Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush
First edition
AuthorVirginia Hamilton
IllustratorLeo and Diane Dillon
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectChildren's literature, ghost stories
Published1982 (Philomel Books)
Media typePrint (hardback, paperback)
Pages217 (unpaginated)
Awards1983 Coretta Scott King Author Award
Newbery Honor
ISBN9780399208942
OCLC8112549

Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush is a 1982 children's novel by Virginia Hamilton. The novel deals with the paranormal, poverty, single motherhood, childhood illness, and child abuse.[1] The novel, like many of Hamilton's works, is set in Ohio.[2]

Background

Hamilton wrote the novel in two locations — in Ohio during winter and spring, and on an island in the Caribbean.[3]

Hamilton included the metabolic disorder porphyria in the novel because a close friend suffered from it; the author noted that she had wanted to work the disorder into a novel for two decades before using it in Sweet Whispers.[4]

Hamilton's opening paragraph format was inspired in part by Truman Capote's short story "Children on their Birthdays."[4]

Plot

Theresa "Tree" Pratt is a wise-beyond-her-years teenager in Ohio, caring for her developmentally disabled older brother, Dab, while their mother is often away working. Dab regularly suffers from a strange illness that leaves him incapacitated. One day, Tree sees a well-dressed man while she is leaving school and is immediately attracted to him. The next time she seems him, he is standing in the middle of a table in a closet in the family's apartment, holding an oval mirror. Tree realizes this is a ghost, Brother Rush. Through Brother Rush's mirror, Tree can see scenes from her family's past — including her mother's abuse of her brother. Once Tree's mother, M'Vy, arrives home, Tree confronts her about both Brother Rush's presence and the family's past, as Dab's illness worsens.[1]

Characters

  • Theresa "Tree" Pratt is the protagonist of the novel, Tree cares for her brother Dab while their mother, M'Vy is out, ostensibly working as a domestic worker
  • Dabney "Dab" Pratt is Tree's brother, who is developmentally disabled and suffering from a mysterious illness that renders him constantly fatigued and disoriented
  • M'Vy is Tree and Dab's mother who works as a practical nurse and is often away from the family's apartment[5]
  • Brother Rush is Tree's uncle who regularly appears through a table in the family's apartment, and shows Tree visions of her family's past
  • Miss Pricherd is the family's friend and housekeeper
  • Silversmith, M'Vy's lover

Themes

Sweet Whispers contains magical realism elements — the ghost character of Brother Rush appears in an otherwise realistic setting. M'Vy tells Tree that she can see ghosts because of the family's African heritage.[1]

Hamilton explores questions of identity, the supernatural, the need to belong within a family, and encounters with death through a Black American point of view.[5]

The character of M'Vy showcases a complicated motherhood, as she is often away from the apartment (and engaged in abuse of Dab when he was younger.) "Hamilton has not created a traditional, stereotypic, idealized mother," wrote one critic.[6]

Hamilton included the ghost of Brother Rush as a literary device to represent the idea that people carry their pasts with them.[4]

Reception

Kirkus Reviews, in reviewing Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush, called it "One of Hamilton's deeply felt family stories" and wrote "like other Hamilton novels this has its rough edges, but they are outweighed here by the blazing scenes, the intensity of Tree's feelings, the glimpses of Dab through her eyes, and the rounded characterization of Vy."[7]

Author Katherine Paterson, reviewing the novel in The New York Times, noted "the last time a first paragraph chilled my spine like this one, I was 16 years old, hunched over a copy of Rebecca."[5]

In the Interracial Books for Children Bulletin, Geraldine Wilson wrote that the novel "is like a thoughtfully designed African American quilt. It is finely stitched, tightly constructed and rooted in cultural authenticity."[6]

Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush has also been reviewed by the English Journal,[8] and the School Library Journal.[9]

Awards

Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush won the 1983 Coretta Scott King Author Award[10] and the 1983 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. [11]

The novel was a finalist for the 1983 National Book Award for Young People's Literature[12] and was also a Newberry Honor winner.[1]

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
  2. ↑ Apseloff, Marilyn (1983). "Creative Geography in the Ohio Novels of Virginia Hamilton". Children's Literature Association Quarterly. 8 (1): 17–20. doi:10.1353/chq.0.0193. ISSN 1553-1201.
  3. ↑ Hamilton, Virginia (1983). "Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Acceptance". The Horn Book Magazine. 1: 42.
  4. 1 2 3 Apseloff, Marilyn (1983). "A conversation with Virginia Hamilton". Children's Literature in Education. 14 (4): 204–213. doi:10.1007/bf01127280. ISSN 0045-6713. S2CID 143094106.
  5. 1 2 3 Paterson, Katherine (1982-11-14). "CHILDREN'S BOOKS; FAMILY VISIONS (Published 1982)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  6. 1 2 Wilson, Geraldine (1983). "Review of Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush". Interracial Books for Children Bulletin. 14(1&): 32.
  7. ↑ "Justice and Her Brothers". Kirkus Media LLC. October 1, 1978. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  8. ↑ Nina Mikkelsen; Joan Kaywell (January 1997). "Young Adult Literature". English Journal. National Council of Teachers of English. 86 (1): 111. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Language Arts". School Library Journal. Media Source Inc. 31 (1): 62. September 1984. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  10. ↑ "Coretta Scott King Book Awards - All Recipients, 1970-Present". ala.org. American Library Association. 5 April 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Past Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Winners". hbook.com. The Horn Book. May 30, 2011. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  12. ↑ "National Book Awards - 1983: Children's Fiction (Hardcover) - Finalists". nationalbook.org. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
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