Voice in The Sweet Dead Life
In The Sweet Dead Life (May 2013, Soho Press) and its sequel, The A Word (May 2014, Soho Press), narrator of Jenna Samuels, 14 when the series opens and turning 15 as the sequel begins is a Texas girl – Houston to be specific—and feisty and loyal and brave and funny, even as her life is falling apart. Even when she’s dying – which she thankfully doesn’t do, because her far from cherubic brother Casey comes back from a fatal car accident to be her guardian angel—Jenna maintains her narrative presence.
Writing Jenna has been and continues to be an exercise in language and word choice. When, for example, she tells the reader that the doctors don’t know what’s wrong with her, she observes, “The doctors have been shifty about actually telling me there’s no cure for what I have.”Notice her choice of the word “shifty.” Or when the clog-wearing nurse questions her eating habits, Jenna internally comments,
I decided that the clogs were making Ed cranky. Just because the Crocs kiosk in the mall was still in business did not mean that one had to shop there. I chose not share this observation with Ed. Anyone who thought that Gulf oysters could make your pee look like St. Patrick’s Day beer was probably not interested in my fashion tips (29).
When I write Jenna I look for a combination of the right details to define her world view and the right rhythm of words to express it. Problems don’t distress Jenna, they ‘flummox’ her. She does not suspect criminal doings as much as she does “chicanery,” which she defines in her own special way. She does not manipulate, she ‘finagles.” By immersing the reader in her world and her view of it, Jenna imparts much between the lines: Her life is falling apart. She very well might die. The adults who are supposed to help her aren’t really paying attention. Nor are the institutions, which we see with her description of life at Ima Hogg Junior High: “Ima Hogg believed in collaborative learning—which never failed to piss me off when I got stuck doing work for the Collaborative Slackers.”
Ima Hogg, by the way, was the real name of the daughter of Texas Governor James “Big Jim” Hogg. By having Jenna refer to her school by its first name – almost as though it is a person—brings forth not only her opinion of the academic philosophy but also builds the tone and it’s absurdism.
Jenna’s voice also comes through her wry observervations of a very specific sub-category of Houston life – the North Houston suburbs, where people wear cowboy boots but don’t live on ranches, eat at Olive Garden and other ubiquitous chains, attend mega churches and consume vast quantities of Tex Mex and kolaches and don’t venture into the big city as often as you’d think. In fact, as Casey races possibly-dying Jenna to the hospital in their beat up Prius, she rallies enough to observe:
Just to paint the full picture: we passed Woodhaven Cemetery, Houston North Rehab, and a strip center that housed a spinal surgery facility with a prosthesis clinic attached, a Vietnamese noodle house, Café Monterrey Mexican restaurant, and Stacy Carrigan Legal. In the Texas suburbs we like to cover all bases. If the ER or the rehab couldn’t fix you, at least they didn’t have to cart you far. After that your loved ones could get a bite to eat and chat about who they could sue (17).
Jenna calls it like she sees it. She knows that her best friend Maggie thinks Jenna’s brother Casey is “a weed-loving pissant.” This mildly vulgar but specific language is juxtaposed against the secret truth –that Casey is now back from the dead as an angel, but no one except Jenna can know this, again helps create voice and in turn, character.
Jenna is sassy and self-aware. She occasionally curses but not gratuitously. She is a character and therefore flawed. She is not supposed to serve as as a role model of teen perfection, my only task in creating her was being true to her and that’s where voice comes in. The voice of the novel itself and the voice of a girl that reads real enough that the reader could pick her out of the crowd at that kolache bakery. A character whose life has fallen to bits but whose brother loves her above all else. Who asks him in a moment of more innocent candor rather than the feisty bravado that she uses to cover up: “Did dying hurt? …Were you scared?” Of course not much later, she says in response to something sad, “I was damned if I was going to let it ruin my love of breakfast tacos.” Jenna is a mass of contradictions and secret thoughts—as we all are when we dig deep enough.
Want to find out more about Joy’s books? Head over to joypreble.com or follow her on Twitter at @joypreble
For an event report on Joy’s Austin release of The Sweet Dead Life, see Cynthia Leitich’s Smith Cynsations blog report here.
Joy Preble is the author of the popular and highly acclaimed Dreaming Anastasia series. A former English teacher, Joy grew up in Chicago and is a graduate of Northwestern University. She is now a full time writer and lives with her family in Texas, where she has learned to say “y’all” without any hint of irony. A tireless advocate for literacy and great books, she is at the center of the all-important Texas YA scene.