The Sweetheart Season : A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Rating:
Summary: A 1947 larger than life
Review: Fowler's delightful second novel is the story of the magical, postwar summer of 1947 when the hometown soldiers never returned to the small town of Magrit and the young women formed a baseball team to find husbands - and prove the efficacy of breakfast cereal. Or is it?

The story is narrated by the now-middle-aged daughter of Irini Doyle, the Sweetwheat Sweetheart's home-run hitter and strong right arm. The narrator tells us right off that she prefers drama to fact and that her mother filtered truth through a generous spirit: " 'I'm just fine. You go and have a nice dinner,' were the last words she ever said to me."

So it's the daughter's story of her mother's youth, written from the vantage point of experience, disillusion, affection and love. "When my mother told it to me, it was a very short story. I have been forced to compensate not only for her gentle outlook, but also for her spare narration."

Magrit is a mill town, dominated since 1898 by Henry Collins, who drowned Upper Magrit (with the connivance of Lower Magrit, forever unforgiven) to build Margaret Mill, home of Sweetwheats breakfast cereal. An earnest, zany Kellogg-type, adhering steadfastly to scientific modernism, but just a beat behind, Henry is devastated when someone invents fishsticks before he thinks of it. "Fish so transformed that even children would eat it."

The idea for the baseball team comes after a Collins dinner party when Henry and his artistic, political wife Ada are waiting with Irini (present as server) for her drunken father to pick her up. The baseball idea is a diversion. Ada is diverting Henry from his enthusiasm for obtaining an ape on which to conduct nutrition studies; Henry is diverting Ada from her enthusiasm for unionizing the mill girls; both are diverting Irini from brooding about her father's undependability.

Not that Irini's father is mean or pathetic. A lonely widower since Irini's birth, he's the voice of caustic reason (very un-1947ish) and Irini is the apple of his eye.

While Irini's father taught her baseball, her spectacular arm was developed in the mill's Scientific Kitchen, kneading bread. Most of the Magrit girls work in the Kitchen where foods are tested to the strict standard of fictional Maggie Collins, the housewife-heroine whose advice goes out to women world-wide in the company magazine "Women At Home."

Fowler peppers her narrative with Maggie's tips. "To prevent snow from sticking, cut an onion in half and run it over the windshield of your car." Women write to her poignantly of war losses and family triumphs. Maggie responds with cheer and practical advice for women heading back into kitchens everywhere.

But something is happening to Maggie. Sabotage in the form of phallic fruit salads, and rebellious encouragement of women who love women, who gain weight with abandon, who lift their eyes beyond the kitchen.

Meanwhile, the Sweethearts are playing baseball, coached by Walter Collins, the patriarch's grandson and Irini's unappreciated beau. They're playing 11-year-olds and drunken louts - and losing. Of course, women should lose at baseball if they want husbands but none of them are pleased.

Their bus passes an old farm truck and the driver yells something. "It was 1947, so it never entered their heads it might be something rude." Along with Maggie's tips this is another Fowler refrain. "It was 1947 so if you caught a fish you could eat it." "It was 1947 so who knew alcoholism was genetic?"

Fowler's characters - her narrator's characters - are small town girls but larger than life. There's Tracey, doggedly average but supremely self-confident; Sissy, sweetly dimwitted but with surprising strength of character; Fanny, the leader and the vamp.

Fowler ("Sarah Canary") has fun with comic stereotypes, creating a starry-eyed nostalgia, gently undercut with loneliness and the turning worm. The narrator's voice is perfect - ironic but affectionate, looking back on a mother's story she can only imagine:

"You would do well therefore to keep always in mind that this is a story told by two liars. It is possible, our fictional impulses being so opposite, that we may arrive together at something clear-eyed and straightforward....If this happens it will be by accident. It is not my intention. I will go so far as to say I would consider it a disappointment."

"The Sweetheart Season" is a grand slam of a novel.

Rating:
Summary: Part fairy tale, part historical novel...
Review: I enjoyed this book. Karen Joy Fowler has written a novel that marks out a genre all its own, as it is not quite an "historical novel," not quite science fiction, not quite feminist fiction, and not quite fantasy. It succeeds in being imaginative, politically astute, and historically informative, however, as Ms. Fowler uses the events of the story as a vehicle for including endless anecdotes, "fun facts," and asides that reveal her vast and intricate knowledge of U.S. political and social history. There's even a plethora of "homemaker tips" included, for good measure. The plot is not the point here; in this novel, the "journey is the reward," as each and every page includes verbal gems and incisive bits of social commentary and are endlessly engrossing and enlightening.

