Visiting Utah reveals that it is a place unlike any other. Fittingly, one of Utah’s best-loved authors wrote a series of children’s books unlike any other. The Great Brain series, published from the 1950s to 1970s are rollicking tales of boys figuring out life in small-town Utah. Like so much good storytelling, the tale arises from an outsider observing a close-knit social group, in this case the predominantly Mormon community. The character John Dennis Fitzgerald, heavily influenced by the real-life experiences of the author, is an Irish Catholic boy with a smart older brother, Tom, who can scam the pants off any kid or grownup in town.
The books are not widely known, but those who read them and loved them as children seem never to forget them. There are passionate fans. Like so many stories about the early twentieth century, there is a fascinating development of technology and a rapidly changing social scene that makes for great fiction, especially when told through the eyes of the young.
Approach the book forewarned: there is some difficult material that will likely incite nagging questions and a great deal of puzzling from young people. There is nothing overtly inappropriate in the charming novel, but it is certainly gritty. A man starves to death instead of accepting charity, a crippled young boy seeks to end his life because he thinks he is “useless,” boys get lost in a cave and presumed dead, a newly arrived Greek boy learns not to be a “crybaby and a mama’s boy” through grueling rituals of schoolyard initiation. It’s some tough stuff.
However, the stories are delicately handled. The material may not be suitable for some sensitive kids, but most will absorb what they understand and question inconclusively what they do not. For adults reading the book, the relentless optimism and energy of young boys convinced of their own brilliance and set on making money is a lot of fun. Though gruff, the boys’ camaraderie and loyalty are without question, and their ability to enter deeply into the lives of their friends in such a small community is heartwarming.
Perhaps most shocking to our modern reading audience, the mother follows anti-quarantine protocols that encourage dangerous and risky germ-sharing between children. It’s marvelously funny! But quite a shock to our modern sensibilities.
John D. and his older brothers Sweyn D. and Tom D. are subject to Mamma’s “system” for dealing with illness. Rather than agonize over which child is sick and if the other children will catch it, Mamma Fitzgerald does her best to ensure that all children get the same illnesses at the same time. When one of his older brothers comes down with an illness and has been inspected by the doctor, John recounts:
“There was nothing to do but obey. Tom and I went upstairs to the bedroom we shared. We undressed and put on our nightshirts and bathrobes. We dutifully marched down to Mamma’s bedroom. Mamma and Aunt Bertha had hung blankets over the windows to make the room dark. The room had to be dark when you had the measles because the light hurt your eyes. Tom and I groped our way to bed and crawled in with Sweyn. We had to stay in bed with Sweyn until we were both good and infected with measles.”
John, being the youngest, does not have the privilege of accidentally coming down with many illnesses first and is terribly frustrated that he has to endure his brothers’ gloating when they recover from illness and return to ordinary life while the remaining invalids suffer. In his child’s mind, John thinks there could be no greater glory than to get through an illness and eat lavishly and play outdoors while his brothers languish in the sickbed.
So vivid are his fantasies that John contrives to sneak into a friend’s house when he has been quarantined with an illness. After carefully breathing air with the infected and enduring several coughs to the face, the plan works and John learns the greatness and hardship of being the first sick.
What a different world! Moments like these are a reminder of one of fiction’s great opportunities: experiencing a different way of life. We can become so stagnant in our habits and ideas that reading something totally different stretches us and might prompt us to consider what we once found impossible. If we are convinced that there is absolutely no rational argument for the alternative to our protocols, we are no longer in touch with this complex, muddled-up reality. Whether those arguments are sound and whether the risks and rewards of the alternative are worthwhile is another matter, but we should at least have the ability to entertain new perspectives.
As stated above, Fitzgerald drew heavily on his real-life childhood in Price, Utah. Though he changed many details of the story, his writing fulfilled the wish of his mother Lorimine Christine Neilsen for her son to write about the people who settled the West. Evidently, the story of Fitzgerald’s parents inspired another novel called Papa Married a Mormon. We can guess what that’s about!
The Great Brain is a fun ride, guaranteed to be something really out of the ordinary. We all know a Tom character; we’ve often been a John character, the younger brother continually taken advantage of. We all were children once, and Fitzgerald masterfully recounts what it was like to be young, naïve, and full of big ideas.
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