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Winterbirds & Comfort and Joy by Jim Grimsley |
Rating: ****1/2
Winterbirds and Comfort and Joy are reviewed together, because, although they are separate books, they focus on the same character, Danny Crell, a hemophiliac who comes from a background of dire poverty and abuse, but who instinctively understands the fragility of humanity and who finds love in the midst of the terror and chaos of the desperation we all endure for most of our lives.
Winterbirds is the story of Danny's childhood at a time when the family lives in fear of the rages of an alcoholic father who threatens often to maim or kill them. Even as a child Danny seems to understand that his father's anger comes as much from impotence in the wake of poverty as from patterns of cultural behavior. The novel is very much a story of the South and of southern attitudes toward gender and familial roles. Danny appears to understand the pressures his family lives under and he is resourceful at comforting others while retaining a sense of distance and underlying strength.
Danny is a child who understands that the thread of life is tenuous and that we are helpless much of the time. Long bouts of illness, when his life literally bleeds away, teach Danny that we hold on to life by a thread. His acceptance of powerlessness and his solutions contrast with his father's inablitliy to accept his sapped strength due to injury and lack of an education that might have made his economic viability more secure. Danny's father vents his frustration on his family and, urged along by alcohol, nearly succeeds in terminating their lives more than once.
Grimsley explores the complexity of marital relationships. At first it seems difficult to understand why Danny's mother doesn't leave the marriage, but as the book continues, we see how intertwined the parents have become and how their relationship has twisted into a tangled web of paranoia, desire and struggle for control. Danny' mother is at the same time a tower of strength in defence of her children, and again a terrified woman who has lost the ability to control her destructive spouse and who lives in an era when her economic options are limited. She is well aware of the danger of the situation, but at a loss as to what to do or where to go. Fearful for her children, she does her best to protect them. She is nurturing and supportive and her persistence at getting care for Danny is a tribute to her inner core of maternal resolve.
The style in which the book is written is sweetly beautiful. Danny and the reader listen as we are told the story by someone older as if looking back on days long gone by. I thought perhaps it might be Danny himself talking to his inner child. As we listen we become that Danny child and suffer and delight along with him.
The book ends on a frightening note of abuse. I am so glad that Comfort and Joy came along. Knowing that Danny was able to grow up and find his way in the world was a great relief.
*****
Comfort and Joy takes place thirty years after the events of Winterbirds. Danny is a hospital administrator and in love with Ford, a surgeon from a wealthy family whose Southern aristocratic traditions are difficult to break. The story is equally about Ford whose family issues are different from Danny's. Their backgrounds are in fierce contrast and cause conflicts within the relationship. In spite of those conflicts, Danny and Ford manage to steer their course through their first Christmas together. Rejected by Ford's parents, they spend the holidays at Danny's mother's trailer in a cemetery which she owns and keeps up. Danny's father is long dead and she has remarried. Present for the day are Danny's sister and brother and nieces and nephews. Danny's mother loves him and comes quickly to accept Ford. Through the course of the weekend we work through the relationship conflicts and the historical precedents which cause them. Both men are strong willed but their love for one another carries them through the tension and discord.
As we explore fictional relationships, of course we explore our own. This is a book that speaks to all of us about partnership, tolerance, and priorities between couples. Ford's background is fascinating and so apposite from Danny's that the reader has to reflect somewhat on our society and how different economic circumstances can affect the course of our lives in hidden, unconcious ways. One particularly memorable scene is when Ford buys Danny's mother a present that is more expensive than the family tradition allows. Ford insists over Danny's protests, that he wants to spend his money in his own way. Danny bristles at Ford's disregard for family protocol and for his insensitivity to money and it's social context. For Danny, having lived so long in poverty, money is more a focus than to Ford who has always had more than necessary to meet his needs.
This is a story of two people who love each other and are drawn together by strong mutual attraction to one another's strengths. The reader knows much more about each of them than they do about each other and I still marvel at how well they are able to work through conflict knowing as little about each other as they do. Motivations clear to me are not clear to them, yet they persist in their pursuit of their partnership.
This is a heartwarming book, full of hope and light even against a background of winter.
