Having read all of Tayari Jones’ other novels (The Untelling, Silver Sparrow, An American Marriage), I was pleased to finally come across a copy of her debut novel, Leaving Atlanta. It is told in 3 books, each from the point of view of a child in the fifth grade of a school in Atlanta. The books are intertexual of course, with the same children appearing in all of them. (There is even a minor character, one of the children, called Tayari Jones!) There is a nice range of protagonists, 2 girls and a boy, one from a somewhat more socio-economically challenged background with a lone parent, the other two from middle-classed backgrounds, 2 parent families, even if one of those briefly separated and then returned. Some have siblings, some do not, some are more academically inclined than others, some have more secure home lives than others.
The common thread across all 3 books is the horror of the children disappearing from this community, and ending up dead when found. Some children are apparently taken out of bedrooms when asleep, many are kidnapped into vehicles. Increasingly, the tension rises as the mystery and menace continue. Most of the children taken are boys, and only 2 are girls, and eventually, 14 go missing. It is fascinating to see how the community tries not to even talk about it, but gets increasingly scared and worried and wound up. The title refers to these missing children of course, and the consequences for the other children of the community.
The charm of the book is very much in how successfully Jones writes through the eyes and voices of fifth-graders. The child’s perspective is of course a time-honoured literary device, and with good reason, for when done well, it does so much showing rather than telling, particularly effective at showing up the irrationalities and self-contradictions of human behaviours. The children in Jones’ novel are themselves not perfectly rational, but they also have to navigate a world of adult secrecy and irrationality which governs their worlds. The children sometimes do things which they know to be counter productive – picking fights with others, playing up at home, and so on, and often immediately regret it, but are also often too stubborn to backtrack, and end up in a bind of their own making. The delightful element of Jones’ novel is how much credit she gives to the children for being knowing and perceptive; they are nobody’s fools, and know full well when teachers, parents, and other authorities are withholding information.
Octavia for example, upset when Rodney, her friend-in-the-making, goes missing, speaks to the 2nd grade teacher, her favourite teacher seemingly, Mrs Grier. They talk about Rodney obliquely, but Octavia gleans what she wants to know, namely, what Mrs Grier thinks has happened to him:
“Always very mannerable,” she agreed. I could tell she was leaving words out so she wouldn’t have to say was or is. Was would mean he was dead and is means he’s coming back and I know Mrs Grier don’t like to lie (p168).
After 12 children had been abducted, and there is a general feeling that the police are ineffectual, a police officer comes to the school and into the classroom to talk to students. One boy challenges the police officer, saying that his father says the police are doing it, the officer replies that Atlanta police officers have taken a sacred oath to protect and not harm the public.
“There may be individuals impersonating officers of the law. But the imposter would not have this!” He dips into his pocket and triumphantly produces a glossy piece of metal. […] This man is clearly delusional, so you do not point out that a criminal who could steal a official police uniform certainly would not neglect to take an official police badge. Furthermore, it is nearly time for recess” (p95).
Again, the searing honesty from a child, street-wise and direct, is juxtaposed with the adult inclination to bluster, fob off, gloss over, prevaricate, or even fabricate the truth. The writing often has a comic side to it too, and yes, of course, recess time takes priority, even over the on-going background of missing children. Jones gets into the minds of children so convincingly that this novel rings very true.
The novel is not necessarily going to give the reader a whodunnit ending, but of course, that is not the point. It is not am mystery or suspense novel as such; it is about families, growing up in certain places and spaces, growing up black, particularly, and in Atlanta of 1979. Jones gives us a simply wonderful depiction of this.
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