Why I’m Eager to Reread ‘All the Ugly and Wonderful Things’ by Bryn Greenwood

Even though it’s set in a world that scares me–or did

“I liked learning things. How numbers worked together to explain the stars. How molecules made the world. All the ugly and wonderful things people had done in the last two thousand years.” ― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Her name is Wavy.

It’s short for Wavonna.

I’d never heard either name before. And if you were to introduce me to her, I would have said a polite hello and gone about my merry way.

Not because I think I’m better than her.

But because girls and women like her scare the crap out of me. In person.

Fortunately, I encountered her in the pages of All the Ugly and Wonderful Things.

And, like her slow-witted, big-hearted Native American friend, Jessie Joe Kellen, I fell in love.

I fell in love with an eight-year-old girl who “was born in the back seat of a stranger’s car.” So the story opens as Wavy’s cousin recalls what she first heard about this wary waif of a five-year-old a social worker dropped off to stay with them.

A stranger’s car because her parents, Val and Liam, were hitchhiking. Hitchhiking because the old beat-up van they lived in broke down on a stretch of lonely road crossing the state of Texas.

“I liked to play at tragedy, but she drank it out of her baby bottle.” ― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Home, when they eventually had one, was a house on the grounds of a closely-guarded meth lab. And Jessie Joe was one of those security guards and came to be the love of Wavy’s life.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

“Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Ursa Minor, Cygnus, Perseus, Orion.”

Wavy’s first words to her cousin speak volumes about where she goes to escape the pain of her life.

You can, and Kellen does, find her lying on a smoothed-down patch of grass in a summer meadow at midnight, gazing up at the stars, tracing the outlines of constellations with her fingertip.

“We didn’t need to talk. We just laid there watching falling stars go streaking white through all that darkness.” ― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Here’s where she finds peace. Here’s where she finds, and eventually makes love. And here’s where she finds herself.

Why Kellen?

He’s quite a bit older than Wavy. Fourteen years to her eight. Twenty-four to her thirteen when they take their love all the way.

The easy answer is, they need each other.

Kellen takes care of Wavy when no one else does. He makes sure she goes to school and brings a real lunch. And does her homework. And bathes. And eats. And sleeps.

Otherwise, she only nibbles. And sneaks out at night to gaze at the sky.

They grow up together. Close as sister and brother. Closer actually.

He takes care of her in the first half of the story.

Then, as she matures, and understands the world in a way he can’t, she takes care of him. Until they get caught. And getting caught in bed together, as illegal as that is, is the lesser of two evils. This way, Kellen only gets put away for ten years, not life.

As author Bryn Greenwood explains in a conversation at the back of the book, “Personally, I sympathize with characters who are trying to figure out the least bad thing they can do. Characters in bad situations with limited options are always more compelling to me than characters who have clear boundaries and make neat, practical choices.”

Nonetheless, those ten years, even when Kellen gets out early on parole, might as well be an eternity for Wavy. They tore her in two. To complicate matters, Kellen has to register as a sex offender and is not allowed to be within a hundred feet of Wavy. And yet, they’re engaged to be married.

“You can look up keening in the dictionary, but you don’t know what it means until you hear somebody having their heart ripped out.” ― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

I won’t give away how Wavy manages to navigate through all that. Suffice it to say that a student of astrophysics, she has plenty of smarts as well as a love that just won’t quit.

Can you tell, I got completely engrossed in this story?

Literally, had to force myself to put it down, turn off the light at 2 or 3 am, and get a bit of sleep. I didn’t want the story to end and was tempted to start right back in at the beginning when it did.

The only reason I didn’t is because my book club will be reading it next month. I’m trying my best to hold off til then, but I may not make it.

All of this surprised, as well as delighted, me.

Like I said, Wavy’s not someone I would normally pay attention to. But still, she managed to crawl under my skin and inside my heart and make a nest there.

In the process, she busted up some stereotypes that needed busting. Like assuming someone of her background–often described using words like trailer park even though she lived in a real house–is predictably poor, uneducated, uncouth, addicted, and no doubt promiscuous. In short, trashy.

And a Native kid born on ‘the rez’ whose mother is dead, and his father probably unknown, of course, is assumed to have a similar trajectory. Though in his case, the stereotype includes some violence. Either he’s killed a guy or two or ends up with the gun barrel in his own mouth. Or both.

But as long as we subscribe to those stereotypes, we won’t take the time to see the humanity ‘under the hood.’ We won’t feel the wind in our hair while riding on the back of a Panhead (motorcycle) or feel the grass on our back as we connect the constellations at our fingertips. Or know the taste of love that has to fight for its right to exist.

Now, if you were to introduce me to a girl or woman named Wavy or Wavonna, or another new-to-me name, I’d say a lot more than hello, starting with, “Tell me your story, if you have a minute.”

“I wanted a fairy tale ending for Wavy, because if she could find happiness, there would be hope for me, too.” ― Bryn Greenwood, All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Marilyn Flower’s a sacred fool who writes fiction, poetry, and blogs, inspired by the practice of SoulCollage®. Her books: Developing Characters: Fun Ways to Cast Your Fiction, Creative Blogging, Bucket Listers. Follow her Sacred Foolishness or SoulCollage® for Writers, and Stay in touch!