Whistling Past the Graveyard

It seems like there have been a lot of books in the past few years addressing the racially charged sixties. And in many of them black women work for white families and care for white children. Susan Crandall's new novel, Whistling Past the Graveyard, is both similar to and very different from these other books and will likely draw comparisons to the biggest names in the past few years. But it is its own story and an engaging one at that.

It's 1963 in Mississippi and nine year old Starla Claudelle is a precocious, curious, and spunky child. She lives with her grandmother, Mamie, because her own mother took off for Nashville to sing when Starla was small and her father works offshore on an oil rig to support his mother and his daughter. show more Mamie is a strict and overly harsh guardian, punishing the child for every transgression and never showing her positive attention or love, resenting having to raise her granddaughter. Starla knows that Mamie treats her the way she does because she wants to keep Starla from turning out like her no-good, flighty mother, not that Starla accepts her grandmother's judgment of her mother's character. And so when Starla is unjustly grounded from the local Fourth of July parade because of misbehavior, it is the last straw for her. She goes anyway. When she's seen there, rather than face her grandmother's wrath over her defiance, she makes the spur of the moment decision to run away to find her mother.

Trudging down the road in the staggering heat, she is ultimately picked up by a black woman returning home from delivering pies in town. But Eula is not alone; there's a bundled baby on the floor of her truck, a baby who can't possibly belong to Eula because this baby is white. It turns out that Eula has scooped baby James up from the church steps where she saw another black maid deposit him. Promising that she'll get Starla to her momma in Nashville another day, she takes both Starla and the baby to her home deep in woods, where they have to face Eula's husband, the scary and violent Wallace. After a terrible confrontation with him, Eula flees with Starla and baby James on a weeks lone road trip to Nashville. And along the way Starla sees firsthand the tenseness, hatred, and injustices of the time, the fear and effects of the burgeoning civil rights movement, but also the innate goodness of some people.

Telling the story from Starla's innocent, love-starved perspective made the sadness and loneliness of both Starla and Eula's lives that much more affecting. And Crandall has done a very good job writing a child's eye view of the times, capturing her innocence and her confusion at the injustice she sees around her. Both Starla and Eula are wonderful, authentic, and well-written characters. The history of the times weaves through the story but doesn't overwhelm it, keeping it at the level that a child Starla's age would be aware of and understand given the time and place of her upbringing. The plot moves along at a good pace and the reader is anxious to see what will happen next. An entertaining read about the resilience of people's hearts, weathering disappointment, and forging a family out of the people who love you rather than just the people who share your blood, you'll fall in love with Starla and ache for Eula in all her yawning sadness. Emotional and thought provoking, this is truly a delightful novel that will keep you hoping for the right outcome for both Starla and Eula until the turn of the very last page. show less

In the summer of 1963, nine-year-old Starla Claudelle runs away from her strict grandmother’s Mississippi home. Starla’s destination is Nashville, where her mother went to become a famous singer, abandoning Starla when she was three. Walking a lonely country road, Starla accepts a ride from Eula, a black woman traveling alone with a white baby. Now, on the road trip that will change her life forever, Starla sees for the first time life as it really is, as she reaches for a dream of how it could one day be.
I grew up in the 1950's south, and my very dearest and best friend was a little black girl named Cordelia. Reading this book, I found myself placing Cordelia in Starla's shoes. Unfortunately, those shoes fit her very well. My show more friend, Cordelia never had a bad homelife, but she did have to adhere to, what I thought were some ridicules "rules" set by the society of that time. I know that some of the issues that Starla faced on her journey to find her mother, would have been ones that my friend would, in reality had to face if she had made the same journey that Starla made.

It's a "coming-of-age" story that will stay with you for quite some time. Nine-year-old Starla Claudelle will absolutely steal your heart away right from the very first page. It's the summer of 1963 in Mississippi. Segregation is in full force, and civil rights demonstrations are just starting. Starla, lives with, and is being raised, by her "Mamie", who is her father's mother. Her father works on the offshore oil rigs, so she doesn't see him as much as she'd like to. Starla has not seen her mother since she was three-years old. She hardly remembers what she looks like. Her mother took off to Nashville to try to become a recording star. She's almost an entire story by herself.

