Miss Jane: A Novel

by Brad Watson

Overview

Longlisted for the National Book Award and a Washington Post Best Book of the Year

"Gorgeous…A writer of profound emotional depths." —New York Times Book Review

Since his award-winning debut collection of stories, Last Days of the Dog-Men, Brad Watson has been expanding the literary traditions of the South in work as melancholy, witty, strange, and lovely as any in America. Drawing on the true story of his great-aunt, he explores the life of Miss Jane Chisolm, born in rural, early-twentieth-century Mississippi with a genital birth defect that excludes her from the roles traditional for a woman of her time and place and frees her to live her life as she pleases. With irrepressible vitality and generosity of spirit, Miss Jane mesmerizes those around her, exerting an unearthly fascination that lives beyond her still.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393354386
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/11/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Brad Watson was the National Book Award shortlisted author of Last Days of the Dog–Men, The Heaven of Mercury, and Miss Jane. Originally from Mississippi, at the time of his death he was a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of Wyoming.

Hometown:

Wyoming

Date of Birth:

July 24, 1955

Place of Birth:

Meridian, Mississippi

Education:

Meridian Junior College; B.A., Mississippi State University, 1978; M.F.A., University of Alabama, 1985

Editorial Reviews

"[Jane’s] fearless acceptance of what sets her apart is profoundly human, and her lifelong struggle to understand her place in the world reflects the intricate workings of our own mysterious hearts."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Gina Webb

"This is a pine knot of a novel, hard and durable, and the sap it leaches is mercy."

Garden and Gun - Jonathan Miles

"A story worth telling even as it breaks your heart."

Chicago Review of Books - Amy Brady

"Miss Jane is an especially timely novel for right now, when so much of our turmoil is dependent on how we view the Other, whether it be because of race, sexuality, religion, or where someone was born. It’s also a novel that thrums with beauty, melancholy, and desire."

Salon - Silas House

"Miss Jane is one of the quieter, more beautiful books I’ve read in years…Set in rural Mississippi, it’s a story of an isolated woman who makes meaning and finds beauty in her circumscribed world."

Emily Nemens

"I want to state this as clearly as I can: I believe Miss Jane to be a masterpiece of American literature. It is as remarkable as any book to ever come out of the South."

The Paris Review - M.O. Walsh

"Watson infuses the story with curiosity, uncertainty, and, not unlike Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex, a certain wildness."

Aditi Sriram

"Exquisitely written. Miss Jane is an artistic triumph, a novel that will linger inside you as long as your own memories do. Brad Watson’s gifts are immense."

Andre Dubus III

2016-05-04
A woman born in rural Mississippi with a life-altering birth defect must learn to live on her own terms.Western writer Watson (The Heaven of Mercury, 2002, etc.) composes a lyrical portrait of a woman based on his great-aunt, who was the subject of plenty of rumors in her own life. His fictional subject is Jane Chisolm, an otherwise normal child born with vaginal agenesis, a condition in which her sexual anatomy fails to develop. Because this is in the early years of the 20th century amid the poverty of rural Mississippi, there's little to be done to improve the child's condition. Her father is a drunk and her mother emotionally absent, so Jane is largely left in the care of her tomboy sister, Grace. Because her condition causes incontinence, Jane is isolated for much of her childhood. The only person who comes to truly care about her is her doctor, Eldred Thompson, who believes that Miss Jane Chisolm is special indeed. "Just as the way you are denies you some things, it also gives you license that others may not have," he tells her. "In my opinion you live on a higher moral ground. I mean to say you are a good person." Watson's writing is dry as kindling, but in reducing his aunt's story to its most primary elements, the author also captures the simple things that bring his character joy—the delight she experiences at a community dance or a picnic with the kindly doctor are all tiny moments of tenderness in a life largely marked by isolation. If the novel has a flaw, it's a lack of traditional drama. Jane approaches life with quiet determination, so her acceptance of her own limitations ultimately becomes a strength and not a weakness. A well-written portrait of a person whose rich inner life outstrips the limits of her body.

Kirkus Reviews