At first glance, Susan Crandall’s WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD reminds the reader of other coming of age books that take place in the South during the 1960’s. The Secret Life of Bees came to mind with touches of The Help and To Kill a Mockingbird. WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD deserves to be included with these excellent books, but it is definitely an original piece of literature.
Starla Claudelle is nine years old and lives in her exacting grandmother’s home in Mississippi. Starla’s mother left when Starla was three years old to become famous in Nashville as a country singer. Her father works on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and rarely gets home.
Mamie has never approved of Starla’s white-trash mother and has been working very hard to turn the young girl into a respectable lady, but Starla’s natural tendencies to speak her mind and to get into fights put the two of them at constant odds.
Mamie forbids Starla from going to the town’s big Fourth of July parade and celebration, but she sneaks out only to be caught by Jimmy Sellers’ angry mother. (Starla had caused Jimmy’s bloody nose, but he had deserved it.) Mrs. Sellers’s threat to have Starla sent to a reform school, a threat that she has heard from her grandma many times, causes Starla to just start walking out of town. Her idea is to get to Nashville where her famous mother will take care of her. That way she, her mother and her daddy will all live happily together.
After walking far enough to realize that she should have thought this trip out a little better--no food or water, her feet hurt, and she had no idea which way to Nashville-- she is picked up by Eula. Eula is a black woman driving a truck that is falling apart and has a white baby with her.
This trip will change Starla’s life forever. The nine-year-old will face dangerous racial bias, deal with attempts on her own life, and be a witness to murder. Along the way she will also experience unconditional love and learn that meanness or kindness know no color lines.
The story is told by Starla herself and we easily fall into her innocent dreams for the future. After awhile, we start to read between the lines and decide that the world is a grittier place than a nine-year-old realizes. The author, Susan Crandell leads us along, slowly helping us to decide who is good and who is really bad.
Starla is a well drawn character. She will stay with you for a long time. I also liked how well the author captured other characters in the book. The racial tension of the 1960’s has been written about a lot lately, but it seemed fresh and even more tense when seen through the innocent eyes of Starla. Starla’s observations on human nature are also worth the read. She has enough pluck and humor to keep the book moving to a very satisfying conclusion.
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