ゆっくり味う読書

Brown Girl Dreaming (Newbery Honor Book) (2014/08/28) Jacqueline Woodson 商品詳細を見る

昨年の全米図書賞Young People's Literature部門を受賞したBrown Girl Dreamingを読みました。ニューヨークタイムズの書評に共感できたのでご紹介します。一息で読めてしまうけど、一つ一つをじっくり味わって読んでもいいと書いている部分です。

Where We Enter
Jacqueline Woodson’s ‘Brown Girl Dreaming’
AUGUST 22, 2014
Children’s Books
By VERONICA CHAMBERS

You can read “Brown Girl Dreaming” in one sitting, but it is as rich a spread as the potluck table at a family reunion. Sure, you can plow through the pages, grabbing everything you can in one go, like piling a plate high with fried chicken and ribs, potato salad and corn bread. And yes, it’s entirely possible to hold that plate with one hand while balancing a bowl of gumbo and a cup of sweet tea with the other. But since the food isn’t going anywhere, you’ll make out just as well, maybe even a little better, if you pace yourself.



Free verseの形式で書かれていて一章一章がとても短いですが、その分イメージがありありと喚起されるのです。動画ではSaturday night smells of biscuits and burning hair.について話していますが、その賞の書き出し部分です。

hair night
Saturday night smells of biscuits and burning hair.
Supper done and my grandmother has transformed
the kitchen into a beauty shop. Laid across the table
is the hot comb, Dixie Peach hair grease,
horsehair brush, parting stick
and one girl at a time.

具体的なエピソードなのに万人に訴えかけるものがあると語っているインタビューがこの箇所に通じるものがあります。

National Book Award Winner Jacqueline Woodson Talks brown girl dreaming
NOVEMBER 26, 2014 – 10:17 AM – 0 COMMENTS
By SONA CHARAIPOTRA

brown girl dreaming is very specific in the sense of place and character – but it’s very universal to, in its approach to family and friendship. When you were writing it, did you worry about that – people always say, when it’s a writer-of-color, that these things are not relatable. Even though I don’t think that’s true at all.

There were definitely points in writing this that I felt like no one else would be interested in this. It’s such a specific story to my life. But I think that’s what we don’t get about the specifics. The more specific we are, the more universal something can become. Life is in the details. If you generalize, it doesn’t resonate. The specificity of it is what resonates.

生きていることの息遣いを感じ取れるみずみずしい作品になっています。ぱっと見とてもお若い感じがしたので、公民権運動の話をするに違和感を感じたのですが、１９６３年生まれの方なのですね。。。



miss bell and the marchers

They look like regular people
visiting our neighbor Miss Bell,
foil-covered dishes held out in front of them
as they arrive
some in pairs,
some alone,
some just little kids
holding their mothers' hands.

If you didn't know, you'd think it was just
an evening gathering. Maybe church people
heading into Miss Bell's house to talk
about God. But when Miss Bell pulls her blinds
closed, the people fill their dinner plates with food,
their glasses with sweet tea and gather
to talk about marching

And even though Miss Bell works for a white lady
who said I will fire you in a minute if I ever see you
on that line!
Miss Bell knows that marching isn’t the only thing
she can do,
knows that people fighting need full bellies to think
and safe places to gather.
She knows the white lady isn’t the only one
who’s watching, listening, waiting,
to end this fight. So she keeps the marchers’
glasses filled, adds more corn bread
and potato salad to their plates,
stands in the kitchen ready to slice
lemon pound cake into generous pieces.

And in the morning, just before she pulls
her uniform from the closet, she prays,
God, please give me and those people marching
another day.

Amen.