Up From the Blue

I have a book blogger word problem for you all.

Question:

A book blogger reads a book in July while on vacation in beautiful Lake Tahoe. If it takes the blogger four weeks to write a post about the book, what will be the resulting quality of said post?

Answer:

Crap.

What? You thought I was going to do real math? Obviously, you need to go back and read the posts where I complain about math.

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Up From the Blue
Susan Henderson
September 2010
336 pages
Published by Harper Paperbacks

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FTC disclosure: I received an ARC at BBC. EYHO (eat your heart out).

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Library Journal comments:

This first novel from Henderson opens in 1991 as twenty-something Matilda Harris goes into premature labor in her new Washington, DC, apartment. The only person she can think of to call is her father, with whom she hasn’t spoken in three years. The story then turns to eight-year-old Tillie as she and her family relocate to Washington from New Mexico when her father, a weapons system designer, gets a new job at the Pentagon. But Tillie’s mother isn’t in Washington when she arrives. Tillie’s older brother, Phil, isn’t much help, and her father just wants her to be a good soldier and avoid the usual chaos that surrounds her. Tillie longs for the bright colors and dancing and joy she associates with her mother. Instead, she basks in the praise from her teacher and feels an affinity for the one black girl in her class, who comes in on the bus.

Most of this novel is set in the mid 1970s, a time of emerging feminism and desegregation, both of which are issues addressed in this novel. The interesting thing is, though, is that the author frames her story around these issues. Tillie’s mother is obviously one of those frustrated housewives that Betty Friedan wrote about in The Feminine Mystique. And while we observe what happens to Tillie’s mother and her family, I don’t know that the term frustrated housewife even appeared in the book.

The same is true for desegregation. Tillie’s best friend is an outcast, a young black girl who is bussed in from another neighborhood. While Tillie certainly doesn’t understand the undercurrents of the situation, the reader can see people’s reactions and the effects.

I thought the author did a great job of illustrating some of the social issues of the 1970s, without being preachy or bashing the reader over the head to make her point. And I really did enjoy reading this book, even if the edges are a little blurry.