Going on Nine
Catherine Underhill Fitzpatrick, 2014
Familius
256 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781939629128
Summary
At the dawn of a heat-soaked St. Louis summer, in a suburban neighborhood no different from any other, eight-year-old Grace Mitchell embarks on a doomed quest, searching for what is right under her nose: A better family than her own wonderful family.
As the summer of 1956 stretches, long and languid, before them, Grace and her pals on Thistle Way are soon virtually feral, roaming unfettered from apricot dawn to lavender dusk. They entertain themselves by popping tar bubbles in the street, playing tag across eight back yards, plundering forts in the verges and catching tadpoles in creeks, by swiping Popsicle from freezers humming in musty darkness and snatching root beer barrels from open boxes up at Snyder’s Five and Dime. It’s the suburbs, and the Fifties.
The mothers and fathers of Thistle Way do not hover, counting their children’s every breath. One day in early June, Grace swipes her mother’s diamond engagement ring, snatches her sister’s new white nightgown, and runs outside to play bride. In short order, she loses the ring, rips the gown, correctly assumes it’s about to rain daggers, and marches off to find somewhere else to live, somewhere better. When her parents, in their wisdom, suggest Grace test the waters by spending two nights with each family on Thistle Way, the child bolts upstairs to pack her red plaid suitcase.
Going on Nine is the story of an eight-year-old girl’s serial encampments as she samples life within the households of a dozen friends and neighbors―each at a turning point. On her journeys, Grace travels on foot and on horseback, rides shotgun in a new Plymouth Belvedere and hunkers in the back of a rattletrap vegetable truck. One day she crawls into a crumbling tunnel. Following that, she treks out to a fire in the hinterlands, explores the closet of a prom queen, keeps vigil in the bedroom of a molestation victim, tames a killer dog, and holds an old woman’s life in the palm of her hand. With good reason, Grace remembers that long-ago summer for the rest of her life, and looks back on it with wise perspective as a mature woman decades later.
At summer’s end, the Mitchell family moves to a new neighborhood. With her days on Thistle Way drawing to a close, Grace is devastated. But she’s learned a timeless truth: Families and friendships are nuanced in ways imperceptible to their neighbors, judging at a distance.
Written for adult readers, each chapter of Going on Nine is a story unto itself, told in the unique, real-time voice of eight-year-old Grace and, alternately, in wise hindsight by the adult Grace today.
Peppered with humor, leavened with adversity, nostalgic but not cloying, Going on Nine explores universal themes of childhood longing and parental love, and shows the 1950s for what they truly were―an era as fabled and flawed as any other.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—St. Louis, Missouri, USA
• Education—B.J., University of Missouri, Columbia
• Currently—lives in Chicago, Illinois, and Bonita Springs, Florida
Catherine Underhill Fitzpatrick was born, reared, and schooled during the 1950s and 1960s in and around St. Louis, the second of six kids in her family. After graduating from the University Of Missouri-Columbia School Of Journalism, she worked on the features staff of metro daily newspapers in Hannibal, St. Louis, and Milwaukee.
In September of 2001, Catherine was in Manhattan to cover New York Fashion Week. At first word of the terrorist attacks, she rushed to Ground Zero and filed award-winning eyewitness dispatches from the chaotic streets near the tragedy. Today, portions of her reportage are memorialized in Washington D.C.’s Newseum and in the archives of the Women in Journalism Collection of the State Historical Society of Missouri.
Catherine’s articles, stories, and essays have appeared in five anthologies, in online literary reviews, and in national magazines. The author of two published novels, she is a board member of the Chicago-based TallGrass Writers Guild. She and her husband have two daughters and last summer welcomed into the breathing world their first granddaughter, Lillian. Catherine and Dennis divide their time between rush hour traffic in Chicago and fairway bunkers in Bonita Springs, FL. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow Catherine on Facebook.
