Book Parallels: "The Bottoms" and "To Kill a Mockingbird"

I've spent the past two days home sick with some really horrific cold/flu/high fever/horrible headache/body ache/cough/generally feeling like crap kind of thing.  

I hate being sick for obvious reasons, and I hate missing work for reasons too numerous to name.  However, one of the few positives is that I was pretty much confined to bed (I'm not a "lay in bed" kind of person ... when I choose bed over lounging on the couch or in the recliner, it means I really feel dreadful), which meant, of course, that I got to read.

Henry lent me The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale several weeks ago, and I'm ashamed to say that it's taken me this long to read, even though I liked it from the start.  Once I got a chance to dig in, though, despite it being in and out of fever-riddled sleep and Nyquil daze, I couldn't put it down. 

Especially when I started noting parallels to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, probably my most beloved book ever.  I was in English teacher ecstasy throughout, I tell you :-)

I know that To Kill a Mockingbird is both well-loved and widely read.  Lansdale, who is considered more of a "cult favorite", achieves masterpiece status in my mind with his very similar offering.

Both books ...

*  Explore the strong bonds of love that exist between siblings.

Interestingly, The Bottoms is narrated by "big brother" Harry Collins, who feels deeply the tremendous responsibility of keeping his younger sister, Tom (short for Thomasina) safe.  Makes me wonder how different Mockingbird would be if told from Jem's point of view ...

*  Take a contemporary reader into a world where blacks are treated horribly.

Perhaps because of Scout's tender age, the specific horrors of life as an African-American in Maycomb, Alabama aren't expounded upon in detail.

Lansdale pulls no punches in the small east Texas town portrayed in The Bottoms, with the KKK figuring prominently into the story, white doctors refusing to perform an autopsy on a brutally murdered black woman, tarring and feathering, and the lynching of an old black man who was very briefly considered a witness in the murder of a white woman.    

*  Force the protagonist (well, brother/sister team of protagonists, I suppose) to realize that the person-cum-monster that colored the nightmares of childhood are both more and less than what they appear to be on the surface (or in local legend)

Call him Boo Radley or the Goat Man, but this lesson is one that stays with a reader.

There are lots of other connections between the two (too many to list, actually, without being a total spoiler), but I just had to share how cool I found it that another book was able to, in some small way, address the very tough themes and issues brought up in what's arguably my favorite book ever.

I'd never seen it done before on such a grand scale, and I'd never really heard much of Joe R. Lansdale before Henry introduced me.

I figured it was  my responsibility to pay it forward.

Struggling for Sibling Status

Believe it or not, my daughters almost never fight. Their one bone of contention, interestingly enough, involves my mother--their beloved Mimi. They had a real blow-out today ...

My cousin asked Belle to be the flower girl in her wedding. Naturally, Belle was thrilled at the prospect to be part of the attention and wear a pretty dress. She's a little fuzzy on what exactly a flower girl does, but she's stoked.

This morning, my mother called and wanted to know if Belle and I wanted to go to the bridal store in Nashua with my aunt and cousins. I had an eye doctor appointment at eleven (finally got my new contacts--woohoo!), a softball game to attend at one (several of my students were playing), and Addie had a haircut scheduled for three, so I was pretty tapped out for the day. My mother pointed out that it seemed that, while I might be busy, Belle seemed to be available. Long story short, Mimi took Belle for the day.

After Addie's haircut, we drove up the New Hampshire coastline, taking the scenic route to my mother's house. She and Belle were outside playing catch with Mollie when we got there, and they were very excited to share the details of the day. We had dinner (spaghetti and salad, mmmmmm :-)), and as we finished eating, I realized something interesting.

Addie was ripped. I mean, she was furious.

