Miss Jane

This is a must read book. The writing is exceedingly marvelous and crafted in a way in which there is a steady rhythm of life in rural Mississippi. Miss Jane Chisolm is born with a rare genital birth defect. Unable to have children, sexual intimacy or a "normal" relationship, Jane is born with a keen intuition and very bright mind.

Unfortunately, her incontinence interferes with every day interactions with the outside world, still she finds ways in which to draw people to her. Jane is conceived when her father had too much to drink and her mother is in a drugged state of laudinum use. Long past the age of joy in having children, her mother's despondency grows as she perceives the child as a burden. Her father loves her, but cannot show more express this. Her sister both loves her yet perceives her as a stone around her neck.

The small-town doctor becomes her friend and mentor and the beauty of their relationship is woven throughout the story. Understanding the incredible personhood of Jane, Dr. Thompson grows to appreciate the exquisite beauty of Jane's internal world wherein she fears very little.

As she grows, she exhibits a keen sense of nature, both of growing, living things found in the wood, and the internal personality traits of people which render them kind and sensitive and then bitter and moody.

This is writing at its best! show less

Miss Jane, based on the author’s great-aunt, is born in the early 20th century in rural Mississippi. She has a congenital defect that leaves her incontinent, as well as unable to have sexual relations or bear children. Life is tough on the farm; her father is an alcoholic, her mother deeply unhappy, and her sister can’t get away fast enough.

Jane is a remarkable girl and woman, and how she finds a life of meaning and worth despite her loneliness and affliction is a joy to read. Her attempts to attend school despite her condition, and her brush with young love are particularly poignant. The friendship she has with her doctor, who becomes like a father to her, is touching. I also enjoyed the medical aspect of the story as her doctor show more searches for a surgical cure to her condition.

I don’t want to give any of the plot away but this is storytelling at it’s finest. I don’t like overly descriptive books, but the prose the author uses to describe rural life, nature, and the inner life of Jane is simply beautiful. Highly recommended. show less

First off, let me say that there is a kind of old-fashioned sweetness about this book and its title character that makes it a pure pleasure to read, and Brad Watson obviously knows his rural Mississippi setting of the early 20th century and uses it to great advantage. That said, the subject matter - the unavoidable central focus of the story - is sometimes difficult to read about. Because Jane Chisolm, born at home in 1915, was marked by a rare birth defect which would have a profound effect on her life. Her condition is finally given a name in a pamphlet given to her at age sixteen by the doctor who delivered her.

"She sat down on her bed, set down the pamphlet, looked again at the drawing. Read the words she'd never seen or heard show more before printed there, defining her: 'Urogenital sinus anomaly. Persistent cloaca.' They made no sense."

To explain: a urogenital sinus anomaly is a defect in which the urethra and vagina both open into a common channel. A persistent cloaca is a disorder whereby the rectum, vagina, and urinary tract meet and fuse, creating a cloaca, a single common channel. And in Jane's particular case the condition was exacerbated by a lack of sphincter control. Simply put, she had no control over her basest bodily functions, and was forced to wear a kind of diaper her whole life.

And yet .. and yet. MISS JANE is an admirable and compelling character, because in all other ways she is a normal little girl, who matures into an attractive young woman with a normal sexual curiosity, urges, feelings and emotions. Which makes it doubly sad for her to finally be able to put words to her chronic problem just as she is falling in love with a boy from a neighboring farm. But she knows it will only end in disappointment. And it does.

But Jane is not the only compelling character here. Watson has filled his narrative with a cast of interesting and well-developed characters. First there is Ed Thompson, the caring country doctor who delivered Jane, who takes her case to heart, corresponding with specialists in Baltimore and Memphis, keeping her parents informed, and becoming a personal friend to the Chisolms, and to Jane especially. And the doctor keeps a flock of peafowl on his place, a colorful touch which brought to mind another southern writer, Flannery O'Connor. And of course Jane's parents are also integral and important figures in her story. Her father, a successful farmer who supervises his own crops and animals, as well as a couple of tenant farmer families, also maintains a still and, when the Great Depression hits, becomes his own best customer of its product. Although a man of few words, Chisolm obviously loves his damaged daughter deeply. It shows in the way he takes her fishing, indulges her love of dogs, and teaches her to mind the store he keeps for his tenants. And, perhaps most of all, in the life insurance policy he takes out with Jane as beneficiary. Jane's mother, Ida, is more of a mystery, bitter and withdrawn after Jane's birth, she leaves much of Jane's raising to her older daughter, Grace, who becomes a calculating and colorful character in her own right as the story progresses.

Jane's story covers a good part of the twentieth century - thru wars and flu epidemics, prohibition and brothels, the Depression and more. Jane moves from the farm to the city and back again, the important people in her life grow old and disappear or die, but Jane perseveres, living her quiet life. Watson (who based the character of Jane on a great-aunt) effectively portrays the life of a woman who lived bravely and productively despite her physical problems and limitations, a woman who came to appreciate the rhythms and cycles of nature and the simple pleasures of gardening and a solitary life.

The very 'quietness' and stoicism of Jane's story brought to mind another favorite book of mine: STONER, John Williams's quiet novel of the long and lonely life of a farm boy turned college professor.

In the end, MISS JANE is a kind of love story. All kinds of love are represented. There is Jane's first love for Elijah Key, one which was never to be, but she never forgot it. There is the bond between Jane and her father. And there is that life-long affection between Jane and her doctor, a kind and lonely man. And there is, finally, that 'sweetness' I mentioned here at the outset. Which results, I think, from the fact that writing MISS JANE was a labor of love for Watson. A tribute to the quiet fortitude of a woman alone. I enjoyed this book so very much. Highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

Jane Chisolm is born with a birth defect that leaves her incontinent and likely unable to bear children. This is the early 20th c. in rural Mississippi and nothing can be done to fix it. As a result, she is unable to live a normal life. Her one attempt at school ends in humiliation and marriage is out of the question. Yet, despite this, Jane leads a very fulfilling and mostly happy life.

