In the new and local section of the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas, I found a book that piqued my interest—Lunacy and Acts of God—written by Ruth Maus, a poet and novelist from Topeka, Kansas. Not only did Maus write the novel, but she is credited for the cover art, a stunning depiction of a lightning strike foregrounded by fertile plains farmland.
Throughout the novel, a precocious girl, Melody Lark Freedrich, with her sidekick younger brother, relentlessly investigates the adult subject matter their family members try awkwardly and often unsuccessfully to keep under wraps. Fortunately, there is always Melody’s older sister, Harmony, who is glad to surreptitiously explain, often in a humorously inaccurate manner, some of the strange adult conversations and actions, such as when their family moves to a new neighborhood to avoid school integration.
Not only are Melody’s curiosity and observations funny and never ending, her extended family members and their friends are all offbeat characters who unabashedly live out their unique ways of viewing and being in the world.
So where does the lunacy come in? (A term the narrator is quick to describe as no longer acceptable, but one used liberally in the 1950s.) The story is set in Topeka at a time when it proclaimed itself “the psychiatric capital of the world,” Melody’s beloved step-uncle suffers from mental illness, a distant relative heads a religious cult that causes quite a stir in town, not to mention the humorous comings and goings of the adults in Melody’s life.
The plot line revolves around a murder where Melody’s step-uncle is a suspect, but the setting—place and time—plays a major role. A neighbor is a fan of J. Edgar Hoover and corresponds with him, a Mafia head comes from Chicago to avenge the killer of his daughter, tension between racial and ethnic groups is rampant, and the history of violence and disasters in the region is ever present—John Brown, Carrie Nation, and blizzards, to name a few.
I am a fan of novels with offbeat characters, and Maus’s book does not disappoint. It is firmly set in Kansas, but it brought to mind characters in the stories of my favorite Southern writers and the universality of humankind. Maus’s characters reveal the goodness and foibles inherent in each of us.
Lunacy and Acts of God is a good read indeed.
Lunacy and Acts of God can be purchased at Amazon.com.
Karen T Miller 