Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Harrison William Shepherd came south from Washington to with his mother, Salomé, after the divorce. It was at Isla Pixol that he took up the habit of keeping a journal: even at fourteen, he had a writer’s ear for the world that surroundedhim. When his pretty güera mother moved on to a less wealthy man (and smaller house) in Mexico City, Harrison accompanied her – by then, into the second volume of his life story. All of Mexico was a hotbed of revolution in the '30s, and Harrison somehow found himself in the thick of it. By chance, he found a job cooking in the household of Mexico’s much-discussed revolutionary muralist, Diego Rivera, and his wife the just-as-much-discussed painter Frida Kahlo.
It was more than a job, it became his home: the mercurial Frida recognized a kindred artist in the slender, quiet boy she called Sóli (short for insólito, “odd” or “irregular”). She also recognized his other “leanings” (that insólito business), and so young Harrison became her friend instead of another conquest. During his six years in the Rivera household, the boy’s talent blossomed until he fulfilled his destiny: he became a writer.
Much more happened in those six years; during which Harrison cooked for the Riveras’ special guest, transcribed his lectures, typed his letters, and helped him clean rabbit cages. He was there the day that special guest, Leon Trotsky, was assassinated by an agent of the Stalinist regime. By then, it was time to go… Harrison eventually landed in Asheville, North Carolina. Like Tom Wolfe, another famous Ashevillian, Harrison published a novel; and then another and another. He led a comfortable existence in his little house with his cats and his devoted secretary. The year was 1949… and Harrison Shepherd hadn't an inkling that life as he knew it was over.
It’s no secret that author and commentator Barbara Kingsolver doesn’t pull her punches. Whether her topic is a missionary family in 1960s Belgian Congo or her family’s year as a locavore, Kingsolver resolutely speaks her mind. Doing so does not necessarily sit well with those who don’t share her worldview, however; which is probably what landed Kingsolver on Bernie Goldberg’s list of “100 people who are screwing up America.” Seems Kingsolver told her then pre-teen daughter, Camille, that it wasn’t absolutely necessary to yield to peer pressure and wear red, white, and blue on September 12th, 2001. That’s apparently not terribly dangerous to our civilization, however, since it landed Mother K at a mere 74th on the list. Hell, Eminem and Ludacris were both more than ten ahead of her! No word on where Bernie thinks Sarah Palin might belong, since when he published his list she was just an unemployed politician/hockey mom in Alaska.
Kingsolver’s position on Bernie’s list (and those of his adherents) will most certainly rise, however, if they read her latest novel, The Lacuna. She might even end up in the top ten, which is pretty darned ironic: you see, The Lacuna is all about making lists of "dangerous" people…
If you’re at all familiar with the history of mid-twentieth century America you’ll know without having to finish The Lacuna what was going to happen to Harrison Shepherd – not that anyone would put it down by this point. Of course, the final chapters contain copies of letters from the FBI; the transcript of a hearing before HUAC (pointedly citing the presence of Richard Nixon), “news” filled with half-truths and outright lies, and quotations taken out of context. Harrison Shepherd became a casualty of bigotry and hatred disguised as patriotism, convicted of not being “American enough.”
If Bernie Goldberg happens to read (or more likely, hear about) The Lacuna it’s a good bet that Barbara Kingsolver will climb much higher on his next list of “America’s enemies.” Harrison Shepherd made HUAC’s top ten, and the guy was about as political as Lady Gaga. The reason Barbara has become “more dangerous”? Simple: the story of Harrison Shepherd could happen to anyone – and happen today, when “citizen journalists” feed off each other’s strident pronouncements, all without worrying about “facts”; when out-of-context quoting has been raised to high art; when desk-bangers with radio microphones happily label anyone who disagrees with them un-American. Of course, Kingsolver will herself be quoted out of context, and you can be sure that plenty of people are already calling her un-American… most of whom really, really need to read The Lacuna, but never will.
More’s the pity.
