The View from Here

The view is from the womb in Jackson's extraordinary debut, most of which is narrated by L'il Lisa, who begins speaking to us five months into her mother Anna's pregnancy. (Readers may be reminded of Kate Atkinson's The View from the Museum.) Taking place over the course of four months in the 1950s, the action centers around an African American family isolated among the corn fields of rural Mississippi. Well before her birth, Lisa knows her brooding, domineering father, J.T., won't allow Anna to keep the baby. With five sons already, J.T. can't handle another mouth to feed and has arranged to give the child to Clariece, his barren older sister, to rear. Clariece is pretentious, verbally and physically abusive, belittling and dishonest. Himself raised by Clariece, T.J. has been so thoroughly demeaned by her that he can't recognize her poisonous character. Anna wants to keep Lisa and has faith that J.T. will come to his senses when his only daughter is born. In addition to Lisa's narrative, Jackson threads poignant fragments of unmailed letters written by Anna during her lonely pregnancy to her devoted childhood friend Ida Mae, who has gone north and for whom Anna has no address. He also includes occasional third-person passages which offer an omniscient perspective on Anna, Ida Mae and J.T. from their youth up through Lisa's dramatic birth. Jackson orchestrates the three viewpoints like a skilled composer, engaging the reader intellectually and emotionally. His descriptions are understated but evocative, his dialogue natural and true to period regional idiom. A formidable craftsman and exceptionally gifted storyteller, he has written a haunting story. (Feb.)