Cage of Stars- Jacquelyn Mitchard
There's a fiction subgenre that doesn't really have a name. The kind of novel I'm talking about isn't about romance or romantic love in the first line, though that may be one of the subplots. These are novels that examine the way families work, or fail to work, in the face of crisis. And I mean crisis in the bigger sense of the word. Divorce would be the least of the problems in this kind of book. We're talking accidental deaths, fatal illness, rape, murder, permanent disability, kidnapping, felony arrests. You get the picture.
Some of the authors who are active in this genre (which is sometimes called domestic drama, a term I dislike because it feels dismissive) are Jacquelyn Mitchard (The Deep End of the Ocean, A Theory of Relativity), Jodi Picoult (My Sister's Keeper, Vanishing Acts), Judith Guest (Ordinary People), Elizabeth Berg (Range of Motion,We Are All Welcome Here), and Elizabeth Strout (Abide with Me).
Somehow this subgenre -- though it is written primarily (or maybe even exclusively) by women -- has mostly been spared trivialization or undue snark from the litcriterati. A few of these novels have received both high critical praise and popular success.Ordinary People is the best example of that, and it is also the novel that sets the standard for this genre. And of course, not all attempts at this kind of family in crisis novel are equally successful or well written.
Before I talk about Cage of Stars, I wanted to ask you what other novelists or novels you think might fit into this category.
So now, Mitchard. She's best known forThe Deep End of the Ocean, which was an early Oprah pick. It was her first novel, and it catapulted her into the best seller list. Publisher's Weekly said: "One of the most remarkable things about this rich, moving and altogether stunning first novel is Mitchard's assured command of narrative structure and stylistic resources. Her story about a child's kidnapping and its enduring effects upon his parents, siblings and extended family is a blockbuster read."
I've read most but not all of Mitchard's novels since her first. The second one,The Most Wanted, probably made the biggest impression on me. Publisher's Weekly wasn't so happy with it: "Despite portentous foreshadowing, Mitchard second novel never achieves the dramatic momentum and the emotional immediacy of her acclaimed fiction debut,The Deep End of the Ocean. But her depiction of two female protagonists is so large-hearted and wise that readers undoubtedly will be engrossed in their story."
Side note: Beware the review -- especially the PW review-- that starts with the worddespite. I speak from personal experience here.
I read Mitchard's newest about two weeks ago, and I've been thinking about it ever since. Of course that's a good thing, a story that stays with you. But in this case there was something off, and I couldn't put my finger on it. One thing that jumped out at me was how much her style has changed, or maybe just her approach to this story is a departure. Not necessarily a bad departure, but I was strongly reminded of Jodi Picoult in a way that Mitchard probably wasn't aiming for.
Cage of Stars is about a small, healthy, close knit Mormon family that lives in a tiny rural community where people generally get along and take care of each other. In the course of the novel you learn a good amount about the LDSaints, all provided in a matter of fact way. You get this information through the main character, Veronica Swan (Ronnie to family and friends), who is twelve years old when the novel opens with a very powerful image: "At the moment when Scott Early killed Becky and Ruthie, I was hiding in the shed."
This is a story not so much about the murder of two little girls as it is about the way violence is embedded into the heart of their twelve year old sister. Scott Early, who commits this crime, does so in the grip of a psychotic break. It's his first, and with it, his history as a good guy, a man loyal to family and scrupulously honest, is null and void. He is not convicted of the double murder of the Swan girls, but is sent off to a hospital for the criminally insane for treatment.
Ronnie spends the rest of her adolescence nurturing her anger, while her parents work to overcome their despondency and sorrow after the little sisters are buried. Eventually they meet with Scott Early in the hospital and they forgive him. Which only makes Ronnie more determined to extract justice.
Most of the novel deals with how she does that. Her plan, which is elaborate and well thought out, eventually takes her to California where she inserts herself into the lives of the now released, medicated and stable Scott Early and his wife and infant daughter. This sounds like a retelling of The Babysitter, no? But it's more complex than that, and we're in Ronnie's head for the whole time, watching her thoughts as they evolve.
And here's the cause of my discomfort: This is another case where I'm unhappy about a first person teenage narrator. And I freely admit that this is a matter of my own quirk, my need for a broader narrative scope and a dislike of the restrictions Mitchard puts on her readers by keeping them in Ronnie's head.
So is this a good story? Yes. Is it worth reading? You may like it, if you aren't as sensitive to the narrative voice issues as I am. If you are getting started with fiction writing yourself, this is a novel that might be instructive in terms of approach and structure. It's one of the few cases where a prologue felt off to me (I generally like prologues; which you probably knew if you've ready any of my novels).
At any rate, I continue to be interested in Mitchard's work and look forward to the next novel.