Rating:
Summary: Sweetwheats, Sweethearts, Sweet Book
Review: I stumbled upon this book quite by accident, but I am glad I did. This was a genuinely sweet coming of age story set just after WWII. The plot centers around a cereal factory in a small Mid-Western town and the girls who work in the company's test kitchens. It reminds us of a simpler time when life moved a good bit slower. The characters are all very well developed and the descriptions are fantastic. This book is a nice way to pass a lazy afternoon.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the effort?
Review: The Sweetheart Season concerns a small town in northern Minnesota, Magrit, home to a grain mill and an associated cereal business. It is set in 1947. The viewpoint character is Irini Doyle, though the story is told in the "voice" of her daughter, retelling Irini's story from a present day perspective. Irini lives with her alcoholic father (her mother is dead), who is a research chemist at the cereal company. Irini works in the Research Kitchen of the cereal company. The other characters are her co-workers (all women) in the Kitchen, as well as the company founder, his wife, and his grandson, and a few other local women.

The main action of the novel revolves somewhat loosely around a promotional scheme of the founder: the girls at the company form a baseball team, which barnstorms through Minnesota and Wisconsin, purportedly demonstrating the nutritive benefits of the company's cereal by their success. Several other narrative threads are woven into the story: the writing of a continuing promotional kitchen/life advice column by the fictional Maggie Collins, a sort of Betty Crocker-type spokesperson for the cereal company; the antagonism between the former residents of Upper Magrit (submerged to make the mill) and Lower Magrit (where everyone now lives); the involvement of the mill owner's wife with Gandhi and the Indian independence movement; the efforts of the local women to find love and husbands in a town left nearly male-free by the war; and a mysterious (young, male) visitor to Magrit. All of these threads are well-integrated with the novel's theme, as I read it: essentially: the nascent "Women's Liberation" movement, though that over-simplifies: but the focus on the "Kitchen", yet in the context of women who are all working, and playing a nominally male sport, combined with the ironic voice of the present day narrator, and the ironic-in-this-context quotes from Maggie Collins' women's magazine advice column, quite nicely merge to make simple, true, statements about the position of women in 1947, and in our time.

The female characters are very well drawn, and almost invariably engaging. A couple of the male characters come off as ciphers, but the portraits of Irini's father, and of old Henry Collins, the mill owner, are very good. Fowler's prose is clean and elegant. Her narrative voice is a delight: ironic, affectionate, knowing, often very funny. One brief quote, from one of Maggie Collins' advice columns, meant to be read in the context of the decision to form a baseball team: "Polls have recently confirmed what has long been suspected; most men do not want brainy women. Stewardesses have turned out to be that occupation blessed most often with marriage. The key elements appear to be uniforms and travel."

I wouldn't rank The Sweetheart Season quite as highly as Fowler's first novel, Sarah Canary. At times the usually wonderfully controlled ironic voice turns a little shrill. At times she drives home a point unnecessarily: it is sufficient to show us the evidence, or to leave an ironic statement alone for the reader to interpret. Also, I was completely unable to believe the resolution of one of the plot threads. However, the book as a whole is thoroughly enjoyable, and says a lot of worthwhile things about the place of women in our society, especially about how (and, I suppose, why) it changed in the years during and after World War II.

Rating:
Summary: Ironic, knowing, thoroughly enjoyable
Review: The Sweetheart Season concerns a small town in northern Minnesota, Magrit, home to a grain mill and an associated cereal business. It is set in 1947. The viewpoint character is Irini Doyle, though the story is told in the "voice" of her daughter, retelling Irini's story from a present day perspective. Irini lives with her alcoholic father (her mother is dead), who is a research chemist at the cereal company. Irini works in the Research Kitchen of the cereal company. The other characters are her co-workers (all women) in the Kitchen, as well as the company founder, his wife, and his grandson, and a few other local women.

