Four in One: American Pop, From a Good Home, North of Normal and The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

American Pop

From a Good Home

North of Normal

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

’Twas the merry month of May and in one of those amazing cases of synchronicity and serendipity,  four books, one after another, four books that are all family stories came across my radar. One of the four, North of Normal, is a non-fiction memoir, the others, fiction. Two of them are Canadian – From a Good Home is the story about a Newfoundland family, by a Newfoundland author and North of Normal is authored by an American-born woman with a lot of Canadian connections.

The other two novels are multi-generational sagas that take place in the US, although Stella Fortuna, an immigrant story begins in Italy.

American Pop 

Snowden Wright

American Pop is the story of the southern family, the Forsters, who “discovered” and brought to market that great American (fictional) soft drink, Panola Cola. I enjoyed this novel, written, I have to say, in a novel way: the story skips from character to character and from year to year in a non-linear way. Sometimes you wonder, “Wait….What?” But I found if you just keep reading and go with the flow, all eventually makes sense, even if it does seem overly clever.

The tale involves the rise and fall of the Forster family and their very popular beverage. The "invention" of PanCola, by a druggist in the US south mirrors the "discovery" of CocaCola and I'm sure some of the details of the production of a product which eventually went global would sound familiar to CocaCola historians. 

There are some interesting plot twists which lift what might be a dull story into the sort of story you might someday see on the big screen. One of the interesting bits was a possible explanation for The New Coke* (remember when CocaCola did this and everybody hated it?) and the return to Classic Coke. The time frame of the novel, 1870’s to 1986, is a century in the life of a family that experiences all the complexities of accidents, murder, sexuality struggles, greed, loyalty, and racial tension while the rest of the world keeps on.

Although the author’s tone is light and witty, making for an enjoyable reading experience, some readers will find the format confusing. Try to stick with it.
Recommended.

* Re: New Coke: There was an article in the June 8/9, 2019 weekend New York Times that told us New Coke is being revived in a small way - a limited supply, 50,000 cans, will be available in certain US cities as part of a promotion of the Netflix series, "Stranger Things", a supermarket thriller set in the '80s. If you watch the show (I don't, not having any streaming TV service) keep an eye out for New Coke on set. Other products that have previously appeared on "Stranger Things"? Kelloggs Eggo Waffles and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Apparently, no money has changed hands between any of the companies involved.

From a Good Home

Trudi Johnson

Set in Newfoundland, this fictional account of the wealthy St. John’s Sinclair family and its secrets is revealed slowly and deliciously. Charles Sinclair has just died leaving a will that elates some, disappoints others. We soon meet Charles' various children, exes, grandchildren and grandkids’ friends. There is also a bequest to a woman in one of Newfoundland’s outports. Who is she and why should she benefit? Secrets are difficult to keep as time goes on and eventually all is revealed.

I enjoyed this book, although I admit finding it difficult at the beginning to keep so many characters straight, a common problem in my reading so I’m constantly, annoyingly flipping pages. The writing might have been improved by better editing.

There’s a sequel, All Good Intentions, which delves more deeply into the lives of some of the characters and I look forward to reading it, especially now that I’ve figured out who’s who. Recommended.

North Of Normal 

Cea Sunrise Person

Author, Cea Sunrise Person, credits Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle for giving her the impetus to write down her experience of her own unusual upbringing. Person's grandfather, Dick Person, now deceased, was a well-known charismatic outdoorsman and educator. You can Google him and find all sorts of tributes. What we learn from his daughter in this memoir is that when she was 3, in the early 70’s, Dick Person chose to move his family to the wilderness of Alberta to live off-grid and off the land and to run a wilderness school. Dick and his wife Jeanne, possibly inspired by the late 50's - 60's hippie movement, and their three daughters, Jan, Jessie and Michelle (Cea’s single mom, only 16 when Cea is born) but without their son, who is being treated in hospital for schizophrenia, move to an extremely remote part of Alberta. They live year-round in tents, grow their own vegetables and marijuana and also fish and hunt wildlife. Dick and Jeanne have liberal views of nudity, sex and soft drugs and encourage their daughters in all three. Visitors arriving each summer to learn the skills taught by a wilderness expert are expected to participate in this open lifestyle. It seems an understatement to say that this is an unusual upbringing for a young girl.

Although it’s clear throughout the book that Michelle regards her daughter Cea as the most important person in her life, there begin to be problems when it seems that Michelle is only happy when she has a male partner. Cea’s mom appears to be promiscuous and drug-addled and possibly mentally deficient. Smoking marijuana is the norm.

When Cea is 5, she and Michelle move away from Dick and Jeanne’s compound to live first with one man, then another as Cea is growing up. Schooling is sporadic and Cea’s social life is unstable. Cea’s birth father, who lives in California is financially supportive, but, on the two occasions she has the opportunity to meet him, Cea does not react well.

Cea Sunrise Persons’ story ends surprisingly well, you’ll be thankful to know, but getting there is painful and involves various forms of abuse and unconventional thinking difficult to read about. A fascinating story, I’d compare it more to Tara Westover’s Educated than to The Glass Castle, but, this book’s publication date (2014) predates that of Educated (2018). Included photos enhance the memoir. Recommended. 

There is a sequel, Nearly Normal which shines more light on Cea's experiences, based a lot on the feedback she received after North of Normal was published.

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna 

Juliet Grames

Author Juliet Grames draws upon her own heritage in writing this debut novel, a fictional saga of an Italian-American family. The story begins in a mountainous remote village in Calabria where patriarchy is the way of life. Life is difficult for an intelligent, independent and thoughtful daughter, Stella, to navigate. The reader will enjoy the experience of navigating along with Stella, understanding her thought processes and how eventually she is cornered and forced into marriage.

The tale opens with the background of Stella’s mother, Assunta and her marriage to Antonio. He seems to have no feelings whatsoever for Assunta and, encouraged by others who have gone before in search of economic betterment, he soon heads off to the US in that period between world wars, when railroads, bridges and buildings are all rising out of the American landscape, thanks in so much part to immigrant labour. For a few years, he sends money and comes back regularly, leaving Assunta with another baby on the way each time. The two eldest children are daughters, Stella and her younger sister, Tina who are best friends. After a few years, the family stops hearing from Antonio and life, never easy, but especially so with no financial support, is at least peaceful. But eventually Antonio/Tony sends for the entire family to immigrate, joining him in the US.

The impoverished family manages for a while in NYC, then moves to Hartford, Connecticut and as the story continues, the family’s circumstances improve. We follow the fortunes of the Fortuna family right up into Stella and Tina’s old age. The book’s title refers to Stella’s many accidents and near-death experiences and provides a framework for the story. Be warned that there are some very dark moments and harsh realities – it seems that physical, verbal and sexual abuse are written into the human story – they are everywhere in every age.

I picked The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna from the Express Best-Seller shelf as I was passing by one day at the library. I knew nothing about it, but the title grabbed me, being so similar to The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo both of which I enjoyed. I’m so glad I grabbed it – it's an excellent read. Recommended.