Keeping hope shining bright
By Abby McGanney Nolan |
March 10, 2013, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
LANGSTON Hughes's poem "Dreams" inspired the title of Blue Balliett's "Hold Fast," which opens with clear signals of the distress to come - and of the effort people require to stay hopeful through hardship. Before the novel even begins, Balliett offers dictionary definitions of the words "home," "lost" and "time," as well as a brief, sobering statement about the thousands of homeless children in Chicago. She also describes a 2003 diamond heist, at the time the biggest in history. All these elements play a part in the story ahead.
In Balliett's previous books, young characters are drawn into intricate mysteries involving valuable objects - from a stolen Vermeer and Charles Darwin's Galapagos notebook to an Alexander Calder sculpture and a Frank Lloyd Wright house. In this, her most heart-rending novel, a vulnerable family is at the heart of the mystery, with a mother, father, daughter and son at stake.
"Hold Fast" opens with a mystifying incident. In a South Side neighborhood, a man is hit by a truck and vanishes. When the police arrive, they find only a battered bicycle, a small notebook and strewn groceries.
The bewildering disappearance of Dashel Pearl haunts the rest of the book, as Balliett shifts backward in time to introduce the most devoted of young families, and then forward to show the present travails of Dashel's wife, Summer, and their children. The central question - "But when is Dash coming home?" - hangs over everything.
The three remaining Pearls - Summer, 11-year-old Early and four-year-old Jubilation - hold on fiercely to an old, out-of-print Langston Hughes collection after their home is ransacked by a thugs. Other than Dash's notebook and some clothes, Hughes's "First Book of Rhythms" is the only family possession left intact. It's a treasured physical reminder of Dash, a librarian and aspiring writer, and when the three have to leave their apartment they take the book.
In "Hold Fast," a crucial subject is poetry, and a multitude of words are defined and pondered, with each chapter repeating a certain word - "click," "clutch," "crash" - in an almost incantatory rhythm.
But the main lessons here are revealed in the moving depictions of the social safety net and life in a homeless shelter. Through Early's eyes, Balliett reveals the family's often grim experience. The police are mostly dismissive, Dash's library supervisors aren't helpful, new schoolmates can be cruel, and the shelter is an uneasy refuge.
Early seems to hear her father urging her to figure out what's gone wrong with their world. She dives into detective mode and tracks down Dash's high school mentor, then interrogates his supervisor and colleagues.
The villains seem more odd than dangerous, their nefarious operation needlessly complicated. But Early Pearl, observant and pondering, shines as bright as any diamond.
In Balliett's previous books, young characters are drawn into intricate mysteries involving valuable objects - from a stolen Vermeer and Charles Darwin's Galapagos notebook to an Alexander Calder sculpture and a Frank Lloyd Wright house. In this, her most heart-rending novel, a vulnerable family is at the heart of the mystery, with a mother, father, daughter and son at stake.
"Hold Fast" opens with a mystifying incident. In a South Side neighborhood, a man is hit by a truck and vanishes. When the police arrive, they find only a battered bicycle, a small notebook and strewn groceries.
The bewildering disappearance of Dashel Pearl haunts the rest of the book, as Balliett shifts backward in time to introduce the most devoted of young families, and then forward to show the present travails of Dashel's wife, Summer, and their children. The central question - "But when is Dash coming home?" - hangs over everything.
The three remaining Pearls - Summer, 11-year-old Early and four-year-old Jubilation - hold on fiercely to an old, out-of-print Langston Hughes collection after their home is ransacked by a thugs. Other than Dash's notebook and some clothes, Hughes's "First Book of Rhythms" is the only family possession left intact. It's a treasured physical reminder of Dash, a librarian and aspiring writer, and when the three have to leave their apartment they take the book.
In "Hold Fast," a crucial subject is poetry, and a multitude of words are defined and pondered, with each chapter repeating a certain word - "click," "clutch," "crash" - in an almost incantatory rhythm.
But the main lessons here are revealed in the moving depictions of the social safety net and life in a homeless shelter. Through Early's eyes, Balliett reveals the family's often grim experience. The police are mostly dismissive, Dash's library supervisors aren't helpful, new schoolmates can be cruel, and the shelter is an uneasy refuge.
Early seems to hear her father urging her to figure out what's gone wrong with their world. She dives into detective mode and tracks down Dash's high school mentor, then interrogates his supervisor and colleagues.
The villains seem more odd than dangerous, their nefarious operation needlessly complicated. But Early Pearl, observant and pondering, shines as bright as any diamond.
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