Obviously, she wasn't furious so much as she was jealous. She was the first granchild, and my parents spent a more active role in her early upbringing than most grandparents do. Therefore, Addie is used to being the light of Mimi's life. The only light of Mimi's life. My mother has always been very, very careful to make sure that Addie doesn't feel usurped from her position as princess-on-a-pedestal as far as her grandmother is concerned. However, today was unquestionably Belle's day. As far as I'm concerned, she deserved it--Addie has owned her grandmother's adoration and special moments with Mimi for fourteen years, while Belle has never had the same kind of experience. She was thrilled at the chance, thrilled at the day, thrilled at the flower girl prospect, and thrilled to be "Mimi's Girl" for a day.

I think what sent Addie over the edge was when Belle announced to her grandmother, "Mimi, I think I'm going to come live with you." Mimi said this was absolutely fine with her, and Addie's eyes just about popped out of her head. I guess Addie might as well get used to it, though--in addition to my girls, Mimi is now grandmother to Adam's little Pete (unspeakably cute, I might add) and Mary and Jon's baby is due any day now.

Do you think most parents and/or grandparents have "favorites"? Is it possible for this title to be usurped? Do all kids feel like they are the favorites sometimes (I've said to both Belle and Addie when told that I like the other one better that they are both my favorite, depending on the day)? How devastating is it for a child to realize that they are not the one and only? Is "favorite status" really all it's cracked up to be, or is it a double-edged sword? Given the interesting triangle between Mimi, Addie, and Belle, who do you feel most badly for, if any of them?

It's not a big deal, really. I mean, everyone ended up happy, and Mimi had a great day with Belle and a great dinner with all of us. It just got me thinking about some of this stuff ...

That Blessed Title "Aunt"

On April 8, I became an aunt for the first time when Pete, the son of my brother Adam and his fiancee Colleen, was born.

Being an aunt is a feeling like none I've ever before encountered. I knew on the surface, of course, that both Adam and Mary had a very special relationship with Addie from the very beginning, and both Mary (and, of course, Jon, who once passed out in a closet while playing hide and seek with Addie) and Adam (and, of course, Colleen, who truly gets little girls) have been amazing positive influences with Belle as well.

My mother once told me that being a grandmother is the perfect reward for raising children. Basically, you get to do all the good stuff, always offer kids a fun alternative to their parents ... and then give them back at the end of the day. It's kind of a win/win situation, as she described it, and I think I'm starting to realize that Mary, Adam, Jon, and Colleen have probably felt something like that with my girls as well (well, I hope they have ... I know both Belle and Addie think their collective aunts and uncles pretty much hung the moon).

There has been some bad blood in the past few months between Adam and Colleen and me and Pythagorus. The long story has more stupid immature drama than anything that comes up with my ninth graders, so I'll just say that it's based out of a misunderstanding and lack of communication, that we are as guilty of perpetuating it as they are, that hurt feelings were never intended on either side, and that it's hard for some people (and I put myself firmly in this category) to let go when they are upset.

I think that's why, to me, Pete is even more of a miracle. We went to visit them at the hospital yesterday, and the beautiful and amazing Pete was almost like an ice breaker to the awkward silence that has characterized my relationship with my brother lately. There were tears in my eyes the whole time we were there, in large part because I was just so overwhelmed with love for Pete, but also because I was just so overwhelmed with love for Adam and Colleen, too. Adam has had a really rough several years, and I have never in my life seen him as happy as when he was holding his son. And Colleen? She was a trooper, getting stuff herself instead of asking someone else to do so (she had a c-section) ... and she also had tears in her eyes when she looked at Adam holding Pete. I loved her anyway, but that made her truly my sister-in-law, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, I'm an aunt now, and I cannot wait to spoil Pete rotten and take him to fun places and hopefully be as wonderful to my nephew as my Mary, Adam, Jon, and Colleen have always been to Belle and Addie.

Speaking of Addie, here's a pic of her holding her new cousin (and I'm putting it here only because you can't really see her face ... otherwise, she'd probably kill me):


And here's me and Belle with the precious Pete:


Whoever makes the calls in this crazy world, thank you for this amazing treasure. And while I'm at it, thank you for Adam and Mary (who will be making me an aunt again in just a matter of weeks--quite a spring for my family :-) ) as well. I would never have survived my childhood without either of them.