The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow (39 page)

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Authors: Rita Leganski

Tags: #Fiction, #General

After high school, I left my small town for a job in a bigger city. I always intended to go to college—the best-laid plans and all—but I got married, and then the children came along. It wasn’t until they were grown that I finally earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at DePaul University in Chicago, and determined that I would become a writer.

This novel began to form in graduate school as an assignment to write a short story. The first thing I did was type out a title: “The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow.” It had come to me with no forethought at all, and it instantly felt right. Next I began to write character sketches. The eponymous Bonaventure was a mute little boy with a gift of rarest hearing. He was quickly followed by Grandma Roman, Dancy, William, Brother Harley John Eacomb, and Trinidad Prefontaine. Last, I imagined the International Church of the Elevated Forthright Gospel.

I heard echoes of those favorite Southern writers of mine, and so I set my story in 1950s Louisiana in the fictional town of Bayou Cymbaline. A magical, haunted, and lovely place steeped in faith and superstition—the ideal home for a gifted little boy who could hear fantastic sounds.

I finished with graduate school, but not with Bonaventure Arrow; I went back into that short story, adding characters and events and weaving a larger plot. Letice and Remington joined the cast, as did Mr. and Mrs. Silvey, Tristan Duvais, Gabe Riley, Calypso Fontenaise, and that most complex of women, Suville Jean-Baptiste. The last to join the story were Eugenia Babbitt, The Wanderer, and the retired Pinkerton, Coleman Tate. As I wrote, Bayou Cymbaline became a metaphorical house of God, a place of joy and sorrow and forgiveness, with Bonaventure and Trinidad its partners in salvation.

While most of the book takes place in made-up Bayou Cymbaline, some of it happens in New Orleans. Trust me—no one could make up New Orleans. When this novel was in the later stages, I went there to verify my research. But one does not “go” to New Orleans; one experiences it. New Orleans is music and sass. It is beads and carnival and Creole spice. If it were human, New Orleans might be a society lady with holes in her stockings and her feet in dancing shoes.

Being there allowed me to walk the streets of the story I had written, going where my characters had gone, placing them squarely in the reality of the Garden District and the unforgettable French Quarter. I ate beignets at Café Du Monde and was charmed by Antoine’s Restaurant. I took in the elegance of the Hotel Monteleone and checked the time on its wonderful clock. I went to the Roosevelt to see for myself where Letice’s wedding reception would have been. I strolled past Saint Anthony’s Garden tucked there behind Saint Louis Cathedral, that most beautiful church on Jackson Square. I looked in the windows of Rubenstein’s. I found houses like those I had imagined for my characters—Consette’s on Esplanade Avenue in Faubourg Marigny, Suville’s on Dauphine Street in the Quarter, and William’s on Washington Avenue in the Garden District. I rode the St. Charles streetcar. I saw where The Wanderer had gotten off the train. I went to cemeteries. I saw angels made of stone.

New Orleans is fiercely and justifiably proud of its uniqueness. I was fortunate enough to meet some of the extraordinary people who take pains to preserve its history; they offered me not only Southern hospitality but incredible expertise. An extensive visit to the Williams Research Center on Chartres Street led me to archivists who provided access to the Historic New Orleans Collection, which yielded artifacts from the 1920s to the 1950s—train schedules, Mardi Gras tickets, menus, and hotel bills—all things my characters would have seen or even touched. Concierges gave wonderful directions, and in one case, a gentle correction: Initially I had The Wanderer arriving in New Orleans on the Great Southern Railway. But when I mentioned that to Mr. Charles Farrae, the charming historian at the Monteleone, he said in his smooth-as-butter New Orleans accent, “Why no, dawlin’. That would have been the Panama Limited. It left Chicago at five in the evening and arrived in New Orleans 9:30 next morning. There would have been a glorious breakfast.”

Of course research proved Charlie right. It was indeed the Panama Limited, a Pullman with a wonderful dining car—a fitting thing to have with a destination like New Orleans.

Though every effort was made to achieve historical accuracy in this book, it is after all a work of fiction. Though most places I mention with regard to New Orleans really do or did exist, I must ask the reader to imagine that a law firm called Robillard & Broome had offices on Magazine Street, and that the A&P Tea Company had a grocery store near the corner of Gravier and Tchoupitoulas.

You can’t forget a name like Tchoupitoulas. Even as I write it here, I’m taken back to the Southern literature I love so much, and other unforgettable names—Atticus Finch and Boo Radley; Goodhue Coldfield and Eulalia Bon Sutpen; Berenice Sadie Brown and John Henry West. I am imagining Spanish moss dripping from trees and dogwood flowering profusely. And I am willingly lost once again in the Southern side of my heart.

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All-Time Favorite Books

B
OOKS ARE THE STRONGEST MAGIC
— they can bend reality into unexpected shapes. The best of them bend our thoughts and feelings until they, too, have taken on a new shape. My favorite books are those in which the writer’s voice is unique and the language is rhythmic and lyrical— think
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel García Márquez. I also love a strong sense of time and place.

