#843 The Strange and Tragic Ballad of Mabel Pearsall

#843 The Strange and Tragic Ballad of Mabel Pearsall

The title says it all, this tale is both strange and tragic. Mabel teaches seventh grade but has been getting complaints lately. Her behavior has been described as “peculiar.” Her principal notices it, her family notices it and her church notices it. She can’t get out of her own head.

The cause of her distress is the affair she believes is going on between her husband and another woman, a woman who drops off her child every week to have Mabel babysit. She believes this child is her husbands. So she lets the thought fester, and foment and drive herself to tragic ends.

Mabel is clearly going through a nervous breakdown. The normal grind of motherhood has become tedious and without the level of support or personal respect she needs, she lets little things turn big. Whether or not her husband is having an affair is not clear, not to the reader. We have sympathy for Mabel, maybe right up until the end, but that doesn’t mean we don’t see her going a bit crazy.

Rating: 8-7-8-8 Total= 31

#758 The Foundations of the Earth- Randall Kenan

#758 The Foundations of the Earth- Randall Kenan

Maggie was a seventy-year old matriarch of a southern sharecropping family. The joy of her life was her grandson Edward who left some years ago to go to college in Boston. He never came back. She is left lonely and confused.

“Her [spiritual weight] born not of the sun but of profound loneliness, an oppressive emptiness, a stabbing guilt. Sometimes she even wished she was a drinking woman.”

Some years later, Edward dies and she learns that he had been living with another man, afraid to tell her of his homosexuality. God comes to her in a dream and tells her to avoid judgment and hate. She invites her son’s lover—a white man—to come south to visit her and tell her about the real Edward. She is open, albeit confronted with her upbringing, and finds peace in the life she sees. After all, she knows discrimination, and she knows respect.

Notable Passage: “Healing sleep, soothing sleep, sleep to make the world go away, sleep like death. Her mama had told her that sleep was the best medicine God ever made. When things get too rough—go to bed.”

Rating: 8-8-8-8 Total= 32

#730 Things of This World- Randall Kenan

#730 Things of This World- Randall Kenan

Mr. John Edgar Stokes was an old man that lived by himself with his dog. When a stranger passed out in his yard he thought it was a Mexican migrant worker. It turns out, it was an Asian man who says he is visiting someone, although he doesn’t say who. He is weak and needs help. Stokes, although a little leery at first is happy to help this man. He likes the company, and while he has a strange feeling about this man called Chi, he feeds him and houses him and they become friends.

The sons of a rich town leader kills Stokes’ dog. He storms over to their store and shoots their dog in retribution, and eye for an eye. The rules for a poor back man are different around here, so only Stokes is facing any legal trouble. He is taken by the police and awaits trial. The case becomes big news and he becomes the center of the cause. 

He finds pride and purpose just as his life is ending. He feels that if he dies now, he will be happy and content. He will be judged one way or another, so he chooses who will judge him before he dies.

Rating: 7-7-8-7 Total= 29

#702 Clarence and the Dead- Randall Kenan

#702 Clarence and the Dead- Randall Kenan

Clarence and the Dead is the first story in the acclaimed Randall Kenan collection, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. I imagine, judging by those titles, there will be some dead people involved in this book. This is my first time reading Kenan.

When Clarence was born, two things happened: his mother immediately died, and Wilma Jones’ prize hog began to speak, at least according to her. When Clarence died five years later, the town would be relived to be done with a very confusing time in their history, and Wilma Jones’ hog would stop talking the very same day—again, according to her. 

It took Clarence three whole years before he spoke his first word. From then on out, he often spoke the words of the dead. They told him things that were happening to their loved ones, and things that were going to happen to their loved ones. He knew when people were going to die, and who was planning to hurt whom. This clairvoyance spooked most of the town, and attracted some undesirable characters seeking the child’s wisdom.

I’m not sure what to make of this story. On one level it’s entertaining, but also a bit scattered and—I don’t know—some of it just didn’t work for me. Especially the talking pig we don’t ever see talking. Something obviously slipped past me, I’m not sure what a talking pig is supposed to add to the story. A kid with ESP by itself would have been essentially the same story. Maybe I’ll give it another read, because I’m definitely missing something. 

Rating: 7-6-5-5 Total= 23