Jewel

Just when you think your own life is hard and unfair, you read a book like this and realize you have it pretty damn good and had better shut up and stop whining.

Every sentence is a work of art and if I jotted down my favorite quotes I'd be re-writing the whole book. It's just that good.

Definitely goes on my Favorites shelf.

Now I need to find the movie starring Farrah Fawcett.

This is quite the saga. We meet Jewel when young and follow her as she marries, has children, persuades her husband to move from Mississippi to California to obtain the best education she can for her Down Syndrome daughter, and all in all become quite a force in her family's life.

Brenda Kay is born in 1943, the youngest of six. Not much was known about Down Syndrome at the time (Brenda Kay was called a "Mongoloid Idiot" and her family encouraged to put her into an institution) but Jewel is the kind of mother we meet at all times. She is determined that her child will have the best life possible for however long she lives, and she is willing to overturn heaven and earth to get it.

I am always interested in how well the author portrays show more someone with a specific condition. I wasn't convinced that Lott had Brenda Kay right. Her manner of speaking is rather telegraphic, lacking in articles. It's true, from what I read, that Down Syndrome people generally speak less complex sentences but their main difficulty is actually physical: the difficulty in making the sounds.

Brenda Kay's attitude is often portrayed as "empty", as if she does not grasp what she is seeing or hearing and so tunes it out. I don't believe this is correct, either, from what I have read. As I understand it, a person with Down Syndrome is not stupid or unobservant but rather just slower to put things together. Of course there is a spectrum of cases that all fall under this label and we can imagine that Brenda Kay is reasonably well-functioning as compared to those who never are able to do basic things.

Ultimately I liked Jewel well enough and appreciated the effort she put into her family and her marriage. It is a story from another time in that sense. show less

I found the book informative on what life in the 30's-50's would have been like with a retarded child, but it was a little tedious to read.

Rich writing and yet in a homey way. Jewel's story reaches from her childhood to old age with all the various things that happen in lives, told in compelling ways and with exquisite attention to detail. The author gives us a profound understanding of the characters, of all of us really.

The last-born child in this family has Down's Syndrome, at a time in the mid-twentieth century when not as much was known about it. The story takes place in both Mississippi and California. The tender moments and gentle humor will make the reader smile, and other moments will incite other emotions and drama. There seems to be a little bit of most of us in this book.

In the backwoods of Mississippi, a land of honeysuckle and grapevine, Jewel and her husband, Leston, are truly blessed; they have five fine children. When Brenda Kay is born in 1943, Jewel gives thanks for a healthy baby, last-born and most welcome. Jewel is the story of how quickly a life can change; how, like lightning, an unforeseen event can set us on a course without reason or compass. In this story of a woman's devotion to the child who is both her burden and God's singular way of smiling on her, Bret Lott has created a mother-daughter relationship of matchless intensity and beauty, and one of the finest, most indomitable heroines in contemporary American fiction.

SPOILER ALERT

When Jewel gives birth to Brenda Kay, her 6th child, she has all the love and hope any parent of a newborn has. But Brenda Kay has Down's syndrome and Jewel's life is then devoted to "fixing" it. In the process she loses her husband (in heart if not in reality) and much of herself. Well-written.

In the early 1940’s in the backwoods of Mississippi, Jewel and her husband are raising five healthy children. But when her last is born, life changes on a dime. Jewel is a super-hero heroine in her devotion to a child who is both her burden and God's extraordinary gift. Bret Lott’s southern style and intimate creation of a mother-daughter relationship that last the tests of time, is truly remarkable. A must read.