Miss Jane
Brad Watson, 2016
W.W. Norton
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780393241730
Summary
Nominated, 2016 National Book Awards
Astonishing prose brings to life a forgotten woman and a lost world in a strange and bittersweet Southern pastoral.
Since his award-winning debut collection of stories, Last Days of the Dog- Men, Brad Watson has been expanding the literary traditions of the South, in work as melancholy, witty, strange, and lovely as any in America.
Inspired by the true story of his own great-aunt, he explores the life of Miss Jane Chisolm, born in rural, early-twentieth-century Mississippi with a genital birth defect that would stand in the way of the central "uses" for a woman in that time and place—namely, sex and marriage.
From the country doctor who adopts Jane to the hard tactile labor of farm life, from the highly erotic world of nature around her to the boy who loved but was forced to leave her, the world of Miss Jane Chisolm is anything but barren.
Free to satisfy only herself, she mesmerizes those around her, exerting an unearthly fascination that lives beyond her still. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—July 24, 1955
• Where—Meridian, Mississippi, USA
• Education—B.A., Mississippi State University; M.A., University of Alabama
• Awards—(below)
• Currently—lives in Laramie, Wyoming
Brad Watson teaches creative writing at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. His first collection, Last Days of the Dog-Men, won the Sue Kauffman Award for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts & Letters; his first novel, The Heaven of Mercury, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and his Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. (From the publisher .)
Book Reviews
Brad Watson delivers delightful descriptions that will bring great joy to readers of his new book, Miss Jane. The novel has been nominated for the National Book Award, so you will not be alone in wanting extra time to re-read parts, often entire paragraphs, to savor the author’s stunning rhythm and language. READ MORE.
Fiona Lawrence - LitLovers
[The] complexity and drama of Watson’s gorgeous work here is life's as well: Sometimes physical realities expand us, sometimes trap; sometimes heroism lies in combating our helplessness, sometimes in accepting it. A writer of profound emotional depths, Watson does not lie to his reader, so neither does his Jane. She never stops longing for a wholeness she may never know, but she is determined that her citizenship in the world, however onerous, be dragged into the light and there be lived without apology or perfection or pity.
Amy Grace Loyd - New York Times Book Review
Watson infuses the story with curiosity, uncertainty, and, not unlike Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex, a certain wildness.... The book plays on the tongue like an oyster―first salty, then cold―before slipping away to be consumed and digested.
Aditi Sriram - Washington Post
[Jane’s] fearless acceptance of what sets her apart is profoundly human, and her lifelong struggle to understand her place in the world reflects the intricate workings of our own mysterious hearts.
Gina Webb - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the most spot-on, most poetic renderings of Southern vernacular this side of Charles Portis. In his hands, Miss Jane becomes an epic of a small survivor. As with fellow Mississippian William Faulkner, Watson's humble characters prevail because they endure.
Ben Steelman - Wilmington (NC) Star News
[T]he affecting, nuanced story of a girl who “did not fear her own strangeness.” ... The story of Jane’s lonely, lovely life is more powerful because of its emotional reserve. With the exception of several stagey confrontations involving Jane’s older, coarser sister, Grace, Watson lets his ethereal heroine retain her quiet, dignified air of mystery.
Publishers Weekl
(Starred review.) [Watson] dedicates his second novel to his great-aunt Mary Ellis "Jane" Clay, who as reimagined here lived a full and admirable life despite a severe limitation.... [With] beautifully precise prose, we are both absorbed and humbled. —Barbara Hoffert
Library Journal
Jane's strange yet beautiful spirit possesses a haunting, anachronistic beauty. Miss Jane is a truly original novel with a character that readers will cherish. Watson has delivered a striking and unforgettable portrait.
BookPage
If the novel has a flaw, it's a lack of traditional drama. Jane approaches life with quiet determination, so her acceptance of her own limitations ultimately becomes a strength and not a weakness. A well-written portrait of a person whose rich inner life outstrips the limits of her body.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We;ll add publisher's questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for Miss Jane...then take off on your own:
1. Why might Brad Watson have opened the book with the prologue listing what frightens and doesn't frighten Jane? What, if anything, does the opening contribute to your understanding of Jane? In what way, say, does the prologue set a tone for the book?
2. How would you describe Jane Chisholm? What is her condition? What inner strengths does she draw on? As she grows into adolescence, what is it like for her to be denied romantic involvement?
3. We learn of the night Jane was conceived: her father drunk on whiskey, her mother unconscious on laudanum, and whatever love they might have felt for one another had been worn away. How, perhaps, is that unfortunate night a foreshadowing device for Jane's subsequent birth and life?
4. Jane learns to isolate herself from embarrassment. She finds solace in the fields and woods. What does the natural world teach her, or offer her? Mushrooms, for instance: what is the attraction the fungal world holds for Jane?
5. What is Jane's relationship with her family—her parents and sister Grace?
6. How does Dr. Thompson help Jane understand and even exceed her limitations? He tells her, "Just as the way you are denies you some things, it also gives you license that others may not have. What does he mean. He also says to her, "In my opinion you live on a higher moral ground." How so? Do you agree?
7. One of the thematic concerns posed by the book is the questions of where heroism lies. Is heroism in fighting against one's physical limitations or accepting them. What do you think?
8. Had you been born with Jane's physical condition, back before it was operable as it is today, how might you have fared? Or this question: how would you have coped as a parent?
9. The author of Miss Jane is a man, writing about a girl and later young woman, a character based to some extent on his great aunt. Does Watson successfully channel a female voice, especially an unusual one, such as Jane's?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)