Donna Jo Napoli writes intense books.  (Previous favorites:  “Stones in Water” and “Crazy Jack”)  “Alligator Bayou” is certainly an intense piece of historical fiction.  Because of the intensity, Napoli’s books are often only appropriate for (and appreciated most by) more mature readers and this one is no exception.  Set in 1899 in Tallulah, Louisiana this novel follows the life of six Sicilian men (including two YAs) trying to make a life as unwelcome immigrants in a turbulent post-Civil War south. 

Napoli was inspired by a newspaper article about five Sicilian grocers who ended up lynched for serving a black customer before a white.  Often violent and complicated, this narrative confronts the reader with stark prejudice and vigilante “justice”.  This novel portrays an ugly side to American history… but therein lies its value.  Stark, but not condemning, Napoli manages to allow the reader to manage his own reactions to the historical reality.  Excellent author and source notes follow the narrative.

I have vowed to write to Napoli, however, to ask whether the race-tolerant viewpoint of the Sicilian men in her novel is backed up by research, or whether as a writer of fiction she chose to give them their attitudes of racial equality based on the newspaper account alone.  I did wonder if the Sicilian immigrants might have been just as prejudiced in their own ways, in reality, and I question whether the main character, Calogero, would have been romantically interested in a girl of another race.  It is a pattern in historical fiction to give the main characters modern views.  I just wonder if this is the case in this novel, or whether her research showed the Sicilians to be truly broad minded and forward thinking for their time.

Regardless, this is a novel not easily forgotten.  Disturbingly gritty, I recommend it to thoughtful good readers at the junior high and high school level.

I have enjoyed several of Donna Jo Napoli’s previous titles:  Crazy Jack, Stones in Water, and King of Mulberry Street.  I looked forward to reading North not only on her reputation as an author, but because the subject matter was unique. 

North is about a very insecure and overprotected boy (Alvin) running away to follow in the footsteps of his hero, the Arctic explorer Matthew Hensen.  Unfortunatly this novel couldn’t decide if it was a non-fiction work about Matthew Hensen, an instruction on authentic research, or a treatise on life in the Arctic today.  The information about Hensen is rather clumsily woven into the narrative.  The plot device of an unhappy runaway is contrived and unbelievable.  The tiny bit of the narrative that does shine is the time Alvin spends with Idlouk Tana learning to survive in the far North.  Since the reader doesn’t reach that until pg 266 it is too-little-too-late. 

Any reader that sticks with the book is going to be disappointed when the tease that Idlouk is a descendant of Matthew Hensen is proven wrong.  Alvin is disappointed and the reader feels betrayed.  A disappointing title from Napoli!