Have No Shame -- Book Talk #2

Summary // Have No Shame is a historical and coming of age fiction novel published in April 2013. It won the Reader’s Favorite Book Award Gold Medal. Though considered a historical fiction novel, it also contains psychological suspense, romance, and graphic violence. Have No Shame takes place in rural Forrest Town, Arkansas and covers roughly ten months in the life of Allison Tillson, an eighteen-year-old recent high school graduate. The book begins with the main character, Allison, though often referred as Pixie throughout the novel, finds the body of a deceased African American man in the river near her home. She’s horrified and disgusted by the discovery and begins looking at her town in a new light. Suddenly her father is scarier, her fiancé Jimmy Lee, whom she’s been dating for two years, begins to reveal his true colors, and her mother isn’t the meek house wife that Pixie had always thought she was. A couple days later, Jimmy Lee, one of his friends, Corky, and Pixie’s older brother Jake badly beat up a teenage African American youth. The youth turns out to be a farm hand that works for Pixie’s father and he’s unable to return to work for a number of days. Soon after, Jimmy Lee takes Pixie into wilderness area to have sex. However, Pixie refuses and he ends up raping her instead. During that time, the youth’s older brother, Jackson is on temporarily leave from war and offers to take his place while his brother recovers. Jackson and Pixie begin meeting each other in secret by the creek at night because Pixie wants to learn everything about the man that died in the river, who happens to be Jackson’s uncle and later, more about Jackson. Pixie and Jackson fall in love and sleep with each other multiple times. Jackson soon has to return to the war due to being enlisted to fight in the Vietnam War and the two are unable to be together at that time. He tells Pixie that she was never his because she belonged to someone else and encouraged her to move on. She marries Jimmy Lee and soon realizes that she is pregnant but she’s not in love with husband and becomes restless and miserable. Later, when she learns that Jackson has survived the war and Pixie is abused by her husband Jimmy Lee, a very pregnant Pixie chooses to risk her life to help with civil rights efforts in hopes that she and Jackson can be together. The discovery that the baby’s father is Jackson further complicates things but unlikely allies might just give this interracial couple a fighting chance.

Rationale // I selected this book because it depicts southern culture during a wartime period other than the civil war, it features a prominent past issue that is also surfacing in the current era and because it features an interracial couple which is rare in a novel featuring romance. Since many students are multicultural and of different ethnic backgrounds, they would be able to relate better to some of these characters on the common connection of not only race, but values, beliefs, and hardships. It would allow students to learn more about the rural south during the late 1960s in comparison to the progress urban North while exploring the themes of morality, equality and social justice.

            Teaching Ideas // I would teach this to my students particularly because of its historical basis and issues and I would also have it available for them to read with the stipulation that they were mature enough to handle the material as well. Due to its graphic and mature nature, 11th or 12th grade would be the best grades to introduce this books too as the main character is eighteen and they'd likely have a better time understanding it. I think it’s still a good book and that the issues are valid and are important to be aware of. Possible teaching ideas include:

·      Literary Circle/Book Club – Students can read this on their own time and discuss it in class to let others known about the book and their thoughts on it. Particularly on the Civil rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and the race riots.

·      Character Analysis – There are a few morally gray characters in Have No Shame among the villains and good characters depicted in the novel and there are a lot of parallels for students to draw from. Particularly between Jimmy Lee and Jackson, as well as Pixie’s older sister Maggie and their mother. 

·      Historical Context – The Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam are major elements in the book as well as the race riots often between the Black Panthers and the KKK. Students can read a more personal account of this time period with more just facts and dates. They can also compare and contrast this book with the historical facts about this time period and connect the dots. Not only does it ties together Language Arts with Social Studies but it allows the students to draw the literary elements in the books and learn more about the historical background about facts found in the book. Particularly about the court case of the Lovings in ’57, an interracial couple that were being sentenced to jail for one year unless they left their state of Virginia. As well as learning who the Black Panthers and the KKK are and how their collisions caused race riots.

            Challenges // Due to the racial slurs, graphic violence and mentions of rape and sex, I can see parents being very upset about this novel. Particularly because the n word is used several times throughout it and because of the graphic violence written about the opposition between protesting groups such as the Black Panthers and the KKK. If I did decide to teach this book in my classroom I’d have to send out permission slips first and be very open about the mature content to both the school and the parents to make clear the use and purpose of the mature themes in context with their education value and rationale.

            Miscellaneous Information // This book is only 189 pages and can be read in both Southern Dialect and without. It’s a fairly fast read though the subject matter is hard and takes awhile to digest. The author, Melissa Foster, is also a well-known romance author and has several other books though very few are historical fiction like Have No Shame. Most of the romance novels are definite bodice-rippers playing off of tropes such as family rivalries resulting in love, billionaires falling for their employees and more according to the author’s website. There is also a wordpress blog circulating claiming that all the awards Melissa Foster has one are fake and that her reviews are fake and she’s in an ongoing scheme with family, friends, and other authors. The article has no cited sources and is very repetitive so I’m uncertain if it’s true. There are no other blogs with the same accusations or mentions of Melissa Foster.