Miss Jane

May 2, 2016
“Who can say what life will make of a body?” Watson (House of Mercury) asks in the affecting, nuanced story of a girl who “did not fear her own strangeness.” Jane, the youngest daughter of a Mississippi sharecropper, is born with a genital defect that renders her incontinent and incapable of having children. A local doctor takes an interest in Jane’s case—as well as her father’s home-brewed apple brandy—and becomes a lifelong advisor and confidant to the “prodigiously contemplative” girl. Jane is most comfortable in the woods around her house, though she does tentatively engage with the world, knowing full well that “she would always be the odd one, the one with the secret.” She indulges in a girlhood romance cautiously, unsure about what, if anything, to reveal about her condition. Jane is a great watcher, and the novel wonderfully conveys the amorous intensity with which she experiences nature’s fecundity, “the burst of salty liquid from a plump and ice-cold raw oyster, the soft skins of wild mushrooms... the tight and unopened bud of a flower blossom.” The story of Jane’s lonely, lovely life is more powerful because of its emotional reserve. With the exception of several stagey confrontations involving Jane’s older, coarser sister, Grace, Watson lets his ethereal heroine retain her quiet, dignified air of mystery.

May 15, 2016
A woman born in rural Mississippi with a life-altering birth defect must learn to live on her own terms.Western writer Watson (The Heaven of Mercury, 2002, etc.) composes a lyrical portrait of a woman based on his great-aunt, who was the subject of plenty of rumors in her own life. His fictional subject is Jane Chisolm, an otherwise normal child born with vaginal agenesis, a condition in which her sexual anatomy fails to develop. Because this is in the early years of the 20th century amid the poverty of rural Mississippi, there's little to be done to improve the child's condition. Her father is a drunk and her mother emotionally absent, so Jane is largely left in the care of her tomboy sister, Grace. Because her condition causes incontinence, Jane is isolated for much of her childhood. The only person who comes to truly care about her is her doctor, Eldred Thompson, who believes that Miss Jane Chisolm is special indeed. "Just as the way you are denies you some things, it also gives you license that others may not have," he tells her. "In my opinion you live on a higher moral ground. I mean to say you are a good person." Watson's writing is dry as kindling, but in reducing his aunt's story to its most primary elements, the author also captures the simple things that bring his character joy--the delight she experiences at a community dance or a picnic with the kindly doctor are all tiny moments of tenderness in a life largely marked by isolation. If the novel has a flaw, it's a lack of traditional drama. Jane approaches life with quiet determination, so her acceptance of her own limitations ultimately becomes a strength and not a weakness. A well-written portrait of a person whose rich inner life outstrips the limits of her body.

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Starred review from May 15, 2016

National Book Award finalist Watson (The Heaven of Mercury) dedicates his second novel to his great-aunt Mary Ellis "Jane" Clay, who as reimagined here lived a full and admirable life despite a severe limitation: she was born in 1930s Mississippi with a genital defect that precluded sexual relations, putting her in the shadows as a woman. Yet from the first page Jane is presented as a fearless woman, a "dark-haired, blue-eyed beauty" who is kind, curious, and forthright and who outshines other characters, including the icy mother who rejects her and the shallow sister who wrecks her own life. From the beginning, Jane has a special friend in Dr. Eldred Thompson, who delivers her and remains a staunch defender, trying to find appropriate medical help and visiting with her often. At the end, he says of his peacocks, "I like to think they really exist just because they are oddly beautiful," and Jane, too, need not justify her existence; she forgets, as do we, that her life has been compromised in any way. VERDICT As Watson arcs through the story of Jane's life in sensitive, beautifully precise prose, we are both absorbed and humbled. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 1/25/16.]--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2016

Watson's first collection, Last Days of the Dog-Men, won the Sue Kauffman Award, while his first novel, The Heaven of Mercury, was a National Book Award finalist; the collection Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives wound up a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. All of which suggests that you should be interested in this new work, especially if you like richly layered Southern gothic storytelling, Watson's modus operandi. Miss Jane Chisolm, inspired by Watson's great-aunt, is born in 1930s Mississippi with a genital defect that precludes sexual relations, which pretty much obviates her purpose as a woman at the time. Yet she ends up a charismatic and fulfilled individual.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.