 |
Seven-year-old Cricket is standing on a precipice, though she doesn't know it yet. It's the summer of 1942, and just as the country is waking up to the losses and horrors of World War II, Cricket is struggling to make sense of her first tragedy. Her mom, Makie, heavily pregnant, sends the young girl on her first solo train journey from the San Joaquin Valley, California, to rural Everett, Washington, to stay with her grandparents for the summer. Braving the trip alone is only the first of many times Cricket will have to swallow her fears and put on a grown-up face as she navigates the confusing world of adults.
Cricket reunites with the gang of neighborhood kids with whom she spends every summer. Though she is the youngest of the group, all the children are still innocent, content to build forts in the woods and pick wild strawberries. Even Marvin, the oldest at fourteen, is sweet and very protective of Cricket, defending her valiantly from some nasty town bullies. But when twelve-year-old Mary Frances comes to town to stay with her cousins, she shakes up their insular world. From the first time she pulls out a cigarette, she divides the group, as the younger ones refuse, but the older boys all try out smoking. Cricket decides Mary Frances is a free spirit and is alternately baffled and intrigued by her new adult behaviors.
But the idyllic summer is punctured by disturbing violence, domestic abuse, and rape—all of which the children of Everett witness. Cricket, in particular, gets drawn into the adult world of the police and lawyers who are investigating. Cricket's understanding of these incidents is limited. She often doesn't even have the vocabulary to describe what she witnesses. Her grandfather Thad Bane, a retired lawyer and judge, takes on the case of a controversial defendant, and the family suffers death threats and even injury as a result.
This lyrical and nostalgic tale of times and traditions of the past is often like listening to stories at your Grandmother's knee. There are evocative descriptions of the delicious foods Cricket's grandmother cooks, and the narrative transports sensory details of the beauty of country life. Cricket has especially charming nightly chats with her friend God, to whom she confides all of her secret fears and longings.
Smith's novel is reminiscent in many ways of To Kill A Mockingbird, the great American coming-of-age story that also deals with a young girl's loss of innocence, violent tragedy, and a controversial trial. And like Harper Lee's masterpiece, the narrator of this novel is simultaneously a seven-year-old girl and a grown-up version of herself remembering the events of that fateful summer. A large cast of characters is explored, with chapters devoted to Makie, Mary Frances, and others, providing context and developing the rich characterizations. There are multiple depictions of violence and sexual abuse that are all the more startling for their stark juxtaposition with the folksy, idealized portrait of small-town life in the last century. The author's book will likely appeal to nostalgic older readers and fans of stories of small-town life, such as Our Town or Fried-Green Tomatoes.