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Birmingham, 1963

(On "The Watsons Go to Birmingham....")


The "Weird Watsons" live in Flint, Michigan, in the 1960s. Wilona and Daniel, and their children: Byron, Kenny, and Joetta.

Kenny, our narrator, is self-conscious about his lazy eye, and about his smarts. Teachers sometimes parade him around and ask him to show off his own intelligence, as "inspiration" to the other kids. (The "other kids" see things differently.)

Kenny also feels anxiety about his older brother Byron, thirteen, a charismatic bully. Byron can be mean and self-absorbed. He can be a danger--playing with matches (while staging a film in which "Byron defeats the Nazi parachuters"), stealing from the grocery allotment, terrorizing children on the playground.

Wilona and Daniel have their own problems: Money is tight, Daniel sometimes makes unwise purchases, and also what do you do when one of your kids freezes his tongue to the side of the car, in the winter?

All of this has a "lived experience" vibe, and I think the writer, Curtis, really did borrow from his childhood memories. Small "family observations" are unforgettable: the moment when you rotate your little sister's body so she can drool onto your brother for a while, during a long car ride; the moment you spot your father making an awkward romantic gesture toward your mother (eww); the moment Dad subverts Mom's excessively organized car-ride plan; the moment you mishear Grandmother's hushed allusion to a "whirlpool," and conclude she is talking about a mysterious villain, the menacing cousin of Winnie, the nefarious "Wool Pooh."

At this troubled time, it's nice--for me, at least--to read about a family. To read about universal experiences. This makes me feel less alone. (Also, certain people have an ability to make their characters come to life on the page, instantly, and Curtis has this, in spades.)

Curtis was struggling in a low-wage job in his early forties, and he finally sold "Watsons," and his life was forever changed. A writer was born.

There's still beauty in the world.
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