Belonging--the first novel by Jill Fordyce--is a tenderly drawn coming-of-age story that sympathetically traverses decades in the life of one soul-searching woman from Bakersfield, Calif., and how generational influences shape her fate.
The story begins in December 1977--a time filled with
wood-paneled station wagons, the music of Merle Haggard and Carole King, and
movies like The Goodbye Girl, Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, and Saturday Night Fever. Jenny Hayes is 13 years
old, a "shy and slow to make friends" eighth-grader fascinated by
photography and smitten with Billy Ambler--"his broad shoulders, the dark
curls that touched the top of his perfect ears, the way he held his camera like
he knew what he was doing." Jenny's best friend is Henry, the
"boldest and funniest person" she had ever known. The two bonded in
kindergarten and became "unlikely but inseparable" friends. Henry's
parents broke up when he and Jenny were in the fifth grade, and he is privy to
Jenny's home life--the erratic, neglectful, and emotionally abusive nature of
her alcoholic mother, Janice. Henry knows "the crushing level of
cruelty" of which Jenny's mother is capable, and how her father--amiable,
but often absent--works long hours as a produce broker to escape Janice's
wrath.
Jenny's saving grace--in addition to her friendship with
Henry--is her extended family on her mother's side. The Morettis, who also
reside in Bakersfield, are vivacious, loving, and spiritually bolstered by
their Catholic faith. The supportive presence of her widowed Nonna and Uncle
Gino--Nonna's youngest brother, also widowed, who runs a local antiques
shop--brings happiness and much-needed stability to Jenny's life. She often
works at the store and is always intrigued when Gino and Nonna regale her with
stories of the Moretti family's migration from Italy in 1902, and how they came
to put down roots in California.
Shortly before Christmas, a terrible dust storm sweeps the
San Joaquin Valley. Eleven days later, Jenny wakes to find itchy red welts
covering her body. She has contracted valley fever, an illness caused by fungus
spores stirred up in the wind that enter the lungs and develop into a
pneumonia-like infection. Jenny's damaged right lung keeps her out of school
for months. Throughout her long, harrowing medical ordeal, Jenny's mother and
Nonna care for her daily. Janice and Nonna share a "tenuous and bitter"
relationship, as Janice became pregnant with Jenny when she was only 19; she
eloped, and Jenny was born six months later.
During her prolonged isolation, Jenny draws from the
spiritual faith of Nonna and Uncle Gino. Catholic statues and religious icons
that Jenny discovers at Uncle Gino's shop become sacred touchstones; they bring
comfort on her long road to healing. And a collection of prayer cards with
religious art depicting the lives of the saints takes on greater meaning when
an unexpected death profoundly impacts Jenny's young, still malleable life.
When Jenny returns to school months later, she reconnects
with Billy Ambler, who is now an aspiring pitcher. The two join forces, taking
pictures for their photography course, and romance blooms. For the next several
years of high school, Jenny and Billy's passionate young love grows--a love
that, in some ways, liberates Jenny from the prickly relationship with her
mother, who is clearly jealous of her daughter's happiness. At every turn,
Janice passes judgment, calling Jenny "trashy" and
"floozy," among other slurs. Janice also degrades Henry, describing
him as a "freak." These slanders deepen the mother-daughter divide,
and Jenny applies to college to escape her mother. Through it all, Jenny
conceals her mother's alcoholism from Billy, who doesn't fully accept Jenny's
enduring, however changing, friendship with Henry.
At the end of senior year, Jenny and Henry set off to
study at USC, while Billy gets a baseball scholarship to Arizona State. Jenny
and Billy make a heartfelt, romantic vow: in seven years, after they launch
their adult lives, they will get married. But surprising twists and turns,
choices made, challenge them and change both Henry's and their lives.
Readers dip in and out of dramatic episodes from Jenny's
life. Fordyce crafts perceptive scenes that depict Jenny's maturation,
illustrating how the past influences her ability to love and trust. The path
she travels rarely goes according to plan. Jenny, and those who come to define
her life, are tested, forced to face hard truths--even truths about themselves.
Can wounds from the past ever truly heal? Is forgiveness possible? And what
will it take for Jenny to carve out her own unique place in the world so she
can finally experience a true sense of belonging?
Multi-layered characterizations, spiritual undertones, and
emotionally evocative scenes propel this searching, inspiring story that
explores themes of trust and loyalty; secrets and truth-telling; the meaning of
love; and the many challenges posed in living a truly authentic life. With
prodigious insight and great delicacy, Fordyce intimately explores ideas of
family in its many forms--how family can both empower and damage--while also
probing the battles between the head and the heart in matters of love and
acceptance.
Belonging:
A Novel by Jill Fordyce
Post Hill Press, $28.99
hardcover, 9798888451748, 279 pages
Publishing Date: January 30, 2024
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NOTE: This review is a reprint and is
being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness.
To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness: Maximum
Shelf (December 18, 2023),
link HERE