When Starla and her grandmother have another fight, and after yet being grounded again as punishment, Starla decides to run away and go to find her mother that lives in Nashville. Starla has no idea that Nashville is 600 miles away from her home in Mississippi, but she sets off anyway.

While she's walking a lonely country road, she accepts a ride from a black woman who has a white newborn baby in her car, taking him to a family that has adopted him. This begins Starla's big adventure...the journey that will forever change her life.

The story brings out so many emotions. You'll laughed and you'll cry with plucky little Starla. It's a wonderful story and I highly recommend it. I couldn't put it down and read it in just half a day. It's not a very long book, but it's packed from the from front to the back cover with true humanity. show less

I received this book as an advanced reader e-book through Net Galley. From the beginning I found myself captivated by 9 year old Starla's character. She is feisty, rough-and-tumble, goes to bat for the underdog and yet she is seemingly unaware of her own sense of value or place in the world. Her father works on an oil rig, her mother is in Nashville, and she lives with her paternal grandmother who lacks warmth and love; she is afraid Starla will grow up "trashy" like her mother. When Starla's "red-rages" get her into trouble she decides to run away to live with her mother in Nashville, 600 miles away from her hometown. Almost from the start, Starla runs into trouble, but in her quest she discovers herself and her place in the world, show more along with true love and friendship.

I was reminded of The Secret Life of Bees; the setting is similar - a young girl traveling with a black female friend in the midst of the American south during the early 1960's and the Civil Rights movement. Similar to Lily in The Secret Life of Bees, Starla is seeking her mother, and is running from a grandmother reminiscent of the character of T-Ray in Bees.

This well written story is dark yet entirely captivating. As a heroine, Starla, in her young life, has to learn to endure situations and experience tragedies no parent would wish for their children. I would recommend this book to those who loved The Secret Life of Bees; it will not disappoint. show less

WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD by Susan Crandall
I was a white, Northern, college girl who had always attended integrated schools in 1963when this book takes place. I was shocked at the historically correct, blatant, racism portrayed in this book of southern Mississippi. If you are offended or triggered by historically correct terms, don’t read this book.
That said, I loved this book. I loved Starla, the 10-year-old runaway: Eula, the young “colored” woman who befriends Starla; and Starla’s father. The characters are wonderful, clearly drawn and “real.” The time period and locale (1963 Mississippi) are shown with all the warts in place. The story is part coming of age, part social history and part murder mystery. The parts work show more together in a seamless tale that enthralls from the first page to the last.
If Crandall’s other books are as good as this one, I have reading material for a month or two (I’m a fast reader). Book groups will have a wealth of discussion material with Starla and Eula. The book would lead to a great parent/child discussion.
5 of 5 stars show less

Starla Claudelle is a nine-year old dynamo with red hair, who has a lot to learn about the way things are in the 1963 Mississippi she inhabits. She lives with her grandmother, Mamie, who is far from kind and loving, and she dreams of life with her mother, who she believes is a career singer in Nashville. When events unfold in a way that makes her feel she must run away, she heads out to Nashville alone and is given a ride by a black woman, Eula Littleton.

Eula is a damaged soul, but a sweet and caring person, and her meeting with Starla is God’s way of watching out for both of them. They are both misunderstood, but in understanding one another, they come to grips with what it means to be a complete human being.

He’d called her stupid, show more but she wasn’t stupid. She was just empty.

What ensues is a series of adventures that cause Starla to see first hand the racial divide in a way that she had never seen it before. As she comes to question the way of life she has always known, she develops a bond with Eula that is touching and scary for both of them.

I couldn’t explain the tangled up way things was making me feel. Mamie said I’d understand when I got older. But the older I was getting, the more confused I got.

As you get older, I guess the assumption is that the prejudices have been well taught and whether you understand better or not, you will at least understand the consequences of not adhering and accept this as just the way things are. Thank God for some brave people who stood up and said “no” despite the consequences, like Miss Cyrena, but also those, like Starla, who stand up for what they know is right, without knowing the possible consequences.

As she comes into contact with the Jim Crow world around her, she meets the worst of the white people and the worst of the black, she sees the fear that each can cause in the other, and she recognizes the basic human injustice that is taken for normal in her own world. But, she also sees the best of both, and that many struggle to be good and decent in a world that does not place enough value on those qualities. It is genius to see this through the eyes of a child, an innocent, not yet taught to hate someone for the color of their skin.

