Kit's Law
Page 34
Sent to the gully to chop wood and to act as the reverend’s spy, Sid soon worms his way into both Josie’s and Kit’s heart. He makes Josie laugh and makes Kit feel as though things might be okay—until bad luck, fate, God’s divination—whatever it is—tests Kit in ways she could never have imagined.
Kit’s Law, Donna Morrissey’s atmospheric first novel, won the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award, the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, and the American Library Association’s Alex Award. It’s been compared to E. Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News and to the writing of Thomas Hardy, but Kit’s Law is a completely fresh story of Newfoundland. Drawing from her own upbringing in The Beaches, a small outport not unlike Haire’s Hollow, Morrissey deftly guides readers through life in an isolated outport, domestic violence, first love, murder, and the nuances of God’s law. Here we find old-fashioned values set against raunchy realities, God-fearing people with sinful secrets, and a host of characters you’ll love, hate, and remember.
AN INTERVIEW WITH DONNA MORRISSEY
Q:
Kit’s Law was a huge success and a first novel. In reviews, it drew comparisons to Annie Proulx, Thomas Hardy, even Charles Dickens—how did this affect you as a writer?
No doubt they were heady compliments, but I’d already found my “voice,” so it didn’t affect my writing in any way. It certainly looks good as a blurb on the back of my novels, for which I am immensely grateful. I believe, too, it may help my agent when she’s gathering material to promote international sales …
Q:
It also won a number of awards—the 2000 Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award, the Winifred Holtby Prize—and was shortlisted for the Chapters/ Books in Canada First Novel Award. Why do you think it drew such an incredible response?
I think Kit’s that archetypal orphan found in all of us, which makes it easy then for people to relate to her.
Q:
I think everyone who reads Kit’s Law falls for Kit. Where did she come from? What shaped her in your mind?
When I first left the outports for more largely populated centres, such as St. John’s, Toronto, and Vancouver, I felt very self-conscious of my accent, of the way people responded to it, of the attitudes and ridiculous belief systems the rest of Canada held towards Newfoundlanders. Actually, the greatest stigma came from the larger areas in Newfoundland itself. They really gave us “baywops” a rough time—it’s funny now, but as a teenager, I crippled beneath it. When I wrote the character Kit, I drew deeply from those feelings of rejection and the stigma of the stereotype.
Q:
Unlike Kit, you left your small community in The Beaches, Newfoundland, when you were a teenager. Do you ever imagine what your life might have been like had you stayed?
It doesn’t take much imagination … I simply look to my cousins who never left, and there it is … a sea-front house fully paid for, couple of robust kids, cabin down the shore, deep-freeze full of game … shikes, is it too late to go back …??
Q:
How does Sid’s belief in other kinds of law besides God’s law play into your own experiences and your own beliefs?
I’ve never lived the life my parents laid out for me. There were always too many grey areas that dispelled the notions of right and wrong. I’ve never believed in the literal translation of the Bible either, and so, given that I believe that God is in every decision and every act that I commit myself to, then it must be the right thing in that moment. Course, I’ve come to regret a few of those moments … but I like to believe that they’ve all brought a deeper consciousness, and for that, perhaps, they were worth it. Still, if I could live my life in hindsight, ohh, there are sooo many things I’d do differently …
Q:
All of your novels and many of your stories are set in Newfoundland or on the east coast. What is it about this region that continues to interest you? Can you see yourself writing about other provinces, other cities, other landscapes?
Actually, my most recent novel, What They Wanted, plays itself out mostly in Alberta. It’s not so much the place that inspires me, but the events that have made up my life. It is that I write about—the setting is incidental. Eventually, when those parts of my life have been written about, no doubt I will find myself in various other settings. Or, perhaps, I will never leave it … so much of me still resonates there …
Q:
I read somewhere that Shine is based on someone who plagued your own hometown and that Sid is modelled after one of your brothers and your son. Did people you know see themselves in Kit’s Law? Did the thought of them saying “Hey, that’s me” pose any challenges for you in the writing process?
