The first warning, of course, is the pre-printed "O" proudly gazing from the upper right hand corner of Bret Lott's novel Jewel: the significant stamp of Oprah, a woman whose taste in contemporary literature has roughly the same batting average as a pitcher in the National League.Jewel, which suffers from the same florid prose employed by Janet Fitch (author of White Oleander, another Oprah Pick Of Death), is the "epic" story of a woman from rural Mississippi who gives birth to a girl with Down's Syndrome. We follow Jewel through every quiet and inconsequential moment of her life, each of which is laden with Important Symbolism that inspires to make the reader feel moved to tears, but instead inspires boredom with its mawkish, sentimental tone.The book ostensibly follows the titular character as she struggles with the highs and lows that accompany raising her developmentally disabled daughter, Brenda Kay, a character who never quite transcends the nascent, cloying vignettes given to her. Her interactions with siblings are saccharine sweet and not even remotely believable: everyone has the patience of a saint around Brenda Kay and, in a sweeping, Lifetime Made For TV Movie manner, all learn the true meaning of family and compassion through their little sister. Gag.Lott's writing is so predictably bland, so sentimental, that it often comes very close to being a parody of good writing. Every detail of Jewel's life is rendered in painful detail, her every thought captured in a hazy but overly-analyzed snapshot. At the "climax" (a term I will use very, very loosely here) of the book, she is among the sheets of wash hanging in her backyard, a location she chooses to have a pithy recollection of her deceased father and to scrutinize the actions of her stalwart husband. As she ruminates, she touches the sheets and gazes into a middle distance, both of which are supposed to be Significant but come off as Irrelevant and Obvious.These pretentious strokes would be made more tolerable if Lott's favorite artistic flourish wasn't stringing multiple verbs together after a single subject and/or creating a list of actions that devolves the story into minutia: "Her eyes were still closed, her lips still quivering, and I snuggled her close, my nipple hard and ready, a drop of clear wet poised at the tip, and then my baby took me in, started life, taking from me what I was glad to give." (p. 55-56)WHAT?! That sentence is worthless.Even worse is the snail's pace at which the book meanders. Nearly 100 pages pass before Brenda Kay's disability is revealed, purely because Lott feels the need to complicate the story with background information about Jewel, none of which provides much more insight into her character. It is simply a device used to pad out a story so basic it could have been a charming and potentially powerful novella.So why am I giving Jewel two stars instead of one? The sequence of vignettes that makes up the family's time in California is actually incredibly interesting. Here the essence of the story is captured and some of the characters become slightly more sympathetic.Then it tumbles back into hogwash.
I've worked with special needs adults for 21 years and have interviewed many, many families. And I live in Mississippi. And I am a mom. This book is spot on. Like others who have commented, I was frequently struck with amazement that it was written by a man. From a literary point of view, I'm not sure all of the developmental information about Jewel was needed, but much of it was. It probably could have been condensed. But to the reviewers who say it was slow and tedious and lacked a satisfactory climax, I would say that is the point. Mothers of exceptional children, especially of that generation, have frequently talked of their lives revolving around a bus schedule, as well as constant pushing of the child and the systems that are supposed to serve her. Siblings frequently describe feeling pushed aside. Besides, Jewel is a complicated person. I like her and I don't. I agree with her and I don't. To me, that just makes it believable.I think the tediousness of the prose follows the same thought process as Steinbeck's long drawn out, boring description of the Joad family's drive through the dust bowl. We want to feel characters' joys and sadness and anger, but not the less dramatic emotions like boredom and never-ending busy-ness. Does that mean they should be ignored in literature?As for the setting, it is describing days gone by so i didn't get too wrapped up in analyzing the truth of its portrayal. But even today, I know people like Leston and the grandmother, and even Cathedral. So the thickness of the southern stereotypes didn't bother me that much.In all, it is a must-read for people who work with special needs families. The methods today are much different, but the driving emotions are still very relevant in today's disability climate.
What do You think about Jewel (1999)?
The story was just too long. It could have been edited down some. Lots of unnecessary details and flashbacks. Toward the end I was skipping pages of descriptions. It seemed like the story should have ended after Billie Jean came out to California, Brenda Kay was making some friends and progress, Dad has a good job, and everyone in the family is settled. That would have been a good place for a natural ending. But there is a totally strange move back to the swamps. Then back to CA in not as nice
—Justine
This is one of those books that will stay with me the rest of my life. I can hardly believe it was written by a MAN! The intrinsic feelings of a woman, wife, mother were very wisely written. The theme of once a mother means forever a mother is emphasized in the fact that Jewel has a Down's Syndrome daughter that never ages mentally past six years old. Contrast this with the fact that Jewel still has 5 other "normal" children to nurture and care for and you have an interesting story. Towards the end of the book Lott captures this beautifully by writing, "My life would never end, I saw, . . .the only true victory any mother could ever hope for: the looking of a child, whether retarded or not, to you for what wisdom you could give away before you left for whatever recokoning you had with the God who'd given you that wisdom in the first place."My favorite part was chapter 15 when the story of Jewel and her husband is told while the present day husband and wife are heading for a rare romantic tryst.And lastly, it's always fun to have the city you live in named in a book! (page 194)!!!
—Shelly
Jewel is the first-person story of the life (the entire life) of a woman raised in the deep south in the early part of the 20th century. The book moves along through Jewel's life from childhood through to the end of her life, intermittently moving back and forth from present to past, to tell the details of her experiences. Jewel has many tough times, but the book primarily focuses on how her life changes when her sixth child is born with Down's Syndrome. The characters in the book are engaging, and I applaud the male author for so thoroughly exploring the emotions of the female lead. However, the book is long, and given the time and place where it is set, repeatedly uses words that make you cringe to read (the "n" word, retarded, etc.). All-in, however, an interesting novel.
—Regina