I had to hold on to the mad so the sad didn’t drown me.

I love the characters Susan Crandall has invented for this story, particularly Starla, Eula and Miss Cyrena. As improbable as the story was at times, they all seemed uncannily real and the predicaments strangely believable. The book reminded me of The Secret Life of Bees, another coming-of-age tale that addressed these issues. The mood and subject are the same, the story is quite different. Well worth the read. show less

Maybe 4.5 as some of this felt like a stretch. However, as an audio book, it completely immersed me in the story and the different dialects rang true and added to the authenticity of the tale. Starla Claudell is 9 years old in 1963 and has difficulties of her own growing up in Cayuga Springs, MS -- she lives with her Mamie who is strict, unkind and judgmental, while her Daddy works offshore on an oil rig and her Mama tries to make a name for herself as a singing star in Nashville. Starla has bright red hair and the temper and impulsiveness to (stereotypically) go with it, though most of her outrage is directed at injustice. After she and Mamie have yet another run-in and punishment on the 4th of July, Starla takes advantage of the town show more being busy with the parade and fair to run away toward Nashville to find her Mama. Lulu has kept in touch with Starla on her birthdays and fills her head with tales of stardom and being reunited as a happy family. While leaving town on a back road, Starla is offered a ride by a colored (book's terminology) woman, Eula. She accepts and her odyssey begins. Also in the beater truck is a newborn baby -- who is white. Eula found him on church steps and took him to fill a void in her own life. When they arrive at Eula's tiny home, her husband Wallace hits the roof, realizing the repercussions of picking up two white children. He is not a nice man, to put it mildly, and now all three are in danger. After a domestic blow-out and tragedy, Eula, Starla and baby James take to the road to try to get to Nashville and Starla's mother, who she believes will make everything all right. The relationship that develops between Starla and Eula is beautiful and sweet and Starla quickly learns that her own problems were tiny compared to the difficulties of being black in the South in the midst of the Civil Rights movement. To see her learn and reason things out and become aware of and angry at the injustices around her is touching. Her enlightenment comes with a price -- her own innocence. After a very challenging journey with kindness and cruelty alike, the trio arrives in Nashville, finds Lulu and faces further disillusionment. Meanwhile, Starla's Daddy and even Mamie are beside themselves with worry and the journey would've been in vain if not for all the growth it promotes. Everyone (except Lulu) ends up back in Cayuga Springs to face what they ran from and try to hang on to what they've become. It is a satisfactory ending, if a bit too "neat". But this book really resonated -- it could be the To Kill a Mockingbird for this next century. Echos of The Help here too. Some pretty mature material, but ok for 12 and up. Starla inadvertently sums up the story when she repeats what her Daddy taught her: "Being brave wasn't not being scared. Being brave was keeping going when you were." show less

OMG I loved this book so much!!! I laughed! I was moved! I was angry! I CRIED A LOT!!!

***It was the best book I've read this year!!***
(out of 3 so far! LOL)

I finished the last half of the book this morning - and I'll say it again... I LOVED it!! I flew through it with feelings of tension and suspense.. and laughter.. and love.. lots of tears!! I really cry a lot.. I cry at greeting cards.. that's how I know it's the one I'm supposed to get:) if it makes me cry!)

I adored the relationship between Starla and Eula - it was so moving and wonderful! She had herself quite an adventure didn't she?? I really can't believe she was only almost 10!! She seemed so mature for her age.. I found myself wondering what my daughter would've done in some show more of the situations Starla found herself in. I wanted to share it with her - I would love for her to read it - so we could bond over it together!!

The book centers around Starla - 10 year old red head (like me!!) who runs away from her mean old nasty grandma and meets Eula - a lovely black woman who's got a white infant in tow.. She takes her in and agrees to take her to Nashville to see her dear mommy (who Starla thinks is a famous singer)

It's 1963 so racism is still in full swing and these two ladies have an adventure of the life changing kind! I don't think I've been moved this much by a book in a long time.. If EVER!!!

I definitely want to check out more of this author!! show less