Jadine Reviewed By Norm Goldman of Bookpleasures.com
Norm Goldman
September 03, 2010
From time-to-time we come across a novel that not only moves us to tears from the first page onwards, but also shimmers with tragedy, and if you scrape its surface a little, forces us to ponder over some very weighty topics.
Julie Bigg Veazey's Jadine is one such novel that I have to confess left me somewhat battered with conflicting and unsettling emotions that lingered well-after I had put the novel to bed.
Veazey is certainly a writer worthy of serious attention, who deftly manages, with her tightly written prose, to weave into her yarn complex issues as mercy killing, suicide and the possible justifiability of murder, as she leads her principal character through a series of tortuous psychological and social mazes.
In Jadine, Veazey's principal character is a young woman, Jadine Tomecelli, who at the very tender age of twelve, is abandoned or, as she states, "discarded like a candy wrapper" by her mother. Her father is not exactly attentive towards her needs and shortly after her traumatic experience of having lost her mother, another woman, Mrs. Beckwith with her young daughter Angie moves into Jadine's household as her father's housekeeper. In time, her father marries this woman, although, as he did not divorce his wife, it is doubtful that their marriage was even legal.
Jadine's step-mother is no prize package and is quite callous and bad-tempered, showing very little compassion towards her step-daughter. Unfortunately, Jadine's step-sister, Angie drowns, and soon after, both her step-mother and father die, leaving her without parents to look after her. While all of this transpires, Jadine falls in love with a young Native American, Billy-John, nicknamed Bear, who likewise has quite a story to tell about his birth. The two become inseparable until Billy-John is forced to leave school and joins the military.
When Jadine is left homeless without parents, a group of church ladies, who were named "aunties," step in and agree to take her into their homes and to pass her around from house to house, each one keeping her for six months until she finishes high school. As it turns out, these so-called "good Samaritans," who were hypocrites and phonies, are not exactly very kind to Jadine, subjecting her to punishing household servitude. Jadine is now determined that upon her graduation from high-school, she would never be beholden to anyone, and she would not allow herself to be in a position that would force her to do something against her will. Eventually, Jadine graduates from high-school and moves to Boston, where she becomes a nurse and befriends some elderly women, who, as we discover, will have a dramatic influence on her future life. Readers will invariably root for her to overcome her shortcomings, as well as the many obstacles thrown up by others in her quest to escape her tormented past.
Ultimately, Jadine is an intense work, both heart-breaking and frightening, asking painful questions, and perhaps even revealing painful truths. Moreover, Veazey spins her tale with a kind of magical realism, as the characters are believable, and even the events could happen, given the right circumstances. There is no doubt that Jadine will garner many well-deserved accolades and I am looking forward to reading more from Julie Bigg Veazey.
Julie Bigg Veazey also authored Reckless Indifference and Silent Cry,and Merrymeeting, a book of poems. She has had short stories and poems appear in Yankee Magazine, Down East Magazine, Compass Rose, and other literary publications in New England. Julie is a member of the New Hampshire Writers' Project and the Seacoast Writers Association, and divides her time between New Hampshire, Florida, and the Dominican Republic while working on her next novel.
CLICK HERE TO READ NORM'S INTERVIEW WITH JULIE BIGG VEAZEY
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