Jewel - Teaser Tuesday and First Paragraph / First Chapter

Jewel by Bret Lott is an engrossing and beautifully written story. The author delves deep into the main character's fears and dreams, and he does a great job of portraying the reality of the Deep South in the 1940s and 1950s, especially regarding treatment of children with Down's Syndrome. Jewel is a book I won't forget.

First Paragraph:
     I was born in 1904, so that when I was pregnant in 1943 I was near enough to be past the rightful age to bear children. This would be my sixth, and on that morning in February, the first morning I'd known I was with child, I'd simply turned to Leston in bed next to me, the room gray from a winter sky outside the one window, that sky not yet lit with the sun, and I'd said, "There'll be no more after this one."

Teaser (from Page 80 in my hardback copy):
     But I let that fear hole up inside me until February, praying each day something might happen: that my baby would smile up at me when she came to, that she would roll over, that the sound of a baby's laugh might escape her and make its way into the house.
     Nothing came. Now she was five months old.

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction / Family Saga
Book Length: 358 Pages
Amazon Link: Jewel
Author's Amazon Page: Bret Lott

Synopsis:
In the backwoods of Mississippi, a land of honeysuckle and grapevine, Jewel and her husband, Leston, are truly blessed; they have five fine children. When Brenda Kay is born in 1943, Jewel gives thanks for a healthy baby, last-born and most welcome. Jewel is the story of how quickly a life can change; how, like lightning, an unforeseen event can set us on a course without reason or compass. In this story of a woman's devotion to the child who is both her burden and God's singular way of smiling on her, Bret Lott has created a mother-daughter relationship of matchless intensity and beauty, and one of the finest, most indomitable heroines in contemporary American fiction.


Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!Link at  ADailyRhythm.com



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