Books like The Hatbox Baby

A book gets an extra star from me if it makes me cry. That happened with this book. The one word from the Washington Post review noted on the cover is “Heartfelt.” Carrie Brown is a local writer here in central Virginia. She teaches writing at nearby Sweet Briar College. I talked with her briefly at a reading several years ago where she read a segment of her novel, The Rope Walk, before it was published. This is the second time I have read some of her books, including The Hatbox Baby. I enjoy her writing. It is easy to read and personal. I often find her books to be page turners, as this one was. I read it in two days. A young man brings his premature son to a special doctor and the story develops from there. Chapter One is a whirlwind tour of the 1933 Chicago Exhibition, the setting for much of the book. Chapter Two introduces the fictional character St. Louis, the gentle sidekick who is a bit of a sideshow freak himself, the beast of Beauty and the Beast. Chapter Three introduces Dr. Hoffman, the guardian of the premature babies in the gleaming incubators, created in the spirit of a real doctor who specialized in premature infants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And Chapter Four introduces Caroline, the fan dancer who performs nude behind her ostrich feathers in the show next door to the premees . Each of these characters has a role in the love stories of The Hatbox Baby. In a four page “Author’s Note and Acknowledgments,” Ms. Brown shares some of the process she used in creating the events and characters in the work of historical fiction. She shares that the writer Thomas Mallon said, “Nouns always trump adjectives, and in the phrase ‘historical fiction’ it is important to remember which of the two words is which.” She follows with this statement of her own: “I am indebted to Mallon for this axiom, and for his example of willful and inspired distortion.” With that caution from the author, the story contains a detailed description of the Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago in 1933. There are other relevant factoids from that era throughout the book. Carrie Brown weaves her fact and fiction very neatly together.A 2002 recorded interview with Carrie Brown can be found at http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v1n1/fic...