Tag: Bildungsroman

Rivers have long been a recurring theme in American literature. Given that rivers have played such a large role in the development of the United States, it’s not surprising that they occupy space in our literary imagination. Rivers meant freedom and transportation, but could also be treacherous to those who lived near them and traveled on them. Mark Twain is perhaps the most famous American author who has written about life on a river, but this theme continues in more modern literature as well. Both “Once Upon a River” by Bonnie Jo Campbell and “Edge of Dark Water” by Joe R. Lansdale are recent novels that explore the possibilities and danger of the river, with heroines who harken back to the adventurous spirit of Huck Finn.

In “Once Upon a River”, sixteen-year-old Margo Crane has grown up along the Stark River in rural Michigan. She lives a rather isolated life with her father, not far from her extended family. When her father is killed and family turmoil breaks out, Margo takes to the river in the rowboat her grandfather left her. Her plan is to track down her mother, who abandoned the family years before. The river is where Margo feels safe and at home, but she is young and vulnerable and the river, and the people encountered on it, can be very dangerous. Thankfully she has a deep knowledge of the river and some other key strengths, namely her shooting skills, to draw upon. Despite the fact that she is a teenager in the 1970s, her hero is Annie Oakley and Margo is teaching herself to be a sharpshooter. Her journey through the backwoods of Michigan takes her through the paths of many eccentric characters living outside the mainstream, people living off the grid either by choice or because of poverty and circumstance. While in many ways an epic adventure, Once Upon a River is also a poignant character study of a strange and willful young woman seeking a way to live the kind of life she wants outside the trappings of society.

“Edge of Dark Water” has another young woman taking to the river to escape a bad situation. It all starts the day Sue Ellen finds the body of her friend May Lynn in the river near her house. May Lynn had been murdered and her body left in the river, weighed down by an old sewing machine. May Lynn had always dreamed of leaving her river shack for the bright lights of Hollywood, and Sue Ellen and her friends Terry and Jinx decide to take her there. There’s nothing for them where they are anyway, as Sue Ellen has to dodge her drunken father on a daily basis, Terry is an outcast in town for being considered a “sissy boy”, and Jinx chafes at the harsh racism of 1930s Texas. Soon they are on a wild ride down the river on an old raft with May Lynn’s ashes in a jar, some stolen money, and a few extra passengers. In pursuit of them (and the money) are the corrupt local lawman, Sue Ellen’s father, and a crazed killer known as Skunk that until recently Sue Ellen thought was just a story. On top of their pursuers, they have the river itself to contend with, with its hidden snakes, currents, and whirlpools. Like Margo, the group encounters many strange people along the way, only some of whom can be trusted to help. Edge of Dark Water is a dark and atmospheric journey, bringing to mind not just the work of Mark Twain but also the modern horror style of Stephen King.

Both Margo and Sue Ellen, like Huck and many others before them, see the river as the natural escape route from difficult lives, a powerful avenue leading to new possibilities. The river is a challenging force of nature, though, demanding more from them than they bargained for and ultimately helping them forge their own paths into adulthood.

Many readers have a particular book that they read early in life and revisit frequently and for me that book is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. This book resonated with me as a child, and continues to do so, because of the strength of the main character, Francie Nolan. I found echoes of Francie in Rory Dawn Hendrix, the protagonist of Girlchild, a recently published novel by Tupelo Hassman. Both of these coming-of-age novels depict resourceful heroines transcending rough circumstances through strength of character and a love of reading, with a little help from libraries along the way.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a semi-autobiographical novel first published in 1943. It tells the story of Francie Nolan, who is 11 years old when the novel opens in 1912. Francie lives in a tenement in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, which at the time was populated with a vibrant mix of immigrants from a variety of cultures, living in crowded conditions and often grueling poverty. The author grew up in that neighborhood herself, and paints a vivid picture of the Brooklyn she experienced. Francie lives with her younger brother, her hard-working mother, and her father, a gentle and charming man who is an alcoholic. Francie and her brother spend their days on the rough streets of Brooklyn, hunting for trash they can trade in for pennies to help with the family expenses. Francie’s one escape from the stress and harsh realities of her life is reading. She spends her free time alone on her fire escape with a stack of library books, and makes a resolution to read every book in her small local library in alphabetical order. Books are an escape for Francie in more ways than one, as the education she obtains from reading on her own later enables her to attend college despite the fact that she was not able to attend high school.

In Girlchild, Rory Dawn Hendrix lives with her mother and grandmother in Calle de las Flores, a desperately poor trailer park on the outskirts of Reno. Her mother works nights at The Truck Stop and Rory is often left in the care various neighbors, some of whom are not as trustworthy as her mother assumes. At school, Rory and the other kids from “the Calle” are shunned and demeaned by other students, and often neglected by teachers. Rory, however, has grown up with a mother who loves books and she takes advantage of the books that line their trailer walls. She reads constantly, and one of her favorites is The Girl Scout Handbook. While Rory isn’t an official Girl Scout, she adapts the advice outlined in the book to her own circumstances. She also finds solace with the school librarian, who is the one person at school who sees her potential and encourages her beyond the low expectations the school has set for her as just another dirty kid from the Calle. Despite the sometimes dark subject matter, Hassman’s prose is wry and creative, and shines with the humor that is often a necessity in hard times. Like Francie, Rory Dawn’s ability to imagine a life beyond the poverty that surrounds her is the first step to making her way to something better.

It’s easy to see why Francie’s story resonated with me so much as a child, and why Rory Dawn’s does today. I was a bookish kid who read indiscriminately and made many trips to and from my local public library. While I didn’t experience the crushing poverty depicted in these stories, I grew up in a working-class family with six children, so there was a certain amount of chaos at home and money was tight. Books helped me broaden my view of the world beyond my small Missouri town and to carve out a quiet place of my own. Both A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Girlchild are touching stories of girls forging paths for themselves in an often uncaring world. They are testaments to imagination and will, and to the power that books and libraries have to open up the world for their readers.