It was more than a job, it became his home: the mercurial Frida recognized a kindred artist in the slender, quiet boy she called Sóli (short for insólito, “odd” or “irregular”). She also recognized his other “leanings” (that insólito business), and so young Harrison became her friend instead of another conquest. During his six years in the Rivera household, the boy’s talent blossomed until he fulfilled his destiny: he became a writer.
Much more happened in those six years; during which Harrison cooked for the Riveras’ special guest, transcribed his lectures, typed his letters, and helped him clean rabbit cages. He was there the day that special guest, Leon Trotsky, was assassinated by an agent of the Stalinist regime. By then, it was time to go… Harrison eventually landed in Asheville, North Carolina. Like Tom Wolfe, another famous Ashevillian, Harrison published a novel; and then another and another. He led a comfortable existence in his little house with his cats and his devoted secretary. The year was 1949… and Harrison Shepherd hadn't an inkling that life as he knew it was over.
It’s no secret that author and commentator Barbara Kingsolver doesn’t pull her punches. Whether her topic is a missionary family in 1960s Belgian Congo or her family’s year as a locavore, Kingsolver resolutely speaks her mind. Doing so does not necessarily sit well with those who don’t share her worldview, however; which is probably what landed Kingsolver on Bernie Goldberg’s list of “100 people who are screwing up America.” Seems Kingsolver told her then pre-teen daughter, Camille, that it wasn’t absolutely necessary to yield to peer pressure and wear red, white, and blue on September 12th, 2001. That’s apparently not terribly dangerous to our civilization, however, since it landed Mother K at a mere 74th on the list. Hell, Eminem and Ludacris were both more than ten ahead of her! No word on where Bernie thinks Sarah Palin might belong, since when he published his list she was just an unemployed politician/hockey mom in Alaska.
Kingsolver’s position on Bernie’s list (and those of his adherents) will most certainly rise, however, if they read her latest novel, The Lacuna. She might even end up in the top ten, which is pretty darned ironic: you see, The Lacuna is all about making lists of "dangerous" people…
| Kingsolver structures her latest novel as an autobiography, her protagonist’s journals posthumously transcribed by his faithful secretary, Violet Brown, and then shelved for half a century. The earliest section she ascribes to the opening chapter of a memoir written by Shepherd himself; and she has also fashioned a literal lacuna – a gap of some two years – where a journal had been destroyed (to protect the "guilty"). The remainder is a remarkable record of a young man’s journey, of a facile ear for dialog, of a quiet and unassuming life. Here is a young man who stood within the shadow of a political whirlwind and yet wrote more of the banalities of his fellow servants' lives; who cared more for Lev Davidovich Trotsky the man than he cared about his politics. That would become an important point to remember a decade later… |
If you’re at all familiar with the history of mid-twentieth century America you’ll know without having to finish The Lacuna what was going to happen to Harrison Shepherd – not that anyone would put it down by this point. Of course, the final chapters contain copies of letters from the FBI; the transcript of a hearing before HUAC (pointedly citing the presence of Richard Nixon), “news” filled with half-truths and outright lies, and quotations taken out of context. Harrison Shepherd became a casualty of bigotry and hatred disguised as patriotism, convicted of not being “American enough.”
If Bernie Goldberg happens to read (or more likely, hear about) The Lacuna it’s a good bet that Barbara Kingsolver will climb much higher on his next list of “America’s enemies.” Harrison Shepherd made HUAC’s top ten, and the guy was about as political as Lady Gaga. The reason Barbara has become “more dangerous”? Simple: the story of Harrison Shepherd could happen to anyone – and happen today, when “citizen journalists” feed off each other’s strident pronouncements, all without worrying about “facts”; when out-of-context quoting has been raised to high art; when desk-bangers with radio microphones happily label anyone who disagrees with them un-American. Of course, Kingsolver will herself be quoted out of context, and you can be sure that plenty of people are already calling her un-American… most of whom really, really need to read The Lacuna, but never will.
More’s the pity.
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