying to get out and the second half trying to get back home. Doris had seen it and done it and was ready to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nadine has a tougher time. The guilt of what she\u2019s done to her sister will haunt her for the rest of her life. She will also pass down her feelings of inadequacy to her own daughters, blaming Doris for her misery.<\/p>\n
\u201cNadine got what she wanted,\u201d Newman said. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t really what she wanted. She just wanted to be like Doris. Once Doris was gone she didn\u2019t really want Edwin (the boy they were fighting over). It caused her alcoholism and her miserable marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newman does an excellent job in teasing out these plotlines in a subtle yet powerful way. The various revelations are well-paced and suspenseful. She shows us how guilt and lying can wear down a family. The lying is something that the 87-year old Viola cannot live with any longer. It is her desire to tell Nadine\u2019s grown daughters the truth about the family that ultimately drives this tale.<\/p>\n
Newman is at work on her second novel and believes that she\u2019s learned a great deal from writing Sister Blackberry. Here\u2019s hoping she\u2019s still got a few secrets up her sleeve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday, April 22, 2010 Devastating Secrets By Arsen Kashkashian, book buyer for Boulder Bookstore (Colorado) and author and creator of Kash’s Book Corner \u00a0 Click here for link to Kash’s Book Corner http:\/\/kashsbookcorner.blogspot.com\/ Secrets and the devastation that they can cause families are at the emotional core of Melissa Newman\u2019s powerful and evocative debut novel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":590,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1034,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions\/1034"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![<\/a> pregnancy. Viola Garland is covering up the identity of a child, a murder and, most fascinating of all, the ambiguous sexuality of her daughter.<\/p>\nThe story opens in 1936 in Reyes County, Kentucky, when Viola is eighteen and pregnant. The events that unfold around the birth of her child will have far-reaching consequences to the present day. Viola is worried because her husband, Den, a miner, might not be at home when she goes into labor. Her friend and neighbor, Janie, is also pregnant, and the two women comfort each other despite Janie\u2019s violent husband, Bick\u2019s, disapproval of Viola.<\/p>\nIn this passage right before the babies are born, Viola ruminates on her concern over Janie\u2019s situation:<\/p>\n\u201cShe suspected that Bick would hit Janie when he found out she and Viola had been together. There weren\u2019t as many bruises and marks since Janie had gotten pregnant, but there were still signs. Viola couldn\u2019t figure out how someone as sweet as Janie could be married to a man who would hit her. And what about the baby? Would Bick hit the baby?\u201d<\/p>\nBick is a truly menacing character and provides a stark contrast to the many women that populate the book.<\/p>\n\u201cBick was well thought out,\u201d Newman said. \u201cI wanted to see how far he would go. What would push him? What was important to him? What would lead him to violence?\u201d<\/p>\nViola and Janie give birth on the same night. Viola, alone because Den is in the mine and there is no time for her to get help. Janie is attended by the narrow-minded charismatic leader of Bick\u2019s evangelical church and his wife. Neither birth goes as planned. In a harrowing and dreamlike passage, the lives of all the characters are altered in unforeseen ways by the two births. The secrets begin.<\/p>\n\u201cI dreamt this story like a movie,\u201d Newman said. \u201cThis is something that really disturbed me. I dreamed the characters of Viola and (her daughter) Doris. I wrote an outline and then I did a lot of research\u2026. I wrote it before Jeffrey Eugenides\u2019 Middlesex came out. It sat in a drawer for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\nAs Doris grows up, she has a secret that she doesn\u2019t quite understand herself. Why don\u2019t her genitals look like her sister Nadine\u2019s? Why aren\u2019t her breasts developing?<\/p>\nUltimately, it is the jealousy between the sisters that reveals Doris\u2019 secret in the most humiliating way possible. Stuck in small-town Kentucky in the 1950s, Doris feels that there is no other option but to leave.<\/p>\n\u201cRelationships with sisters are very complex and competitive,\u201d Newman said. \u201cAdd a boy and it\u2019s like fire and kerosene coming together. I drew on something that happened with me and my sister. We both liked the same boy in high school. I thought about how cruel I was, wanting to humiliate her.\u201d<\/p>\nDoris\u2019 story of surviving as a runaway is, in many ways, the strongest part of the book. The scenes of her life in Cleveland don\u2019t have nearly the drama that some of the earlier scenes contain, but Newman is really able to delve into her character. The writing is more assured, and several of the characters that Doris meets are quickly and adeptly developed. Doris emerges in this section as a stable and wise centerpiece to the novel. Against the odds, she finds her way in the world. In a way, Nadine has done her sister a favor by freeing her to live in the wider world.\nHowever, Doris, like Newman herself, returns to her Kentucky home. Newman, who worked as a journalist throughout the Midwest, returned to her rural Kentucky roots eight years ago.<\/p>\n\u201cDoris wanted to go home,\u201d Newman said. \u201cWe spend the first half of our lives trying to get out and the second half trying to get back home. Doris had seen it and done it and was ready to come back.\u201d<\/p>\nNadine has a tougher time. The guilt of what she\u2019s done to her sister will haunt her for the rest of her life. She will also pass down her feelings of inadequacy to her own daughters, blaming Doris for her misery.<\/p>\n\u201cNadine got what she wanted,\u201d Newman said. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t really what she wanted. She just wanted to be like Doris. Once Doris was gone she didn\u2019t really want Edwin (the boy they were fighting over). It caused her alcoholism and her miserable marriage.\u201d<\/p>\nNewman does an excellent job in teasing out these plotlines in a subtle yet powerful way. The various revelations are well-paced and suspenseful. She shows us how guilt and lying can wear down a family. The lying is something that the 87-year old Viola cannot live with any longer. It is her desire to tell Nadine\u2019s grown daughters the truth about the family that ultimately drives this tale.<\/p>\nNewman is at work on her second novel and believes that she\u2019s learned a great deal from writing Sister Blackberry. Here\u2019s hoping she\u2019s still got a few secrets up her sleeve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday, April 22, 2010 Devastating Secrets By Arsen Kashkashian, book buyer for Boulder Bookstore (Colorado) and author and creator of Kash’s Book Corner \u00a0 Click here for link to Kash’s Book Corner http:\/\/kashsbookcorner.blogspot.com\/ Secrets and the devastation that they can cause families are at the emotional core of Melissa Newman\u2019s powerful and evocative debut novel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":590,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1034,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/49\/revisions\/1034"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.melissanewman.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_8W95cY8t_tg\/S9ESMmLww2I\/AAAAAAAABw8\/vdF9Wtgi8rg\/s1600\/Sister+Blackberry.jpg\"){kind=link}