Gift After Death
I just finished reading So Big by Edna Ferber, an author whose work I may never had read had I not discovered a “Grandparent Book” in my mother’s belongings after she died in 2019. As a result, not only have I been exposed to an enjoyable novel by a talented writer, but I also feel more connected to my mother even after her death. It’s as if she has posthumously given me a gift.
After the birth of her third grandchild, my mother began filling in the Grandparent Book, ostensibly to allow her granddaughter and two grandsons to understand who she was as well as give them insight into their own origins. Though she did not fill out every single piece of information in the book, she did include some tidbits about which I hadn’t been aware. One fun fact she recorded was her favorite book growing up: So Big, Ferber’s third and Pulitzer-prize winning novel, published in 1924. As my mother was born in 1931 and would have been a teenager about twenty years after the book’s release (and I assume she didn’t read it before her teen years), I wondered how she came upon the novel and why she decided to read it. Perhaps she actually read it as a young adult. Regardless, the story’s strong female protagonist would have been just the sort of character to whom my mother likely gravitated at any age.
I found So Big compelling for a host of reasons. First, it was refreshing to read a novel written almost one hundred years ago because of the authenticity in Ferber’s observations. She weaves into the plot her firsthand knowledge of Chicago and High Prairie, Illinois, in the 1920s – the architecture, business culture, women’s roles, technology, ethnic/minority communities, etc. On the subject of the ethnic/racial communities, Ferber makes mention of a variety of groups, including Jews, Blacks, and Dutch-Americans, inhabiting Chicago and its environs, as well as the Japanese men who apparently worked as butlers/servants for wealthy, often single, white men. The issue of class is threaded prominently throughout the second half of the story, and I always find that subject worth exploring.
Second, I just love stories with strong female characters, especially in novels written before feminism was a “thing”. Ferber’s protagonist, Selina, has a strong work ethic and does not fear the implications of being a widowed mother of a young son and needing to run a small farm on her own. In fact, she relishes the challenge of her responsibility and, by thinking outside the box, changes the fate of what might have been an agricultural failure. She finds a niche market and becomes successful specifically by not succumbing to the expectations of others. In this way, we see a young woman who does not feel tamped down by her farming community’s judgments of what she can and cannot accomplish. Quite the opposite: Selena is a feminist, mindful of the defined box in which her patriarchal community wishes to place her. And, throughout the story, she proves to be a woman who embraces life by marveling at nature, art, and the human drive toward self-actualization. She is fearless, confident, and independent, and, for all these reasons, is admired by those who meet her.
Selena’s son, Dirk, follows his own path apart from the farm and, though he has a close bond with his mother, his understanding of himself and his desires seem less defined than hers. Still, he is drawn to another strong female character, Dallas, who, like Selena, is confident and independent. Dirk’s emotional waffling and ruminations contrast starkly against what we see in Selena and Dallas.
I find these female characters’ trajectories interesting when compared to that of my protagonist in A Letter in the Wall. As with Selena and Dallas, Joan very much seeks a life of fulfillment and independence, and, often, her perspectives on what she wishes for herself could be construed as feminist. Unlike Selena and Dallas, what she lacks, at least initially, is confidence.
All this brings me back to the subject of my mother. I wish I had known while she was still living how fond she was of this book. I would have had the opportunity to discuss with her the myriad topics the story touches on and her impressions of the characters when she read the novel so long ago. I also would have enjoyed hearing her take on the similarities and differences between Selena and Joan, and what made these protagonists tick. My mother was a proponent of self-reliance, especially where women are concerned, so I can imagine all the observations she would have made. And, despite the fact that my reading the book happened too late to have that conversation with her, it is precisely because of her that I discovered So Big and Edna Ferber. This is just one more way my mother posthumously continues to influence me and grace my life.
