Rita’s Week Continues!
...With a review of her soon to be released novel for a Brand New Book Club and an exclusive interview on how she bent time and managed multiple narrators.
by Rita Williams-Garcia
A review
Dominique: the bully
Leticia: the witness
Trina: the victim
Three high school girls. One typical day. One telling moment. In Rita Williams-Garcia’s new novel Jumped (HarperTeen/Amistad, March, 2009) she takes a hard look at human nature.
Zero period and the ever-observant gossip, Leticia, fakes her escape from class “to be outside where the dirt is fresh and the gossip is good.” Leticia’s got her ear to the ground, catching it all “while it’s clicking and flashing; what they’re wearing, who they’re with, and what they’re saying.” And she hits pay dirt.
Down the hall comes self-absorbed, pink-pretty Trina, who waltzes through life certain that when “people see me, they see walking art.” But Trina’s dance places her in Dominique’s path, and just then Dominique, a fierce basketball player, is angry at the world. Coach has benched her for poor grades and Dominique is fuming for a fight.
“She cuts a knife through my space then turns,” says Dominique about Trina, who has, unaware, insulted Dominique by walking too near. “And I slam my fist into my other hand because she’s good as jumped…”
Giddy with this gossip—that Dominique will lay in wait for the unsuspecting Trina after school—Leticia dials her friend, Bea. But Bea disappoints her by asking her to get involved. “You gotta give Trina a clue,” she says… “You’re the only one who witnessed it all go down. This is your mess.”
Will Leticia decide Bea is right? That being a witness makes it her mess?
Jumped plays out the tensions inherent in this moral question. In a dovetailing drama that unfolds through multiple narrators in the space of several hours, the novel, like growing up itself, flows like a river, pulls you down the rapids and sends you inexorably over the falls.
Williams-Garcia is a master of voice and spare, rhythmic prose, which she uses to dig to the heart of each character and deliver them up in all their self-importance. And the beauty of this book is how skillfully the author hits her mark. A feat accomplished not through introspection but the weave of inspired action which draws the reader relentlessly to its tough conclusion.
---zu vincent
Rita’s Secrets for Bending Time and Managing Multiple Narrators
Q: The novel takes place over one day. Have you used this technique before?
When I was in college, I sold a short story to Essence Magazine that was never published. The story takes place within the time frame of a girl and her boyfriend standing at a red light before crossing at the green light. Within those thirty seconds the girl decides whether she’ll continue on with her boyfriend. Other than that, this is it.
Q: Why did you choose this compressed time frame?
Many reasons. I didn’t want to delve into the girls’ home lives any more than I had. I didn’t want to point to social issues to explain why Dominique is the way she is or give easy answers.
Instead, I thought it would be fitting to handle a seemingly random act in a tight space. And since it’s predicated on so little, the merciful thing to do for the reader would be to not belabor the storytelling. These brutal attacks usually just happen. (I actually saw one today on the F Train. Three girls and a woman who supposedly kicked one of the girls. ) To stretch it, I’d have to make Dominique question her actions when I didn’t believe she would.
And honestly, there is nothing Trina could do to make amends to Dominique. It’s so not about Trina although she is the casualty. Realistically, in a story that takes place over time, I wouldn’t have been able to keep Dominique’s intentions away from Trina. In that case, it would be out of Leticia’s hands and I wanted to keep Leticia on the hook.
Q: What were the challenges of writing in such a short time span?
Back story. Digression. Characters yakking about their outlook on life. How much can I get away with and yet move the story forward? I have a folder filled with unused chapters, all under the, “Covered that already,” banner. One of my favorites involves Leticia and her mother shopping on
Q: What were the advantages and disadvantages of this technique?
Well, it should work for the story you’re telling. Not everyone can wear the hot new fashion that’s got everyone buzzing, nor can a storytelling technique be grabbed off the rack. When the fit is good, everything falls like dominoes. You achieve a nice symmetry. When it’s an ill fit, we all point. “Look at Rita Williams-Garcia in that thang. What was she thinking?”
I liked this form for this story because the field of battle is contained. The structure—nine periods times three students, was pretty much laid out for me. We know we’re headed for
Q: How did you face narrative arc, pace, and character change in such a compressed time frame?
I gave each character her own arc in a moment of truth that all happens just before the attack. Trina’s moment of truth comes in art class when Ivan won’t let her live in her bubble. Be prepared, Trina. That ain’t all.
Leticia’s happens in her chemistry class, and Dominique’s occurs in Coach’s office—one last chance to turn it around.
So you have these three characters in rising states anger, anxiety and rage mounted relatively close together in the chapters before the attack. There’s nowhere else to take this but to its inevitable collision.
Thank you Rita! We'll see you again tomorrow with Stephanie Greene on The Tollbooth. ~z.v.
Add a Comment