Miss Jane is written by author Brad Watson who based the character of Jane on his aunt. The story covers her life from her birth and is a tender and poignant portrayal of a woman, who by all accounts and based on the mores of the time, had every reason to be bitter but who is able to rise above her physical limitations. Although hers is mostly a solitary show more life, she finds joy in small things, nature walks, a country dance, the company of her doctor who wants, more than anything, to find someone who can fix her problem. Interestingly, her calm acceptance of her limits is contrasted with her sister who, despite being able to lead a normal life, refuses to accept what was perceived as the acceptable role for a woman at the time.

Miss Jane is a story about how physical disabilities can both limit a life and free it from the confines of society. This is a story that could easily cross the line from touching to maudlin but perhaps because it is based on his own family, Watson never crosses the line. As a result, Miss Jane is touching without being manipulative, quiet without becoming boring, a deceptively simple tale about a character who could easily elicit pity from the reader but instead demands their empathy.

Thanks to Edelweiss and W.W. Norton & Co. for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review show less

This was a rare 5-star read for me. Its unlikely topic - the life of a woman with a urological abnormality - will not appeal to everyone, but the author's graceful prose, carefully drawn characters, and beautiful elucidation of southern country life make this a book that will linger in my memory for a long time.

A baby is born on a Mississippi farm in the beginning years of the 20th century. Dr. Thompson immediately knows something is drastically wrong but the impairment isn't immediately defined, making the reader wonder just what makes Miss Jane Chisolm different from other girls…'within but apart from the world.' The breathtaking first chapter introduces us to a young girl who is happy with herself and unafraid of most things, including her own strangeness. Her parents didn't plan to have another child at their advanced ages but her father's love of his apple brandy and her mother's addiction to laudanum overcame their resistance. They both felt guilty because of her affliction. Jane lacked the freedom of other girls because of her show more incontinence yet she discovered the freedom of roaming the wooded areas on their property and spent most of her time exploring the natural world.

As Miss Jane grows she develops a quiet courage to accept her genital defect that is so gently explained by her one true friend, Dr. Ed Thompson, who tells her at a very young age that she wasn't finished forming her private parts when she was born so she has little control over her bodily functions. She longs to go to school and learns to fast so she won't lose control of her bowels and embarrass herself. She is very bright and treasures a book by Flaubert that Dr. T gives to her. He seems to know the things to say and do to help make up for her parents melancholy lack of parenting.

There are so many wonderful things about this book The compassionate way her doctor explains her anomoly and answers her curious questions about sex help her understand that she will never marry or have a normal relationship with a man. Instead of becoming bitter, she quietly accepts her situation and learns to take life as it is. Such a wonderful lesson told with simplicity and always giving Miss Jane the dignity she deserves. This book touched my heart and knowing it was based on the author's Great Aunt Jane made it even more meaningful. It has my vote for The National Book Award. show less

Think of all the difficulties you have encountered in your life. Remember the heartbreak of first love, the nervousness of meeting another human being you wanted to love and be loved by, and the doubts you entertained about whether your love, freely given, would be returned. Imagine how much harder it would be to find your place in the world if, along with all the normal difficulties life throws at us, you had a physical defect that made it impossible for you to have sex or bear children, and that left you incontinent as well. This is the life of Miss Jane Chisolm. Sounds rather bleak out of context, but that is because you don’t know Miss Jane.

This is a soft, simple book. The story is very straight forward, and yet there is a show more strength at the core of Jane that keeps you coloring with bright colors instead of gloomy ones. It isn’t only Jane’s story that resonates, it is also her sister, her parents and the doctor who brought her into this world and then held her hand as she journeyed through it. Dr. Thompson is a hero, in my eyes, and one of my favorite characters in a long, long while. Jane is intelligent, positive and stalwart; the kind of person you admire and strive to emulate.

Jane lives on a farm in Mississippi, and Watson’s descriptions of her life there and the nature around her are remarkable.

She loved most being in the woods, with the diffused light and the quiet there. Such a stillness, with just the pecking of ground birds and forest animals, the flutter of wings, the occasional skittering of squirrels playing up and down a tree. The silent, imperceptible unfurling of spring buds into blossom. She felt comfortable there. As if nothing could be unnatural in that place, within but apart from the world.

This seems to me to be the heart of Jane herself, “within but apart from the world”, and in just as many positive ways as negative ones. It is a book about perception. How people see Jane, how she sees herself, and how they all see each other.

Jane had never seen the look in her eyes she saw then. She almost looked empty. And for the first time Jane could remember, she saw her mother as a woman whom life had made not just hard but also exhausted and plain. Older-looking than her years.

Just as Jane came to see her mother differently, I came to see her differently as well. The weight of her life began to dawn upon me and soften my view of her behavior.

The creek would be up in such a rain, if it didn’t dump all of itself into the valley where the people of the town sat awaiting it, powerless like all of God’s children on this earth, who needed such reminding now and then that they were mortal. Ida Chisolm didn’t.

Yes, this is a quiet, flowing sort of story, not action packed or exciting, thoughtful and perhaps even brooding at times, but it offers characters you will never forget and a circumstance that would seem to break a person, but doesn’t. And therein is the magic, for if Jane is unbroken by who she is, why should any of us be broken by the things we cannot control. If the heart is strong, the spirit can win.

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