Currently in my English 203 class Professor McCoy has us reading Percival Everett’s I Am Not Sidney Poitier and even though we are only twenty-eight pages in, I can’t help but notice how well this novel is written. Allow me to unpack that statement; the Bedford Glossary defines satire as, “A literary genre or mode that uses irony, wit, and sometimes sarcasm to expose humanity’s vices and foibles” and Everett’s novel relies heavily on those factors. Like Professor McCoy said in class on Friday, the book starts with a joke, our main character, Not Sidney, explaining to the readers that he was the product of a two year long hysterical pregnancy, but he quickly dismisses the idea that he could be hysterical himself, claiming that he was “rather calm and waveless.”
While discussing the opening lines with my group today I admitted that I thought this was a pretty funny novel and Kevin and Julia agreed, liking the way it was so abrupt and the use of dry humor as Not Sidney described his childhood. I appreciate how Everett doesn’t stay too long on the topics that Not Sidney goes through, managing to sum the death of his mother up in a short paragraph before we get back to, in my opinion, one of the best characters of the book (besides Wanda Fonda)-Ted Turner. In fact, that’s what I would like to focus on in this blog post-the side characters of this novel that I find so incredibly interesting because for most of them, they offer very little to the meat of the story but on their own, they have their own side stories that are so unique to what’s happening in the main plot.
I’ve enjoyed almost everything that we have read so far in this class because of how well each story gives life to the characters, an example being Vlepo from Frenzy-who we constantly brought up in class because we couldn’t quite figure out what or who he was, but that didn’t stop us from appreciating his character and feeling real emotion for him. I can confidently say that I Am Not Sidney Poitier is taking the cake for my favorite piece of reading thus far in the semester, and a big part of that is due to Wanda Fonda, Jane Fonda’s niece who shows up in the novel for a boat trip before disappearing entirely from the rest of the book. Her name is everything-the fact that it rhymes and the fact that she hates it gives her character, as well as her ability to sail at such a young age, plus the fact that she has a tattoo that means something sexual and she’s only eleven-really rounds her out. Wanda Fonda is complex, and has her own problems that aren’t as explored as I would have liked, such as the desire to expose herself to Not Sidney after briefly meeting him as well as her attachment to him in general but in reality-she was a kid who was most likely exposed to too many things at a young age because her aunt is the lovely Jane Fonda.
Ah, Jane Fonda. I love that she was included in this novel and her character is everything that I imagine the real Jane to be like, careless and unbothered. Not Sidney’s fascination with her is great and weird, his pubescent nature showing as he instructs Wanda to toss Jane’s bikini top overboard and the unsatisfied feeling he gets when she simply goes about her sunbathing, chest exposed, is important to notice. Not Sidney is a young kid who lost his mother, moved in with a wealthy white guy and his wife, and he’s starting to develop feelings for almost everyone he sees. He describes how he likes Ted Turner, and how he also likes Betty-his teacher, and he liked them both so much that he wanted to see them kiss because it would bring satisfaction to him, and yet it doesn’t happen. And now, that Jane Fonda was exposed to him and not doing a thing to cover herself up-it doesn’t hit right for him so he tries to use his intense mind controlling stare on her because he needs to see her eyes-the one thing that’s still shielded from his own gaze. Jane Fonda, being the millionaire actress and model that she was, simply stares back at him with her sunglasses off, which makes Not Sidney believe that he could actually control her mind, but in reality she was simply a bit creeped out by all the staring this kid was throwing her way.
In my group today we were discussing what relationship Not Sidney and Ted Turner have; Lauren said he was a father figure, someone else said a brotherly figure, and then Brian made the suggestion of the “fun uncle” and at first I liked that idea because I could see how it was true. Ted was rich, took him to do fun things, and wasn’t really involved with Not’s personal life, but after giving it some more thought, I don’t see Ted Turner being an authority figure to Not Sidney at all. He’s more like the guy who’s living in the other side of the house that Not sees from time to time and I love that idea more, simply because he seems so disconnected from reality in general. The way Percival Everett writes Turner’s character is great, even his accent that practically pops off the page as one reads the way he pronounces Not’s name, “Nu’ott” with his southern drawl is so good. When reading this and observing the way that Ted and Not interact I can almost envision it, simply because the latter wasn’t expecting to take this kid in who’s extremely wealthy on his own, but he does and they’re both sort of rolling with it as time goes on.
Characterization is so important and to me, it’s what makes a story worth reading, because if Wanda Fonda wasn’t in that boat scene I can confidently say that it wouldn’t have been as interesting as it was when I first read it.