Seedfolks

Yesterday, I reviewed an epistolary novel. I have another novel with a unique format today - Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman, a Caudill nominee in 2000. Written in only 69 pages and 13 chapters, Seedfolks shows how an urban community slowly comes together as they work on an unstructured and unorganized community project.

Even more unusual, each of the 13 chapters represents a new and unique voice and a story. One chapter is only three pages long, while the longest two are a mere seven pages! This is nice because it keeps the novel short and sweet. But it is a little annoying because you only get a glimpse of a character and in some cases you really would like more of the story!

The characters are rich and diverse. There is a Haitian, a Vietnamese, a Mexican, a Puerto Rican. There are also the young as well as the old. There are the professionals, a teacher for instance, and the tradesmen. Some you cannot help but like and others you cannot help but dislike.

It starts when a young girl who never knew her father because of his untimely death decides to make him recognize her from Heaven. He was a farmer. So young Kim sneaks out to plant some beans in a vacant lot in the middle of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Little by little, other characters join her. Some plant lettuce. Some plant radishes. Some plant tomatoes. Each plants for a different reason as you learn through their individual chapter. The book shows how a diverse group of people can come to work together for the common good.

One character, Curtis, cheated on his girlfriend. There is very little detail about that, but now he wants the love of his life back and he seeks to win her over by planting a garden for her right outside her window.

Another character, Marciela, is young and pregnant. She chose to avoid both adoption and abortion, and yet she prays for a miscarriage. She hates what her body has become and she hates what her life will be like. But through a friendship begun at the community garden, she finally stops hating her baby and wishing for its death.

There are rough lives here. And while the book is short, it is probably not for the younger elementary kids without proper guidance. Very grown up and REAL lives are pictured here. And this is what makes it a beautiful, if unusual, piece of art. It takes community - something we are moving more and more away from in focusing on ourselves and our own problems.