Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League
Jonathan Odell, 2014
Maiden Lane press
432 pp.
ISBN-13: 978194021004#
Summary
Set in pre-Civil Rights Mississippi, Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League is the story of two young mothers, Hazel and Vida—one wealthy and white and the other poor and black—who have only two things in common: the devastating loss of their children, and a deep and abiding loathing for one another.
Embittered and distrusting, Vida is harassed by Delphi’s racist sheriff and haunted by the son she lost to the world. Hazel, too, has lost a son and can’t keep a grip on her fractured life.
After drunkenly crashing her car into a manger scene while gunning for the baby Jesus, Hazel is sedated and bed-ridden. Hazel’s husband hires Vida to keep tabs on his unpredictable wife and to care for his sole surviving son. Forced to spend time together with no one else to rely on, the two women find they have more in common than they thought, and together they turn the town on its head.
This is the story of a town, a people, and a culture on the verge of a great change that begins with small things, like unexpected friendship. (From the publisher.)
Miss Hazel is an updated and republished version of Odell's 2004 book The View from Delphi. That earlier book was published to strong reviews but tepid sales, said Publishers Weekly. See some earlier reviews below.
Author Bio
Jonathan Odell is the author of two novels, the critically acclaimed The Healing (2012), which was called "required reading" by the New York Post, a "storytelling tour de force" by the Associated Press, and was compared by critics to both Toni Morrison's Beloved and Kathryn Stockett's The Help; and his debut novel, The View from Delphi (MacAdam/Cage, 2004), recently updated and republished as Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League, which is receiving glorious praise from the press and readers alike.
Odell was born and raised in Mississippi. His short stories and essay have appeared in numerous collections. A highly regarded public speaker and leadership coach, he now resides in Minnesota. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
This is an important story beautifully told. It is why we read novels. You will care about these characters — and emerge more aware and empathetic because of them.
Christine Brunkhorst - Minneapolis Star Tribune
Jonathan Odell can take his place in the distinguished pantheon of Southern authors.
Pat Conroy
(Review of 2004 The View from Delphia) Prejudice threatens to tear apart a small Mississippi town during the 1950s in Odell's first novel, a well-told but familiar and slow-moving story about a pair of families who find their lives altered by the bigotry of a small-minded sheriff.
Publishers Weekly
(Review of 2004 The View from Delphia) The View from Delphi shows just how racially divided the country was during the pre-Civil Rights era. For readers younger than 40, this can be a learning experience. From the story of Rosa Parks to the fact the blacks weren’t able to vote at the time, there’s a lot of history in this novel. Although Odell doesn’t bring the entire story to one big happy conclusion, he tells a story of human nature as it really is. And in doing so, he makes readers realize how much alike the races really are.
Southern Scribe
(Review of 2004 The View from Delphia) Fast-paced but thoughtful story of a friendship across the racial divide in 1950s Mississippi. Though he never lets whites off for their pervasive racism, African-American Odell is the rare writer on race who allows for a range of responses—and for the possibility of change. Among his finely drawn characters, both black and white, young—five-year-old Johnny is particularly memorable—and old, he introduces two whose lives are blighted by loss.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Both Floyd and Hazel are driven to leave their homes in the hills. What is it they are in such a rush to escape? Are they both fleeing from the same things? How realistic are their dreams?
2. The novel centers on Hazel and Vida as young mothers with flashbacks to their childhoods. How essential are the early years to our understanding of these women as adults?
3. Discuss Hazel's inability to belong. Would she have had the same issues has she stayed on the farm? How do these issues take shape when she confronts the other wives of her new class and neighborhood?
4. Hazel’s quest for beauty became her only goal as a child when she realized she was unattractive. Why did beauty become the answer to all of her problems? What role does physical beauty play in this novel?
5. Consider Levi’s relationship with the Senator. Where do you see this type of relationship between people today?
6. When Hazel and Vida meet, they are both grieving a loss. How do their losses affect them as women? Do they have any empathy for each other’s loss? Are you able to identify with either or both of the women? How are they changed by their losses? Were these loses necessary to their growth?
7. Discuss the differences in Hazel and Vida’s expectations of the men in their lives.
8. How does Vida come to terms with the hostility she faces from Hazel’s son Johnny? What do you imagine will become of young Johnny? Why do you suppose he was so fearful in the beginning? Why do you think Levi was able to reach him?
9. Consider the ways Hazel finds freedom as well as the times she requires rescuing. What, if any, transformations does she undergo throughout the course of this novel?
10. Consider the same questions for Vida.
11. Women are a central element to the society of Delphi. Odell paints a portrait of the what was considered the 1950s ideal woman throughout this novel. Where does Hazel fit into this ideal at the beginning at the novel and then at the end? What, if any, elements of the stereotypical 1950s woman remains today?
12. Why is Hazel so attracted to the maids? Why is Vida so repulsed by the white women? How is each group of women portrayed differently?
13. How does the balance of power in the relationships in the novel’s characters relationships change over the course of the novel?
14. Ponder the perceptions of sanity and insanity portrayed through the characters of Hazel and Levi Snow. How is the label of crazy the same or different for each?15. What do you imagine for the future of Nate? Will he ever learn the truth and how might that change him if he did?
16. The novel is set largely in 1955. How much do you believe we have changed as a country when it comes to issue of race? As you noticed examples of racism did you recognize incidents from your own life or from the lives of family members of close friends?
17. What were some instances of “internalized” racism (racist beliefs that have been accepted as true by the victims themselves) on the part of Odell’s black characters?
18. If you were to choose either Vida or Hazel as a mother, who would be your choice? Would one make a better mother in contemporary times than the other? Do you think the women had other choices in their given situations?
19. In retrospect, did Vida make a good choice for Nate by “sending him away” consequently growing up as “white” in the North or should she have kept him near her in the Jim Crow south where he would have had grown up as “black”?
20. How does Hazel get her dignity back? What role does Pearl play in that process? How does Hazel’s relationship with her husband change because of this? Do you think her actions are justified?
21. Has Odell offered you a deeper understanding of the civil rights movement that were missed in your textbooks? Do you believe this or any novel or film can help move us toward ending prejudice? Can you offer examples of books of films that made you see the world differently?
22. The summer of 2014 was the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Freedom Summer in Mississippi when local black activists initiated a massive voter registration drive. That summer hundreds of northern white college students came to help. What was the influence of these white students who came down? Some say their impact was largely because, in the eyes of the nation, the lives of the white students killed while trying to register voters had greater value while Blacks who had been fighting back, while being attacked, raped, and killed, trying to change a system.
(Questions issued by the publisher.)