a mother’s story – a woman has 6 children, her last later in life in the 1940s– the child is born with what we now know is Down Syndrome, but was then called Mongolian idiocy – her living a very simple “cracker” life in Mississippi with her family, then having this child that changes all their lives forever – I wonder if the father’s role and relationship with the family would have been different had it not been for Brenda Kay, or if he still would have been “distant” – I was surprised that a man wrote this book in the voice of the mother, a mother whose life was lived for her children, especially her youngest

After reading Before We Get Started and Letters & Life, Bret Lott’s exceptional books on writing, I was inspired to read Jewel, his best known novel. I enjoyed the story, which is a sweeping saga of a woman from Mississippi and how she transcends her background to care for her youngest child, who has Downs Syndrome. Lott writes with great sensitivity and nuance describing family relationships and the tension Jewel feels as a woman greatly constrained by her time period and sub-culture, but also driven to do her best by her daughter and navigate a way to love her husband well without being drowned in the conventions of her time and place.

I really enjoyed the character development in Jewel and would recommend it.

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An amazing, touching novel about a mother's love and dedication to her retarded daughter spanning over 40 years. The mother, Jewel, is among the first mothers to decide to raise a retarded child within the family when most doctors were advising parents to place them in institutions.

Jewel's determination, sacrifice and hope for her daughter continually reminded me of how my mother-in-law focused her life for over 50 years caring for her Down Syndrome daughter. She had more support and educational resources than Jewel did in the early 40s and 50s, but it still takes a strong woman to succeed in this lifetime commitment. The author completely captures the emotional roller coaster of loving, caring for and living with a mentally disabled family member.

I loved the narration of this book . There is no doubt this is how the world looks like from a southern woman point of view in the pre-apartheid era. Add to that a mentally retarded child and the struggle to not let the spark in her go unnoticed. This struggle to make someones life amount to something in this world what an amazing journey it is despite all the sadness. Life does not amount to anything for any of us we all perish one day and when we are gone the legacy means nothing.

What life does amount to is the little bits and pieces of happiness and laughter that you cherish and hold on to and make it all worth it and one day let it go.

I think this book was so well written, the characters are so well developed and even now, after reading it over a year ago, I still am amazed that it was written by a man. Brett Lott wrote Jewel extremely well.

But, a book being well written doesn't make me love it. I just disagreed with so many of the actions of Jewel that it left such a bad taste in my mouth at the end. Mainly her disdain and disregard for her husband. Some might see it as inspiring that she was so determined to get to California despite all obstacles, but to me she sacrificed a lot more than their things to get there, starting with Leston.

It's a great book for discussion, especially when everyone in the group didn't love it :)

While this novel has tremendous potential (the setting, the era, the family dynamics), it fails. I gave it three stars because the potential emerges intermittently. Overall, however, the book was irritating in its length, its repetition (the story could have been told in one-third the pages), and absence of inspiration. No one developed, healed, or strengthened as a person. And, the amount of ill-fortune this family found was simply unrealistic. I'm frustrated and sorry that I invested precious reading time into a novel that could have been exemplary but instead offered very little contemplation about the depth and development of the human endeavor and rarely celebrated the human spirit.

4 STARS

"It is 1943 in the backwoods of Mississippi. In the land of honeysuckle and wild grapevine, Jewel Hilburn and her husband Leston -- whose love for his wife is the surest comfort she's ever known -- are truly blessed. They have five fine children who embrace the world as though it were a sumptuous table set for a feast; and when Brenda Kay is born, Jewel gives thanks for yet another 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 illuminate our lives and set us on a course without reason or compass.

All too soon, Jewel knows that something is wrong with Brenda Kay; her every moment, every breath is taken up with caring for her daughter, with setting things straight. Leston's optimism is failing as fast as the Southern postwar economy. And the physicians Jewel calls "crack doctors" insist that no one can fix a brain born without the gift of common sense." (From Amazon)

I really enjoyed this novel about hope and love. It is very well written with heartwarming characters. The tv movie was just okay.

This was one of the selections for Oprah's Book Club. This is the story of a family growing up in the fifties in Mississippi. Jewel herself is orphaned and is raised by a grandmother in a mansion with servants, where she does not fit in. She marries and they are doing relatively well after the war living in a house built by Jewel's husband, Lott. They have five children and all is well until the 6th child is born with Down Syndrom. They travel to New Orleans for better treatment, having their child described as a "Mongolian Idiot.” This is the heart wrenching story of a mother's love and dedication to her child. Character development is superb. A really great read that I would recommend to book clubs for discussion.

