2. The novel centers on two young mothers, one white, the other black. When Hazel and Vida meet, they are both grieving. How do their losses affect them as women?
3. Discuss Hazel’s inability to belong. Would she have had the same difficulty had she stayed on the farm? How do these difficulties take shape when she encounters the other wives of her new class and neighborhood?
4. Hazel’s quest for beauty becomes a singular goal when, as a child, she realizes she is unattractive. What role does physical beauty play in this novel?
5. How does Vida come to terms with the hostility she faces from Hazel’s son Johnny? What do you imagine will become of him? Is it easier today for boys who do not conform to traditional ideas of what it means to be a boy?
6. What do you imagine for Nate’s future? Will he ever learn the truth, and how might that change him if he does?
7. Consider the ways Hazel and Vida find freedom as well as the times they each require rescuing. What transformation do they undergo throughout the course of this novel? How does the balance of power between these two characters change?
8. Rosa Parks never appears in the novel and yet her influence seems essential to the outcome of the story. What other acts of courage did you find in this novel?
9. The wives of Delphi society in the 1950s are vividly portrayed by Odell. What characterized their concept of the ideal woman? Where does Hazel fit into this ideal? What, if any, elements of the stereotypical 1950s woman remain today?
10. Why is Hazel so attracted to the maids? Why is Vida so repulsed by the white women? Hazel sees Vida as a friend, yet Vida has a very different attitude toward Hazel. What brings them together in the end?
11. Can you identify any instances of “internalized” racism (beliefs that have been accepted as true by the victims themselves) on the part of Odell’s black characters?
12. Odell believes that one reason racism is so difficult to cure is that it is passed on as a gift of love, meaning it is often given to us by family members or those close to us, not by people we see as evil, but by those who love us and want to make us feel special at someone else’s expense. Can you identify a scene in the novel where Odell’s point is most clearly made?
13. In the current novel, which is a new rendering of Odell’s decade old debut novel, A View from Delphi, and in The Healing, an historical novel set in the pre-Civil War South about an enslaved healing woman on a plantation, Odell tries to offer readers a deeper understanding of the history of slavery and the Civil Rights Movement in our country. What role do you think art can play in influencing the way we see our world? Can you identify a book or film that was particularly important to your understanding of another race, religion or people?
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Jonathan very much enjoys connecting with book groups. To check on Jonathan’s availability please go to JonathanOdell.net to email an inquiry.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to thank Marly Rusoff, my agent who, after successfully placing my novel, The Healing, before the public, championed the idea of giving my first-born a second chance. The View from Delphi was released in 2004 by a small press to warm reviews but little exposure. Marly believed the subject matter to be even more relevant today and deserving of a larger reading audience. Her unshakable faith in the story gave me the confidence to structurally refashion the book, while keeping its soul intact.
The keen editorial insights of Julie Mosow and the enthusiastic support of Michael Radulescu at Maiden Lane Press were invaluable. I must also thank authors Julie Landsman and Mary Logue, as well as Chris Jerome, and Harriet Moore, who each contributed to making this novel a more gratifying read.
My dear friend, UC law professor Michele B. Goodwin, used our weekly breakfasts at times to lovingly challenge my white man’s thinking on the constructs of race, class and gender.
I met Jim Kuether just as The View from Delphi was being released. In the ten years since, he has become not only my best friend, but also my most trusted editor. His artist’s eye can pierce the heart of the story. One of the greatest rewards of this retelling is to bring Jim’s talent and vision to the process.
And mostly I’m grateful to the African American witnesses to that age, those unlikely memoirists—sharecroppers, maids, midwives, yardmen, preachers, teachers, schoolchildren, and Saturday night brawlers—who shared their precious recollections to help this author discover the true measure of heroism.
Civil Rights activist Dorothy Cotton sums it up beautifully.
“The civil rights movement that rearranged the social order of this country did not emanate from the halls of the Harvards and the Princetons or the Cornells. It came from simple unlettered people who learned they had the right to stand tall and that nobody can ride a back that isn’t bent.”
JONATHAN ODELL ON HAZEL AND VIDA
Many readers have asked me if my characters, Hazel and Vida in particular, are based on real people, as is so often the case with debut fiction.
The answer is yes. Much of the book is drawn from my early life experience, much to my family’s horror. Actually, when I began the book, it was as an attempt to get even with everyone who had ever done me wrong—teachers, schoolyard bullies, my preacher, and, of course, my parents. Vida and Hazel began as absolute villains in my first draft. They represented people in my life I wanted to settle a score with. Vida represented Velner, a black lady my parents hired to take care of me and my brothers when my mother took a job. I hated Velner and Velner hated me.
Hazel is definitely my mother. When I began the book, I was going through therapy and beginning to understand my family’s dysfunction. I was in my “angry truth-telling stage,” so I “fictionalized” every wrong my mother had ever perpetrated upon me. In essence it was a poorly disguised hit piece. I even named the little boy Johnny so my mother would not miss the point.
When I finally let go of my agenda of trying to justify my resentments, I fell in love with both women. Now, even today, when I see my mother, she is so much bigger and grander than the box I had placed her in. By letting go of the need to explain my mother, I discovered her. Writing the book served as an avenue for reconciliation with my family. It transformed me, and instead of a condemnation, the book became a tribute to those who raised me.
PRAISE FOR THE HEALING BY JONATHAN ODELL
“A remarkable rite-of-passage novel with an unforgettable character.… The Healing transcends any clichés of the genre with its captivating, at times almost lyrical, prose.”
—Associated Press
“A storytelling tour de force.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Compelling, tragic, comic, tender and mystical…. It combines the historical significance of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help with the wisdom of Toni Morrison’s Beloved.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Wonderful! Polly Shine is a character for the ages.”
—PAT CONROY, author of The Prince of Tides
“A must-read for fans of historical fiction.”
—KATHLEEN GRISSOM, author of The Kitchen House
“Jonathan Odell won me over with his fresh take on the connective power of story to heal body, mind, and community…. I’m still marveling about Polly Shine.”
—LALITA TADEMY, author of Cane River, An Oprah’s Book Club selection
“The Healing is a lyrical parable, rich with historical detail and unflinching in the face of disturbing facts.”
—VALERIE MARTIN, author of the Orange-Prize-winning novel Property
“A haunting tale of Southern fiction peopled with vivid and inspiring personalities. . . . Polly Shine is an unforgettable character who shows how the power and determination of one woman can inspire and transform the lives of those around her.”
—Bookreporter
“Jonathan Odell finds the right words, using the language of the day, its idiom and its music to great advantage in a compelling work that can stand up to The Help in the pantheon of Southern literature.” —She
lf Awareness
“Odell has written one of those beautiful Southern tales with unforgettable characters. Required reading.”
—New York Post
“Engrossing. . . . This historical novel probes complex issues of freedom and slavery.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League Page 41
