There are many discussions of "Livvie" online, especially of its similarities to the Greek myth Persephone. I was not one of those kids that read a lot of myths or fairy tales or even bible stories so I tend to read stories in isolation. And I was not an English major (history) so even there I am lacking context. But this was a great story no matter what your background and it is easily found as a PDF online. So too many articles about it. I am not sure a white woman could write a story like this now with cultural appropriation accusations. But Welty tells it with extreme sympathy and familiarity with Black life. At least to this reader.
Livvie is a very young black girl in Mississippi when Solomon, a very old man, kidnaps her and takes her home to his house along the Natchez Trace, which is hidden behind bottle trees. He is kind to her in every way but will not allow her to leave nor does he allow anyone to come near her. After a period of time, Solomon has grown even older and lies in bed all day. Livvie is still young and tends to him.
Two events disturb this isolation
A woman, with the great name of Miss Baby Marie comes to the house and almost magically gets inside where she tried to sell Livvie cosmetics. (This is surely a reference to Madame C.J. Walker. She was the first black female millionaire based on her cosmetic lines). Livvie loves the lipstick (which smells like chinaberries) but has no money to pay for it and won't ask Solomon for any. So Miss Baby Marie leaves, saying she will never come back.
The second interloper is a young man (Cash) dressed in pink and green who she finds on the Trace. He follows her home and soon Solomon has ceded Livvie to him and dies, giving her his gold watch. Cash carries her off.
This is a beautifully realized story. The descriptions of the Trace and their house there are terrific. So two the four Black characters are all drawn with loving care.
10 comments:
I loved it when Willa Fitzgerald gave her name as "Eudora Welty" in that check-in scene at the hotel in REACHER.
I was just going to say that, George! Hilarious. Then when Reacher talks about New York Yankees' second basemen, she calls him Officer (Willie) Randolph.
I finished the Ed Hoch collection. The final story was a very nasty one, "Homecoming." It's the 25th Anniversary of the 1944 class at a New England (minor, clearly) prep school and a handful of the alumni show up, nearly half the class having died in World War II. Three former friends meet up with the fat kid they bullied, who is the only one of them who has made a big success of his life. They fall into old patterns of behavior, with a chilling end. Well done.
Now reading, with much enjoyment, two more collections: the Peter Lovesey, READER, I BURIED THEM, and William Link & Richard Levinson's SHOOTING SCRIPT and OTHER MYSTERIES. Of course, Levinson & Link are most remembered as the creators and writers of the COLUMBO series (with Columbo stories collected in a previous Crippen & Landru collection). But this goes back to their first published story, as college students of 20 (and it is quite good!). In fact, more than half of the 18 stories were published in 1959, when they were 25 and just starting out in live television, with most of the rest coming within the next few years. They are good mysteries and very well written. "Seddenly, There Was Mrs. Kemp" is a blackmail tale with a great surprise ending. "Child's Play" really brought back to me the feeling of being a 10 year old away in summer camp. Everything about the setting - the cabins, the boys, the activities, the dining hall - rings absolutely true. I'd say there is no doubt one or both of them went to summer camp.
cultural appropriation accusations Be damned. Which Reacher book was that in?
It is in the television adaptation REACHER, on Amazon Prime. I read the book so long ago I wouldn't remember, but I doubt it was in the book.
Baseball or even Welty might not be in the forefront of Briton "Lee Child"'s cultural reference file.
It is difficult to write about anyone well, and one does need to be not too presumptuous about the details.
I'm in in first form, no thanks to the laptop I'm using. Thanks!
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2022/02/ssw-eleanor-sullivan-editor-alfred.html
My grandfather would occasionally call me "Natchez Trace" when I was younger.
I have a book of the complete stories of Eudora Welty, I will have to find that one and try it. I had read two or three of her early stories in that book and did not like them that well.
Todd, Lee Child lived in NYC for a bunch of years (he probably still does, at least part time) and has been known to write about the Yankees, so baseball is probably on his radar.
Ah. Any US sojourns for his brother, "Lee Child" the New?
Todd, I haven't read any of the "new" Jack Reachers. Lee Child weaves baseball and the Blues into many of his Jack Reacher books.
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