Book Reviews
A child swipes her mother's ring, snatches her sister's nightgown, and runs outside to play "bride." She soon loses the ring, rips the gown, correctly assumes it's about to rain daggers, and runs away from home to find a better; family. What happens next is a summer-long journey in which Grace Mitchell rides shotgun in a Plymouth Belvedere, and hunkers in the back of a rattletrap vegetable truck, crawls into a crumbling tunnel, dresses up with a prom queen, and keeps vigil in the bedroom of a molestation victim. There are reasons why Grace remembers the summer of 1956 for the rest of her life. Through the eyes of a child and the mature woman she becomes, we make the journey with Grace and discover important truths about life, equality, family, and the soul-searching quest for belonging.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Going on Nine....is set in Underhill Fitzpatrick's native St. Louis. Alternating between the childhood voice of 8-year-old heroine Grace Mitchell and the character's adult self, it follows Grace through an idyllic summer in 1956.... The theme that runs through the whole book and is absolutely from my childhood is how unstructured and unfettered we were as children in the '50s," Underhill Fitzpatrick said. Through the novel, Grace finds humor and danger as she lives with other families in an effort to escape her own. "Grace learns families and friendships are nuanced," Underhill Fitzpatrick said. "They were likelier than not to be misjudged by those observing them at a distance."
Ft. Myers FL News Press
[B]eautifully-written tale of a young girl coming of age in the summer of 1956. Reminiscent of Ray Bradbury’s classic, Dandelion Wine, Going on Nine takes readers on an unforgettable journey back in time to an era of drinking from garden hoses, catching fireflies in jars, licking cake batter from wooden spoons and enjoying the unbridled freedom to explore the world and all its wonders.”
Island Reporter (Florida)
Fitzpatrick… attended summer camp regularly as a child and as a teen in Missouri, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, culminating her summer camp career as a counselor, where she taught archery. Later, she sent her two daughters to Camp Minnikani on Amy Belle Lake, and has recently written a novel, Going on Nine.... The book written for adult readers, recounts the adventures of Grace Mitchell during the summer of 1956, including a stint at summer camp.
M Milwaukee Magazine
Discussion Questions
1. Grace Mitchell is meant to embody many of the aspects of a child of eight (going on nine). Give examples from the story that illustrate her personal strengths and her weaknesses.
2. Going on Nine is told from two perspectives: the adult Grace looking back on the summer of 1956, and the child Grace experiencing it. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this dual-timeline format? In what ways would the story have been different if it were told only from the child’s viewpoint?
3. Except for three chapters, the entire story takes place on Thistle Way, a quiet neighborhood in a suburb of St. Louis. Why do you think the author chose this location?
4. Going on Nine is imbued with a sense of time. The Fifties is a fabled era in the communal memory, but one that, in reality, was as flawed as any other. Give examples from the story that illustrate this.
5. At the beginning of the summer, Grace yearns to live with a family that’s “better” than her own. Give examples of how the Mitchells are, in fact, a pretty terrific family.
6. Each stop along Grace’s journey is a story unto itself, peopled with characters in turning-point situations. Which character or family did you find most memorable and why? Which characters or families does Grace discover are different from how the neighbors of Thistle Way perceive them?
7. Several chapters deal with sensitive and even tragic events. How do think these events affected the story, which is essentially sweet and nostalgic?
8. In the end, Grace comes to realize that the place she belongs—the place she wants to be—is with her own wonderful family. In a coming-of-age novel, we more or less expect this. What revelations in the Epilogue did you not expect?
9) At age eight, going on nine, Grace had mastered the art of making excuses for her behavior. In several instances, the adult Grace acknowledges that, ruefully. “It was not my finest hour,” she says at one point. Did Going on Nine bring back remembrances of your own childhood? Does the long lens of time afford a clearer view about that period of your life?
10. Many novelists draw on their personal observances and experiences in developing plots and characters. In the Author’s Note, Catherine Underhill Fitzpatrick mentions that a few aspects of Grace’s life seem to track with her own childhood. What are the risks in writing a novel that reads like a memoir? How is this different from writing an autobiography? A biography?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)