I think most writers from small communities face the challenge of people believing themselves a character in your book. No doubt there are individuals who inspire characters, but mostly my characters are composites of several people, and at some point, graduate into their own character, a fictitious one. Having said that, Adelaide from Sylvanus Now was very much based on the life and character of my mother, as are Sylvia and Chris from What They Wanted based on the true story of me and my brother.
Q:
Your characters seem to be so much a part of you— they’ve walked the same landscape, experienced some of the same things. What happens to them when you’re done with the book?
They simply become different characters in another book (-:
Q:
What are you working on now?
I’m about to release a novel, What They Wanted. And have just started a new story … too soon yet to talk about, but, yeh … it’s one of those durn characters again …
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Despite’s Kit’s difficult upbringing, she’s fiercely loyal to her mother and grandmother. Where do you think she acquired this sense of family?
2. Nan explodes when Kit remarks that Josie stinks. Nan, madder than she’s ever been, tells Kit, “She might be a tramp but she’s better than them that made her so, for it’s a damn sight easier to clean rot off a crotch than the shame off a dirtied soul. Think about that before you starts hangin’ your head before the likes of Margaret Everleigh.” This is the last thing Nan says to Kit. Do you think this comment has an impact on Kit’s feelings toward Josie?
3. Both Sid and Kit are outcasts among their peers: Sid because of the way he talks and dresses and because of his overbearing mother and fire-and-brimstone father; Kit because of her parentage. Who do you think is better off?
4. Sid says to Kit, “Everybody’s afraid of something. Most times, whatever they’re afraid of never happens…. Do you think it might be better if they did send you to someplace else?” What, if anything, do you think Kit is afraid of? Would she indeed be better off elsewhere?
5. Doctor Hodgins tells May Haynes, “It’s in the hearts of people like you that miracles are born, and where would we be without miracles?” Where do you think Kit would have been without the actions of the adults in her community?
6. There is a very strong sense of community in Haire’s Hollow, and everybody knows everyone else’s business. Discuss the pros and cons of living in a community like this. Would you like to live in a similar situation?
7. “Timin’s everything,” Lizzy pronounces, “but sometimes, ’tis only the hand of God that can save ye.” Discuss the role of timing and God in the fates of Nan, Kit, and Josie.
8. When did you figure out who Kit’s father was? How did this affect the rest of the reading experience for you?
9. Do you think Doctor Hodgins had a responsibility to tell Kit what he knew about her parentage?
10. Doctor Hodgins says “Damned if I know why we expect to be happy all the time. Even when we were youngsters with everything being handed to us, we were never happy, always wanting more and bigger. But there’s more than happy, Kit. There’s peace. And pride. And those things measure good.” Do you think this is true? Can we ever be happy?
Table of Contents
Cover
Title
Page
Copyright
Dedication
1. Through the Coloured Glass
2. Guttin’ Fish
3. Lizzy’s Prophecy
4. Partridgeberry Patch
5. Josie’s Bath
6. Mrs. Ropson’s Duty
7. Grieving Nan
8. Gully Tramp’s Girl
9. The Reverend’s Pledge
10. Planting Seeds
11. A Light of Wood
12. May Eveleigh’s Threat
13. The Graduation Dance
14. Kit’s Mark
15. Broken Birds
16. The Killing
17. God’s Law
18. Tide Against the Wind
19. Sid’s Stand
20. Doctor Hodgins’s Waves
21. Wishing upon a Starfish
22. The Letter
23. Godfather’s Cove
24. Lizzy’s Blessing
25. Fall from Grace
26. Loret’s Bargain
27. Doctor Hodgins’s Promise
28. Mrs. Ropson’s Plea
29. Old Joe’s Wish
30. Kit’s Law
31. Redemption
About the Book