The View From Here
By Brian Keith Jackson
Pocket Books, 229 pages, $22
Desiring nothing more than to keep a baby her husband doesn’t want, a black woman in 1950s Mississippi tries to do what’s expected of her in a world that gives her no slack.
Brian Keith Jackson’s first novel, “The View From Here,” tells Anna Anderson Thomas’ story through her eyes and those of her unborn child. Anna is devoted to her husband and five sons, but also to two other females, neither of whom can respond to her.
Anna’s best friend, Ida Mae, teaches her most of the facts of life, challenging the obedient girl to let go. “Have I ever got you in trouble before?” Ida Mae asks. “Scratch that question,” she grins. But Ida Mae moves “up north” to find the good life and escape the prejudice of the South, and Anna must be content to write letters that never find her peripatetic friend.
She consoles herself with an intimate connection to the child in her womb. She writes to Ida Mae, “Sometimes I think it’s just me and this baby. I find myself talking to her. I need to talk to someone, even if they can’t talk back, maybe because they can’t talk back.”
The men in her life control how Anna thinks and acts. When she fearfully tells her husband, J.T., that she’s pregnant, he decides the baby will be turned over to his childless sister and her husband. Anna never argues for a minute with this decision, although she deeply loves “li’l Lisa.”
Ever full of explanation to her children and Ida Mae, Anna keeps her faith in her husband, who spends the majority of her pregnancy at a local bar.
Jackson’s novel switches between li’l Lisa’s narration, Anna’s letters and her flashbacks, sometimes complicating the flow of the story. Still, he provides a tender understanding of a woman’s struggles as she is surrounded by men and an unfeeling sister-in-law.
“Auntie,” J.T.’s sister, can hardly wait for the baby’s birth. She comes to help at the house, but her assistance entails endless criticism of the boys’ behavior and few household duties. She informs the family she has already picked out a name for the child, who she assumes will be a boy. Her insensitivity toward Anna, J.T. and the boys increases as Anna’s delivery approaches, as does their resentment and fear of this domineering woman.
The novel begins to move more quickly after an initially slow start, but Jackson leaves readers guessing until the last few pages as to how Anna’s pregnancy will end. Yet by the climax, so many aspects of the plot come to completion that the emotions they create are not thoroughly examined.
Still, Jackson’s reflections at novel’s end clearly reveal his sympathy for women in a poor, prejudiced society and his admiration for their quiet strength. Such sensitivity, coupled with the ability to realistically portray a woman’s emotions, make Jackson a writer to watch in the future.
