Morningstar: Growing Up With Books
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“[An] enchanting journey through Ann Hood’s early fascination with reading.… Book lovers will find Morningstar irresistible.”—Lynn Sharon Schwartz, author of Ruined by Reading Growing up in a mill town in Rhode Island, in a household that didn’t foster a love of reading, novelist Ann Hood discovered nonetheless the transformative power of literature. She learned to channel her imagination, ambitions, and curiosity by devouring ever-growing stacks of books. In Morningstar, Hood recollects with warmth and honesty how The Bell Jar, Marjorie Morningstar, The Harrad Experiment, and The Outsiders influenced her teen psyche and introduced her to topics that could not be discussed at home: desire, fear, sexuality, and madness. Later, Johnny Got His Gun and Grapes of Wrath dramatically influenced her political thinking while the Vietnam War and Kent State shootings became headline news, and classics such as Dr. Zhivago and Les Misérables stoked her ambitions to travel the world. With characteristic insight and charm, Hood showcases the ways in which books gave her life and can transform—even save—our own lives.
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Ann Hood and I are book twins.
Ann was born a month after me, and we both graduated from high school the same year. We both spontaneous began to read at an early age, we both grew up in families that had blue-collar roots, and we both spent our youth in small towns, though she grew up on the East Coast and I in the South.
We both loved books.
Ann had many experiences that I could relate to. Ann's teacher called an emergency conference with Ann's mother after Ann wrote a haiku that seemed disturbing to her. “Is Ann depressed?” the teacher asked Ann's mother. “No,” her mother said, “she's just weird.” When Ann took her carefully saved allowance with her and used it on a Nancy Drew, Ann's mother sighed, “I cannot believe you are wasting your money on a book. A book! Of all things!” And, later, after Ann spent time with her cousin talking about their latest reads, Ann's mother shouted, “Put the book down and go outside and play!” And that was the message others sent to me.
But Ann and I persevered. Ann shares nine books that had meaning to her growing up; I, too, read and loved five of the nine as a young person.
I felt like Ann and I lived deeply parallel lives. If it wasn't so odd, I'd reach out and befriend her; we have so much in common.
My favorite passage:
“This is why we all read, isn't it? To know the world and ourselves better. To find our place in that world. Even if you did have access to readers and guidance on what to read, even if you grew up in a family that loved to read and owned shelves of books, still, still, one day a book falls into your hands—perhaps it's Beloved or A Wrinkle in Time or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; perhaps it's Great Expectations or Pride and Prejudice—whatever book it is, it falls into your hands at just the right moment when you need to read it. It transforms you. Perhaps it lifts you up when you are at your lowest; perhaps it shows you what love is, or what it feels like to lose love; perhaps it brings you places far away or shows you how to stay put when you need to.”
