Books and the ideas within can transform a person and shape thoughts as well as transform others through the way a life is lived. What are the books that have changed the way you think? Take a moment to ponder. There are three books that formed my beliefs, but I haven't read them, yet. They have shaped me because they shaped my mother and determined the way she would raise her children. My mother grew up tossed from pillow to post, her life was filled with uncertainty, but the one thing that she was certain of was that the messages she received at home were not the ones that she wanted to guide her. As a solace to her often tumultuous life, my mother turned to literature. When we moved into town, she immediately claimed the small room off the living room as her refuge--she filled it with sewing and craft supplies along with books. She pronounced it her library.
But of all the hundreds of books in the library, my mother always said that there were three that were the most important to her, that changed and shaped her opinions about good, evil, hate, and prejudices. Living during the civil rights movement between Houston and the Southern enclave of southeastern Oklahoma known as Little Dixie, one-sided opinions about race relations abounded. My mother turned to literature to find the other side. In these books she was able to walk in another's shoes, to find hope and dignity in the human experience, and the message she wanted to teach her children. It was this message that I internalized and allowed me to see past the color/culture divides in my own life without senseless angst or hate despite the opposite message I often heard growing up in Little Dixie.
The first: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, first published in 1960. My mother would have been about 18 when it came out. The story is iconic and familiar to us now. Atticus Finch will forever be Gregory Peck in our collective minds. Although, I have not read the book, I have seen the movie--most recently during a trip back to visit my mom. Comfy and munching on pork rinds (some Southern things should not be shoved to the side) we watched Atticus fight injustice as Scout learned the lessons her generation would fight for.
Next is Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn, called a rediscovered classic on Amazon. The following has been copied from Amazon's website. This gripping bestseller, first published in 1966, has continued to captivate readers with its wide-ranging yet intimate portrait of an America sundered by racial conflict. David Champlin is a black man born into poverty in Depression-era New Orleans who makes his way up the ladder of success, only to sacrifice everything to lead his people in the civil rights movement. Sara Kent is the white girl who loves David from the moment she first sees him, and who struggles against his belief that a marriage for them would be wrong in the violent world he has to confront. And the “five smooth stones” are those the biblical David carried against Goliath. By the time this novel comes to its climax of horror, bloodshed, and hope, readers will be convinced that its enduring popularity is fully justified.
Published the year I born, this was the one she told me that if I read none of the other three that I should read this one.
And finally: Before the Sun Goes Down by Elizabeth Metzger Howard. Also copied from Amazon: Any outline of this many paneled story of a Pennsylvania town in the '80's would sound like many another story taking the reader behind the scenes, showing how the upper crust -- the "best people" lived, and how life wasn't all glitter even for them; showing too how the other half lived -- and that there were glimpses of glory even in poverty and degradation. But somehow it isn't like any other book. It's not great literature -- it is overwritten and padded and labors the point at times. But it is alive. Ant the people -- for the most part -- breathe. You see the barriers of arbitrary social divisions beginning to break down; you see old shibboleths cracking and breaking; you see, from small town angles, big town problems of racial division. And focus for all in the town, good and bad, is Dr. Dan Field, who had silently loved Pris all their lives in Willowsprings, Dr. Dan who served the people in Mudtown with even greater passion than the people in the big houses, Dr. Dan who helped both sides understand each other. It is his story, and that of Bert who would be a doctor, and Sammy who was just like his father, and Ray who was some day going to know all there was to know. A book with a real chance. Winner of the $20.000 Doubleday, MGM prize novel award. (Kirkus Review)
Although it was published in 1946, my mother said her best friend Mabel gave her Before the Sun Goes Down in early 1969. She remembers starting the book while she was in the hospital for pregnancy complications with my younger brother. She was only there for a few days but the novel was well finished before she checked out.
Unlike me, my mother likes to re-read books again and again, these 3 books she makes a habit of re-reading every few years to keep their ideas fresh. In fact they are so important to my mother that she has collected three copies of each to bequeath to me and my brothers so that we can understand and possess the ideas best represent my mother's internal thoughts. In 2018, I have promised that I would read all three and will collect my copies when go home.
Note: The lead photo was taken in Las Vegas on depending who you talk to: an invigorating walk on a crystal clear day for me or a death march under the desert sun for my friend Mary from our hotel to the Venetian. When I took the photo, Five Smooth Stones as well as a formative book for me: Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi came into my mind. Literature can shape our ideas, provide a moral compass and make us realize that there are some shoes that should never have to fit anyone comfortably again. Ideas encountered or articulated anew by one person and passed down to another demonstrate the transformative power that books have.