I have a 10-year old daughter who is obsessed with St. Joan of Arc. Every shirt she owns is Joan of Arc themed and she once tried to rename herself “Joan.” So when I saw that Sarah Robsdottir’s new book Joan of Arkansas was being released by Voyage Publishing, I was pleased to read it. The more St. Joan of Arc stories there are in the world, the better. She’s a saint who appeals particularly to modern day little girls. The world is a big scary place, but little girls are stronger than they think. The hero’s journey is for them, too.
At first, my idea for a book review was to let my daughter read it and then interview her about everything she liked in it, but I quickly realized that, while this fictional story about a young girl living in Little Rock, Arkansas, is geared towards a teen readership, my home-schooled daughter is still a little too young for it because the narrative includes heroin addicts, abortion clinics, poverty, and bullying. It’s a challenging read.
That’s exactly what I like about it.
Sometimes, when someone says a book or television show is “challenging,” what they really mean is that it was unpleasant, that it was pessimistic and dark and ugly. Personally, I don’t care for this type of art.
But when I say that Joan of Arkansas is challenging, I do not mean that it was an unpleasant read. I read the entire book in only two days because I kept picking it up in every spare moment I had. The characters are likable and the storylines are compelling. There was challenging material in there, to be sure, but overall the novel is a story of heroism, forgiveness, and hope. It’s about how God’s grace is operative in every situation and there is beauty in every single life. The challenge found in the book is a redemptive challenge. How will you take up your heroic journey? How will you make the world a better place?
So, while the book was a bit too mature for my 10-year-old, it’s a perfect read for older teenagers and manages to appeal simultaneously to adults. Often, narratives written specifically for teens fall flat for a more mature, discerning audience. I avoid teen-lit because the characters are often superficial and the writing is shallow.
Additionally, I don’t always like fiction marketed specifically to a Catholic audience because the writing can be overly pious and I get the sense the story is less important than a moral lesson. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for moral lessons, but when I read a novel I do so because I want to experience the beauty of the writing and to feel my heart uplifted. Literature challenges us in different ways than a moral lecture does and, while there’s a place for both, if a novel is too preachy the artistry of it suffers. The characters become one-dimensional and the story secondary, almost like the whole thing is a vehicle for a catechetical lecture.
Joan of Arkansas avoids this pitfall. The characters are complex and well-rounded. They have integrity as artistic creations. They make mistakes. They repent. They change and grow. They are in many ways admirable but still are very much real human persons who are not perfect. Even the characters who seem to have made a mess of their lives – the heroin-addicted single mother who wanted to abort her baby, the homeless woman whose only friends are cats, the mean girl at school, the ex-nun who has made some terrible mistakes – have redeeming qualities. And isn’t that the way life really is? No one is perfect but everyone is capable of some sort of love. Everyone is redeemable.
The plot engages the characters in the sort of real-life heartbreak and moral struggle that all of us face in some way or another in our daily lives, but at the center of it all is the reason anyone ever reads a story – the hero. In this case, that's Joanie Smith, a girl who is just trying to find her way in the world. She’s trying to keep her family together, deal with high-school teen problems, and care for her elderly grandmother. She doesn’t handle everything exactly right from beginning to end, but she has the quality that any hero must have – she never gives up on her journey.
This journey is the spark of beauty and joy in the midst of the otherwise challenging circumstances in the book. (The book deals with teen pregnancy, but in a way that does not scandalize or traumatize.) The journey is exactly why a gritty, challenging novel like this one is so readable. We cheer on the hero and delight in her progress. We feel her pain and are encouraged when she overcomes. We relate.
A book like this encourages all of us. We, too, can overcome any obstacles set in our path. It might not be pretty and we might make mistakes, but like St. Joan of Arc, if we hang in there we can give battle and emerge victorious.
My daughter may not be old enough quite yet to read Joan of Arkansas (I could see myself giving it to her when she's about 14), but I enjoyed reading it and, as soon as she’s old enough, I’ll be delighted to put it into her hands.
