Ann Patchett’s newest book of essays, These Precious Days, gave me life at the lackluster end of my 2021 reading year. One of my favorite essays in the collection is about throwing off her middle-grade-genre prejudice to binge the entire oeuvre of Kate DiCamillo. It was such a tender and personal essay and (spoiler alert) had me weeping by the end of it, just as I often find myself weeping at the end of DiCamillo’s books.
My favorite of these is the Raymie Nightingale trilogy, about three girlfriends growing up in the 1970s. These books cracked me open and conjured out something I didn’t even know I needed healed. Like literally all her books, they are a wonder.
Ann Patchett writes of finishing The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane:
I didn’t care what age it was written for. The book defied categorization. I felt as if I had just stepped through a magic portal, and all I had to do to pass through was believe that I wasn’t too big to fit. This beautiful world had been available to me all along but I had never bothered to pick up the keys to the kingdom.
DiCamillo was recently interviewed on Krista Tippet’s On Being podcast. (Another spoiler: this one had me crying too!) She talked about not shying away from difficult realities and emotions in her books. In childhood, one of her friends read and re-read Charlotte’s Web obsessively and as an adult, Kate asked her why. Was she hoping for a different outcome? Her friend replied:
I knew that a terrible thing was going to happen, and I also knew it was going to be okay somehow. I thought that I couldn’t bear it, but then, when I read it again, it was all so beautiful. And I found that I could bear it. That was what the story told me. That was what I needed to hear. That I could bear it somehow.
I listened to the interview on my out-and-back evening walk, and as I neared home, I noticed a verdin on the path where I’d missed it before, perfect and whole and dead. I cried harder at the serendipitous gift of seeing it at such a time.
I gently moved it off the path and continued on my way, better able to bear it somehow.
Cheers,
Lacy
P.S. I’m reading DiCamillo’s latest book, The Beatryce Prophecy, out loud to my six-year-old; we’re both loving it, obvs.
P.P.S. I wrote a middle-grade novel a few years ago called The Introversion of Eels. And recently (like, last week) I decided to publish it on Kindle. I resisted mentioning it here because it didn’t feel like a “real” thing. But ultimately, I’m proud of it & it’s so much more fun to put it out into the world on a modest scale than to keep it in a drawer. Plus, I commissioned my oldest daughter to do the cover art! Check it out if you feel so inclined :-)
I am actually reading The Beatryce Prophecy right now! A friend brought it to me. I love how in sync we are when in comes to reading. ❤️ And Krista Tippet is my favorite. Will have to listen to her DiCamillo interview. But I must say I’m most excited about this post because of The Introversion of Eels mention!! I can’t wait to read it!