Review of THAT PINSON GIRL by Gerry Wilson (New Release)

 3 Stars

This novel is set in North Mississippi in 1918.  Seventeen-year-old Leona Pinson gives birth to a son whom she names Isaiah.  Unmarried, she refuses to name his father, Walker Broom, to anyone.  Walker has gone off to fight in the war, but Leona believes he will return and they will become a family.  In the meantime, she lives with her damaged, dysfunctional family.  Leona’s father Herbert was murdered and his sister Sally, a dwarf, moved in afterwards.  Other members of the household are Leona’s remote mother Rose and her dangerous and abusive brother Raymond.

Sally helps Leona look after Isaiah, and Luther Briggs, the son of Leona’s grandfather and one of his slaves, helps her with the farm.  Since Raymond is often absent from home, Luther and his 15-year-old son Jesse, described as remaining “forever a child,” do a lot of the physical farm work.  Raymond is a racist so when he is around, tensions often arise between him and Jesse in particular.  Then Walker returns from overseas, but he brings someone with him.

Leona is admirable in many ways.  She is a young woman who has many burdens.  She is a single mother raising a child alone and, because she has a child out of wedlock, she has to endure shaming from the residents of the nearby town.  Raymond’s behaviour is dangerous so she has to protect herself and her son; also because her brother is irresponsible and unreliable, she has to ensure that the farm work is done.  Influenza arrives in the area and Leona is worried about her son, especially after several members of a friend’s family die.  And then she has more than one heartbreak. 

The perspective of several characters is given:  Leona, Luther, Walker, Rose, Raymond, Sally, and Jesse.  This narrative approach does allow the reader to know the characters better and to understand their motivations.  As a consequence, characters are shown to have both positive and negative traits.  For instance, Leona thinks Raymond is “incapable of love.  She imagined her brother’s heart a shriveled thing, cold to the touch, relentlessly beating.”  Certainly, many of his actions are deplorable and difficult to justify, but his thoughts do explain his motivations.

Unfortunately, I found the motivations of several characters to be rather weak.  Sally’s decision to keep a package from her niece is not convincing, though I imagine her mother’s comment that “’No man will ever have you’” suggests an underlying jealousy.  Edith’s not wanting to ask her mother-in-law for the name of a seamstress makes little sense since such a conversation might have served to promote a relationship.  Sometimes actions are never explained:  why doesn’t Luther return with cough syrup, especially when “It wasn’t like him not to keep his word”?

The novel as a whole has a disjointed feel.  Characters appear and then disappear until needed to impact the plot.  Luther, who is so important to Leona, is not present as much as one would expect.  When Sally’s presence would complicate issues, she is helpfully removed.  The Ridge Riders conveniently appear and disappear.  Wouldn’t Luther recognize Raymond’s beloved horse Belle when the Ridge Riders visit?  Sally doesn’t know the young man who drops in to see Leona?  She has lived in the area for two years and has never been to the mercantile store?  Comments she makes later suggest that she certainly knows his family!

The book examines the destructive power of secrets.  Leona hides the identity of Isaiah’s father, but she is not the only one who has secrets.  So do Rose, Sally, Luther, Walker, and Raymond.  Much tragedy could have been prevented if secrets had not been kept.  Even Jesse might have been better protected if he had been more forthcoming.  I was not shocked by Raymond and Luther’s revelations; there are clear indications that both are burdened by guilt. 

Though it touches on several important issues, the novel is uneven in quality.  The pace at the beginning is slow, and then the ending feels rushed.  And, as mentioned, the plot lacks fluidity and there are some plot holes.