This book was so full of characters and plot that towards the end, I seriously had the thought that I was reading book 2 or 3 of a series. Jewel's life story is compelling and you want to know how she's going to make it. The book takes place in the early 1940's in the south...so the "n" word is used generously- be warned! That said, there's a point in the story where Jewel seems to come out of the dark ages regarding her prejudices of African Americans. I love, love, love her relationship with her daughter, Brenda Kay. Brenda Kay's birth story and early life will break your heart, but will help you understand a Mother's love for a child with special needs. I found myself wanting to impart my 21st century wisdom of what we know about Down Syndrome to this poor Mom who was told a list of lies about how "retarded" her daughter would be. Jewel is my hero. She lived life to the fullest. Leston, her husband, was a good guy too- if you remember that this story took place in the 40's. ("We're moving back to Mississippi because I say so"...WHAAAT??!) I think Jewel and Leston loved each other in their own way. They each made mistakes in their marriage, but they stuck it out and were better in the end for how they worked through their struggles.

Here is fine craftsmanship, the kind of book you can tell has been written with care and attention, each character tenderly brought to life through a simple, telling detail. And Jewel herself, not a fine cut gem but rather one polished by being thoroughly tumbled through the wear of raising six children, of staying loyal to a taciturn man, of caring for her last daughter in the only way she saw fit.

Jewel Hillburn is a proud woman, sure of her own way through the world but she is humbled, gradually, as she learns to come to grips with the fact that each of her children is growing up and heading off into the world without her. Her last child Brenda Kay will always need bathing and comforting and teaching, and this leaves Jewel a perpetual mother who never stops defending and promoting her child. Her husband becomes less a partner and more an obstacle to be overcome as she determines the best course for Brenda Kay's future.

I see the two star ratings, and I understand how such a quiet book may feel unsatisfying to a plot-driven reader. I, for one, admired Jewel immensely. I admired that she was aware enough of herself to recognize how her own character had begun to reflect the stubborn sureness she had resented in her grandmother, a full circle moment that I've come upon in my own life many times, when I realize that the traits I find most frustrating in my daughters are the ones I myself have battled. I admired her ability to relinquish her children one by one to the world. I admired her commitment to her husband, her renewed recognition of herself as a wife after years of being just a mother.

I won't say that I raced through this book, but I read it fairly steadily a bit at a time and I found it utterly satisfying. It is one I will hand to the mothers in my life, one that deserves to be savored.

This book is written extremely well. The prose is so rich, so deep, so intimate, it's symphonic. And it's a great story about a family, a couple, who has a Downs baby in the 50s (around there). All told from the mother's POV, Jewel. Power prose all through. Masterful.

However, the N- word permeates the vocabulary of this southern country white trash cracker family. Hence the four stars instead of five. Although the mother comes to understand the N word's derogatory nature, and approaches an attitude change, there is a missing racial epiphany to the characters, and one feel, the author.

I know there has been recent controversy about Mark Twain's books and the use of the N- word, and maybe that added to its jarring me in Jewel.

I'm of the opinion that if any such usage is employed for character / time / place "realism," it needs to be resolved in a universally satisfying manner by the end of the story.

Racial slurs, ethnic slurs, bigotry, all that, is a gun hanging on the wall that has to go off by the end of the book, one way or the other. Murder or suicide. If not, shame on the writer for having it there in the first place. And shame on editors for allowing an inferior creation to taint our shelves.

I'm pretty high strung about what I read sometimes, emotion over reason, and maybe I'm out of line here.

But I don't think so.

Good enough read but it drug at times for me and thus the three stars. I am always saddened when I read how horribly children with special needs were treated until recently in our country. I was so proud of Jewel and how she fought for her daughter with Down Syndrome at a time when these children were institutionalized and forgotten! A few parents of these children did step forward in the 30's - 70's to advocate for these children and I thought Jewel was so brave especially when she had no idea what to expect or what to do for her daughter. I also hope doctors are kinder today then to tell a parent their child is a "mongoloid idiot" who will probably die at about 2 years of age. Oh, my heart broke!! Things are better today, but these kiddos and adults still need advocating and care too!