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Critic's Corner
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My mother used to tell me stories about her childhood in Oklahoma, of the good times and the bad. Stories I'd almost forgotten until I read Carol Johnson's slice-of-life novel -- "Everlasting." "Everlasting" is Lavada June Ross's story. Vada most admired the wild field flowers her Papa called Everlasting. "She loved the notion that some of them would return year after year, forever and ever even when she did not." If only Papa had saved her as nature saved the flowers -- he didn't. Vada's Mama engineered her 14-year-old daughter's marriage to Harmon Priddy, a man 20 years older than Vada, and Papa didn't raise a hand to save her. Harmon was a widower with three young children. A man taller than Vada's Papa and even Brother Pappan over at the Cottonwood Freewill Baptist church. He had black eyes, scary as thunderbolts, and hands as big as a skillet. He lived over near Kellyville, a sharecropper, with a dirt poor cabin, but he did play the fiddle. Vada felt that to be in the man's favor. On her wedding day, Vada vowed to herself all the ways she'd never be like her mean- spirited mother. She'd never disrespect her husband, or tell him he's not fit for nothing. And if she ever had any young'uns, she wouldn't beat them, or tell them they' re ugly, or marry them off before they're grown, to total strangers. Living in the falling down shack Priddy called home, with his unruly children, Vada often felt like an ant under the boot of the world. Birthing four children of her own before she turned 20 was hard enough, but add on picking cotton until her fingers bled and her back almost broke under the weight of the cotton sack, and trying to learn to cook, tend babies, and please an impatient husband, and you'll get an understanding into Vada's existence. Over the years, in spite of the adversities Vada encountered, she managed to forge a good life. A life that offered its share of happiness and fulfillment which enabled her to grow into a strong Oklahoma woman at peace with her family and friends. Rilla Askew, a two-time winner of the Oklahoma Book Award, says "Everlasting is a warmhearted story with its authenticity of language, era and place." Askew is right as she adds, "Vada Priddy is a veritable mid-twentieth century Everywoman, and Carol Johnson has drawn her with precision, lyricism, a faultless ear for the vernacular -- and a great big helping of Oklahoma wit." Bravo to Johnson whose beautiful novel reminds us that it's not just the wild flowers that are everlasting. "It's us, too . . . No matter what it's called, whether it's the soul or spirit, the work of God or some other mysterious power, a part of us lives on, from everlasting to everlasting," and deep down, people are genuinely good. Copyright 2006, Patricia Ann Jones Save Up to 30% on this book at Amazon.com Jones is a published writer and book reviewer for Tulsa World newspaper. To comment on this review you may email pattij777@aol.com |
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EVERLASTING
