Monday, July 18, 2011

My Heart Is Like A Cabbage ~ Jerry Mills


     Below you'll find the beginning of the fourth chapter of Jerry Mills' ongoing serialized novel My Heart Is Like a Cabbage, based on his experience in Sierra Leone.  To read the full chapter--or the full novel--go to "Pages" on the right side of the blog page and click on the novel's title.       - Tony

 
Chapter 4
My stomach was growling the next morning—a little hunger, a little anxiety—as we raced down the highway toward Peninsula Secondary School.  Ron and I had overslept.  Samuel, already dressed in his freshly washed uniform, white shirt and gray shorts, had awakened us, his brow glistening with sweat, his face nearly radiant with anticipation. 
We skipped the ritual of breakfast; I grabbed a banana as we raced out the door.  Ron informed me Clifford was a stickler for punctuality, the lack of which, he deemed, was the reason Africans were not ready to join the council of world citizens.  I was apprehensive, a thousand scenarios of the first day flashing through my head.  My liberal arts degree was small comfort; my only classroom experience had been a stint as an assistant in a Botany lab my senior year at Mizzou.  Stage fright loomed in my fantasies of standing before a class of some thirty students.
The school was located at an intersection about a mile and a half further down the road leading to Bo.  Uniformed students walking along the highway waved at the Jeep as we passed.  They didn’t seem too concerned about the prospect of being late.....  

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Night Walk

          Jerry Davis has sent another installment of his Peace Corps Journal, this time describing an incident where he, Dave Frame, and Anne Burdick were stranded on a Sierra Leonean road at night.  Below is the opening paragraph; to read the full entry, go to “Pages” on the right and click on “Jerry Davis’s Journal.  Then scroll down the page until you see the bold heading "December, 1962:  Night Walk with Dave Frame and Anne Burdick."        ~ Tony
* * * *
Night Walk with Dave Frame and Anne Burdick, December, 1962
 An American, working in Bo, borrowed a car and talked Anne Burdick, Dave Frame, and myself into going to Freetown with him for the weekend. The capital city was 165 miles from Bo.  We left Bo with high hopes and expectations.  The beaches in Freetown were beautiful and the soothing salt water reminded me of Old Orchard Beach in Maine. 

Monday, July 4, 2011

Novels, We Have Novels, We Have Lots and Lots of Novels

This week sees another installment of Jerry Mills’ serial novel My Heart Is Like a Cabbage.  I really responded to this chapter; let Jerry know what you think (ge5mil@cox.net).  Jerry has mentioned that he is having some trouble working out the kinks in e-mail service up in Nutrioso, where their cabin was singed by the mammoth Wallow fire--the largest in Arizona history, said to be 95% contained today after burning 840 square miles. So if he’s slow in getting back to you, consider the circumstances.
Three weeks ago Jack Johnston sent a note that he also wrote a novel about his Peace Corps experience!  He said, “ For what it's worth, I also wrote a novel (much shorter -- 170 pages) dealing with the same material, which was used as a Master's Thesis in Fine Arts at the University of Maryland 40 or so years ago .  I'm currently investigating having the text scanned and made available as a computer file to anyone in our crew who fancies a copy.  My problem at the moment is finding someone who can scan the text and produce an editable file instead of a PDF (and doesn't charge an arm and a leg).  I should have something in hand well before reunion time.”  So we have another novel to look forward to.  Great!
And I should mention that Hap Cawood also has published a fine novel called The Miler.  I enjoyed it immensely, partially because so much of it paralleled my own experiences growing up in a part of West Virginia very much like Hap’s terrain in Kentucky--including being a runner, dealing with friends and elders unlike myself in many ways, dating a 9th grader when I was entering my senior year of high school--and partially because of the quality of the work itself.  Although most of the novel is told from the standpoint of Jeremiah James--the bulk of it during his high school years--Hap occasionally switches the narration to Jeremiah’s younger sister, Sarah.  Both of them are perceptive and thoughtful, yet believable and likable, and the differences between what the two are aware of often creates a gentle humor.  
There are numerous surprises in Hap’s book, experiments and hidden depth that all seem to work, and belie the familiar surface of a story about growing up in the mountains.  It is at once a coming-of-age story, a sports story (with numerous races chronicled as JJ becomes a one-man track team for Harlan), a portrait of a place and a time, and something more: a sensitive exploration of an interior life in all these contexts.  Highly recommended.
Now that three of you have come out, who else is out there?!                                                     
   
                                                          - Tony