The main action of the novel revolves somewhat loosely around a promotional scheme of the founder: the girls at the company form a baseball team, which barnstorms through Minnesota and Wisconsin, purportedly demonstrating the nutritive benefits of the company's cereal by their success. Several other narrative threads are woven into the story: the writing of a continuing promotional kitchen/life advice column by the fictional Maggie Collins, a sort of Betty Crocker-type spokesperson for the cereal company; the antagonism between the former residents of Upper Magrit (submerged to make the mill) and Lower Magrit (where everyone now lives); the involvement of the mill owner's wife with Gandhi and the Indian independence movement; the efforts of the local women to find love and husbands in a town left nearly male-free by the war; and a mysterious (young, male) visitor to Magrit. All of these threads are well-integrated with the novel's theme, as I read it: essentially: the nascent "Women's Liberation" movement, though that over-simplifies: but the focus on the "Kitchen", yet in the context of women who are all working, and playing a nominally male sport, combined with the ironic voice of the present day narrator, and the ironic-in-this-context quotes from Maggie Collins' women's magazine advice column, quite nicely merge to make simple, true, statements about the position of women in 1947, and in our time.

The female characters are very well drawn, and almost invariably engaging. A couple of the male characters come off as ciphers, but the portraits of Irini's father, and of old Henry Collins, the mill owner, are very good. Fowler's prose is clean and elegant. Her narrative voice is a delight: ironic, affectionate, knowing, often very funny. One brief quote, from one of Maggie Collins' advice columns, meant to be read in the context of the decision to form a baseball team: "Polls have recently confirmed what has long been suspected; most men do not want brainy women. Stewardesses have turned out to be that occupation blessed most often with marriage. The key elements appear to be uniforms and travel."

I wouldn't rank The Sweetheart Season quite as highly as Fowler's first novel, Sarah Canary. At times the usually wonderfully controlled ironic voice turns a little shrill. At times she drives home a point unnecessarily: it is sufficient to show us the evidence, or to leave an ironic statement alone for the reader to interpret. Also, I was completely unable to believe the resolution of one of the plot threads. However, the book as a whole is thoroughly enjoyable, and says a lot of worthwhile things about the place of women in our society, especially about how (and, I suppose, why) it changed in the years during and after World War II.

Rating:
Summary: Too Clever By Half
Review: There's no doubt that Ms. Fowler is a talented writer. Her problem, I think, is that she is so captivated by her own abilities that she scarecely lets the reader appreciate them for himself. I, for one, found the constant interventions of the narrator and her leaning on the reader to be both repetitive and annoying. The story itself is told in about twice the time it should take and with the exception of Irini, her father, and Ruby Redd, none of the characters are fully realized for me. This is particularly and sadly true of Ada who is mostly caricature, but meant -- I think -- to be sympathetic. Keeping the members of the Sweethearts straight was a major task. On the plus side, this is a fine rendering of America just after WWII and is pretty funny in many parts; the humor of the letters and the recipes tucked in between the story is especially fun. A talent at work surely, but too much intent on displaying itself to make the world of the fiction fully realized. One time to pay attention to the narrator: when she tells you to skip the last four pages, do so.

Rating:
Summary: Too Clever By Half
Review: There's no doubt that Ms. Fowler is a talented writer. Her problem, I think, is that she is so captivated by her own abilities that she scarecely lets the reader appreciate them for himself. I, for one, found the constant interventions of the narrator and her leaning on the reader to be both repetitive and annoying. The story itself is told in about twice the time it should take and with the exception of Irini, her father, and Ruby Redd, none of the characters are fully realized for me. This is particularly and sadly true of Ada who is mostly caricature, but meant -- I think -- to be sympathetic. Keeping the members of the Sweethearts straight was a major task. On the plus side, this is a fine rendering of America just after WWII and is pretty funny in many parts; the humor of the letters and the recipes tucked in between the story is especially fun. A talent at work surely, but too much intent on displaying itself to make the world of the fiction fully realized. One time to pay attention to the narrator: when she tells you to skip the last four pages, do so.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the effort?
Review: This book was chosen by a member of my book club for its November selection, and we were given the book in ample time. For some reason I found myself delaying getting around to it----the title wasn't particularly appealing, and the cover (on the Ballantine paperback) certainly is not attractive. I made a number of attempts to get into it and found myself falling asleep again and again, each time having to go back and start from scratch. I even made a list of the characters which I reviewed each time I began, but that didn't help much either.

For the most part I found the characters not well-fleshed out, not believable, and not very interesting. Overall, it seems to me written in an unnecessarily confusing way, requiring a lot of work on the reader's part to clarify what the author is really saying. The "conversation with the author" (included in my copy) is more interesting than the book itself.

After finishing the book I went to Amazon.com to check editorial reviews and found that Kirkus expressed my reactions pretty well with the following comment: "sluggish though skillful." Too much so to bother with unless you have a compelling responsibility to bother with it.