Big Lies in a Small Town: A Novel

Journals and other written records are invaluable as primary sources of historical information, and Anna’s journal is no exception. She records her experiences as an outsider in Edenton, but its most important function is as a chronicle of the tragic secrets of her past. Without it, Morgan would never understand the importance of the mural’s incongruities—the motorcycle, the bloody hammer, the face in the mirror. So much of the narrative is about how the past connects to the present, and the journal represents one of the story’s key bits of connective tissue. Thus far, Morgan’s research into Anna turns up only a few tangential news articles, but once the journal—buried in Nelle’s trunk for decades—surfaces, Morgan is able to piece together the full story from Anna’s own words. The journal also works as a narrative device that allows Chamberlain to recount Anna’s traumatic experience from a first-person perspective, giving the event an authentic immediacy that the previous third-person accounts of Annas doings in Edenton necessarily lack. A first-person account, coupled with the intimacy of a personal diary, allows Chamberlain to convey Anna’s assault, flight from the law, and childbirth with a harrowing urgency that the narrative might not otherwise possess. As both a historical record and a personal therapist, the journal itself is a precious totem: one that connects Anna and Morgan and ultimately ties up the remaining loose ends in the narrative.

Jesse’s farm, owned by his family since the end of the Civil War, is a patchwork quilt of land given that was granted, taken away, reacquired, and held together by various relatives until the Williams clan has at last managed to build a sustainable existence by farming the land. The farm supports them, and provides them with food and community, but for Jesse, it also represents an obligation that stands in the way of his creative aspirations. Ultimately, Jesse has it both ways. He leaves the farm to pursue an art career but returns to Edenton a success, and the farm remains in his family.

For Anna, the farm is a sanctuary: a place to hide, to recover, and to deliver an unwanted child. It’s a waystation in her life, a place of limbo from which she ultimately escapes the law and goes on to start a new life up north. In a sense, the farm is Anna’s own Underground Railroad: an ironic role reversal given that she is a white woman being sheltered by a Black family until she can rid herself of the burden of childbearing.

For Morgan, the farm represents her connection to Mama Nelle and therefore to the past. She is able to tease out a few mysterious details about Anna from Nelle’s failing memory, but she also develops an emotional bond with her as well. Furthermore, as a woman with no family ties, Morgan sees the farm as a way to catch a glimpse of what a family can be: a vibrant community and a nurturing network of generational love. Just as a farm is an incubator of life-sustaining food, it also provides spiritual and emotional sustenance for both Anna and Morgan.