Marva Cope

Marva Cope is a story unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s a wonderful example of contemporary literary fiction. It’s a coming of age story, but much later in life, which makes it unusual, at least to me. It’s a story that places the sanctity of true friendship front and center.

The story namesake—Marva Cope—is naturally the protagonist. She was raised on a small Texas farm, but left right after high school and never looked back. The story follows her adventures during the years just after high school, and then picks up again with her later in life. The reader is given her many thoughts as she contemplates her own meaning of life, as well as where she belongs in the world.

I found the structure of the book to be somewhat unusual. It starts with an older Marva moving in with her Aunt Violet in Jackson’s Pond, Texas. They hadn’t seen each other in decades. Shortly after arriving, they sit down and Marva begins to tell Violet her story. This backstory literally takes up the first half of the book, and even then it stops when Marva was around twenty or so and jumps back to present. However, those first few years after high school defined Marva’s mindset for all the missing years. The remainder of the book is dedicated to Marva settling down in Jackson’s Pond, still wrestling with her place in the world.

I’ve never seen “friendship” discussed and defined as much as in this story. In a sense, their views of friendship make Marva and Violet kindred spirits. However, Violet had already learned the secret of friendship, while Marva was still learning.

Characters typically draw a reader deeper into a story. This book is no exception to that. Marva and Violet are wonderful characters to spend time with. However, there is another character—Chick—that I want to highlight. Chick is a Jackson’s Pond character, probably a little older than Marva. I distinguish him because he’s a character that I really disliked when first introduced, but by the end of the story I was a huge fan. That doesn’t happen often in my reading, so props to the author on that.

The author does not go overboard with description in this story, but the description included is very good. For example, I think her description of a sunset is among the best I’ve ever read: “The sun edged down over the distant mountains and the few clouds scattered in the Technicolor blue sky echoed the late rays’ coral, then gold, then faded as behind them on the east, the twilight rose.” Beautiful!

Another thing I like about this particular author’s writing is her attention to the little details. I think little details add a huge amount of realism to any story. One such little detail in this story was when Marva and Violet are having a discussion while having a glass of wine. While contemplating a response, Marva stared at the ring the wine glass had made on the table. That’s the kind of “little detail” that I was talking about. I think it really helps to immerse the reader in the story.

The character arcs in this story are a bit different. The main arc—Marva’s—is particularly odd because of the way the story ends. The author sort of leaves it up to the reader to complete that arc.

Something else I liked was the little snippet from the local paper that the author included at the beginning of each chapter set in Jackson’s Pond. In all but one case they were not related to the storyline, but they did help to solidify the small town setting.

Overall, this story has a sad resonance about it. But I liked it. A lot. The story has an ending that is both sad and uplifting, yet it left me very satisfied. I’ve read two of the other three books in the Jackson’s Pond series, and I can say this is a wonderful addition. I highly recommend it!