Adventures of Mary Jane (YA fiction)

     "Thirty-odd years ago, I was that student who annoyed everyone by asking, over and over again, 'Why don't the female characters in this book say anything?' or 'Why don't the female characters in this book do anything?' or, just as often, 'Why aren't there any female characters in this book?'"

     As an adult Hope Jahren wrote the book she'd wanted to read as a child which is actually the book many of us wanted to read as children--the adventure book with a daring girl front and center. In 2014 she was rereading her favorite comfort book, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and began to question Mark Twain's portrayal of a minor character, Mary Jane. She set off on a quest to find the real "redheaded one". And then she wrote her story. Within a span of months the narrator of her Adventures of Mary Jane goes through more dangerous and harrowing experiences than most of encounter if we live to be 100.

     Actually 1846 was not a good time to be a teenage girl, especially on the frontier. The tensions that would culminate in the Civil War were getting out of hand. Religion was another flash point. Diseases like typhoid fever with no effective remedy spread. Charlatans and other villains preyed on the unwarranted.

     The very first sentence reads "We smelled the fire before we saw it." The trading post Mary Jane and her mother and grandfather are living at is burning down. AGAIN! It happens so often they have a protocol. 

     When her mother's sister writes asking for help Mary Jane--then all of fourteen, is told that she'll have to go all alone down the treacherous Mississippi River in her mother's place. And that's just the beginning. When her aunt and uncle die she's in charge of not only herself but her two cousins who are given to a very bad man. She has to deal with pestilence, death, mob violence, swindlers, and all the dangers of her times. Her story is a real roller coaster ride of a narrative. 

     Some of the characters including Mary Jane come straight out of Twain's narrative. The others are based on real people and animals. I thought that was pretty darn cool. 

On a purrrsonal note, Friday was the first First Friday Bagels at UMaine. The commuter lounge serves up bagels in a variety of flavors from an awesome local shop on the first Friday of every month in the school year. It's a long standing tradition and always well attended. 

A great big shout out goes out to Brittany who is the one who makes the tradition happen and always gets my favorite sweet cinnamon ones.

Jules Hathaway 

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