Women and Resilience

I was thinking about two (fairly) recent books I've read: Educated and Where the Crawdads Sing (book review here) and realized the similarities between them.  

Both were inspiring stories of strong, intelligent women who had suffered simply awful childhoods, one through physical and psychological abuse by her family and the other through neglect and abandonment. These women succeeded in rising above their horrific early years to build a successful life and make solid contributions to society. Their stories were totally engaging; they were the kind of books you wanted to read in one sitting because you couldn't bear to put them down.

Both books spent long periods on best seller lists, so I am not the only one who found them so captivating.  Fascinating that they were both published in the same year.  I wonder if, if these dystopian times, there is a heightened appetite for uplifting tales.

Where the Crawdads Sing

This book has endured almost a year on the best seller list but somehow the title and the description didn't resonate with me. I finally succumbed and read it. And loved it.

The book could be described as being about loneliness, and indeed that is a central theme, But, for me, it was more about the strength and resilience of Kya Clark who builds herself a life after, one by one, her family abandons her at a young age to make her way alone in the depths of North Carolina's swampland. She lives alone in her  isolated shack, evading the efforts of truant officers and interacting minimally with nearby townspeople with their deep disdain and distrust of the ' girl'.

With the inventiveness of a Robinson Crusoe, Kya creates a self-sustaining life with the loyal support of a black storekeeper deep in the swamp for the necessities of the body and the young boy who teaches her to read for the necessities of the spirit. There is a fascinating plot turn later in the book but for me the pivot point of the book comes early, when a young boy teaches Kya to read. So begins her incredible self-education and remarkable chronicling of the creatures of the swamp. The later plot seems secondary.

The swamp itself is a central character, laying its soft, languorous mantle over a story that unfolds gently over her years of discovery of the mysteries of the swamp and its creatures, the joy and treachery of love, and the satisfaction of self-education and research.

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