Here are some books that have had a great influence on me:

A Gracious Plenty
by Sheri Reynolds

The voice is strong from the start, and so are the characters, especially the narrator, Finch Nobles. Imagine a disfigured and sassy outcast and you’ve got Finch, a cemetery caretaker who talks to the dead—but the thing is, the dead talk back. Finch finds out that even the promise of acceptance can be enough to keep you going. That’s something we all need to be aware of.

A Good Man is Hard to Find
by Flannery O’Connor

I owe much to the short story for which this collection is named. O’Connor’s very Southern voice is unforgettable, and her characterizations are flawless. I’m not sure I could have come up with Adelaide Roman without having read Flannery O’Connor.

Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger

Reminiscent narrator Reuben Land tells an unforgettable story of love, loss, and faith as seen through the eyes of his eleven-year-old self. Although he is plainspoken, his voice is mesmerizing as he relates the quest he went on with his father, Jeremiah, and younger sister, the feisty and memorable Swede, as they searched for their fugitive son and brother, Davy. Leif Enger makes the ordinary extraordinary as he writes of life and death and miracles.

The Member of the Wedding
by Carson McCullers

This story is told by an anonymous third-person narrator possessed of a uniquely Southern way with words. It’s my favorite when it comes to a character-driven story. In a short period of time, twelve-year-old tomboy Frankie Addams undergoes emotional transformation as she awkwardly tries to be accepted. She goes from Frankie to F. Jasmine and finally refers to herself as Frances in an attempt at sophistication. Frankie is mostly an irascible child, yet you can’t help but be touched by her vulnerability. Carson McCullers explores hope and despair as a rite of passage in this book. Like Frankie, we all yearn to belong.

The Magician’s Assistant
by Ann Patchett

With masterful prose, Ann Patchett explores the human condition: the nature of love and the need for it, the complexities of trust, the lure of secrets, and the redemptive power of starting over. It’s a superb story in which death is the catalyst for action.

To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee

Told by the reminiscent narrator Scout Finch, this book will be forever relevant. There is nothing more to say. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read it, and I’ll read it many times more.

Life of Pi
by Yann Martel

Philosophy is twined around fantasy in this wonderful story within a story. Not only is Pi adrift on a lifeboat, he’s also in the company of a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, and a talking Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. One by one the characters are killed off until eventually just Pi and Richard Parker are left. This insightful tale brings a startling revelation about instinct, will, and survival.

As I Lay Dying
by William Faulkner

As with many of Faulkner’s novels, this one is set in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Addie Bundren has died, and her family sets out to honor her wish to be buried in the town of Jefferson; however, the task proves quite eventful. There are motivations at work, and therein lies the story. Chapter nineteen is just five words long: “My mother is a fish.” It doesn’t get much more intriguing than that.

Dubliners
by James Joyce

This collection of short stories is immortal. Joyce’s characters range from young to old and occupy different stations in life, but they all undergo a common experience— they come to know themselves. It’s purely lovely.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald’s simple yet elegant plot turns time backward. I love the idea of an inexplicably different child aging from old man to infant.

The Third Angel
by Alice Hoffman

This is a skillfully crafted retrospective that unravels the interwoven lives of three different women, all of them looking for something to believe in. This is a story about strength, weakness, and the fascinating nature of love.

D
on’t miss the next book by your favorite author. Sign up now for AuthorTracker by visiting
www.AuthorTracker.com
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Advance Praise for
The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow

“THIS MYSTICAL FAIRY TALE SET IN A 1950S-ERA LOUISIANA RIFE WITH RELIGION, SUPERSTITION, AND TRADITION DRAWS YOU IN FROM THE WONDROUS FIRST PAGE. SILENCE HAS NEVER BEEN SO BOUNDLESSLY ELOQUENT.”

— Booklist

“AN IMAGINATIVE AND TOUCHING STORY OF THE SURPRISING WAYS THAT WE HEAL. RITA LEGANKSI HAS CREATED A GEM IN BONAVENTURE, A YOUNG BOY WHO CANNOT SPEAK BUT WHOSE SILENCE RINGS WITH TRUTH AND HUMANITY. IF I COULD HEAR A FRACTION OF WHAT HE DOES, MY HEART WOULD EXPLODE WITH JOY.”

— Todd Johnson, author of The Sweet By and By

“I’M VERY GRATEFUL FOR OPENING TO THIS BOOK’S FIRST PAGE. EVERYTHING ELSE I HAD TO DO FELL AWAY AS I WAS TRANSPORTED BY THIS SPECIAL LITTLE BOY AND HIS REMARKABLE GIFT. I HAPPILY IGNORED MY REAL-LIFE COMMITMENTS FOR THE MAGICAL, MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF THIS NOVEL ABOUT SECRETS, FORGIVENESS, AND HEALING OF ALL KINDS, AND MY ‘REAL LIFE’ HAS BEEN BETTER FOR IT EVER SINCE.”

— Katrina Kittle, author of The Kindness of Strangers and The Blessings of the Animals

Cover design by Amanda Kain
Cover photograph © Alfonso Bresciani

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.

THE SILENCE OF BONAVENTURE ARROW.
Copyright © 2012 by Rita Leganski. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 978-0-06-211376-4
EPUB Edition © MARCH 2013 ISBN 9780062113771

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