Review of Deceptive Calm
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Janice Asero
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Review of Deceptive Calm
[Following is a volunteer review of "Deceptive Calm" by Patricia Skipper.]
As a fan of historical fiction, I'm always on the lookout for books that can educate and entertain. Deceptive Calm, with its captivating storytelling, is loaded with American history, which I loved reading and often stopped to research further some of the facts provided. That’s where my problems with the book began, more of that shortly.
The story revolves around Vanessa Condon, who was abandoned by her parents as a baby at an orphanage for black children in Charleston, South Carolina. Due to some genetic anomaly in her background, Vanessa has very light skin and is mainly mistaken for white. Her childhood at a black orphanage was filled with love due to the doting Sister Rosalie. The problem for her is that she was never adopted, as all the black parents thought she was white.
After a harrowing experience in her late teens (no spoilers), she decided to run away and start a new life. She discovered a scheme where you could get a new social security number under the identity of a baby who had died by presenting the baby’s birth certificate. In the 1960s, the department didn’t match birth and death certificates, so it was a common form of fraud and very successful. Vanessa found one of a white baby named Vanessa Morgan and surprised herself when the social security card was approved. Armed with this, she headed to California to begin a new life.
Does she succeed? Do things go her way? Or does her past catch up with her? You’ll need to read the book to find out.
I absolutely loved Vanessa’s story, which spanned several decades. I was fascinated by the history of the times (I was born in 1968) and loved reliving life during those years.
Now, here are the things that bothered me about the book. My primary concern is that if a novel is marked as historical fiction and refers to real-life scenarios and famous historical moments, it must correctly provide the facts. Unfortunately, the author of Deceptive Calm falls short a few times.
Firstly, the book is set in 1968, and in Chapter Two, the author refers to Governor McNair declaring South Carolina under ‘martial law.’ In fact, Governor McNair declared a ‘state of emergency’ in Charleston, which is not the same thing as martial law; it’s very different. That’s not all. The book mentions it as happening in 1968, but it was actually in April/May 1969, a year later. All of this can be verified from legitimate sources, such as The New York Times, from that era.
Another glaring example concerns Dr Martin Luther King’s assassination. He was shot at 6.05 pm on 4th April 1968. Yet in the book (Chapter 5), the date is mentioned as the 3rd of April. Sure, it’s only a day, but a date this significant in history earns the respect of being quoted correctly whenever it’s used.
Another error concerns the unfortunate ‘Killer Rabbit’ incident involving President Jimmy Carter. It’s well-known that this happened when he was fishing in Georgia alone in a flat-bottomed boat when a swamp rabbit made a bee-line for his boat. He used his oar to splash water at the rabbit to scare it off. Yet Chapter 11 of the book claims he was canoeing down the Potomac River (which doesn’t flow through Georgia), and he was caught on camera beating the rabbit with his oar and later calling it a ‘killer rabbit.’ In reality, the media created that term after a discussion with his press secretary, Jody Powell, and he never used it; he is quoted as calling the rabbit “just a nice, quiet, typical Georgia rabbit.”
My other issue with the book is its pacing. It has 23 chapters, twenty-two of which build the story, and everything culminates in haste in the final chapter. It felt rushed, as if every story arc had to be wrapped up in the shortest possible time.
I struggled with rating this book. The storyline is 5-star gripping and engages the reader; that’s not in question. However, the multiple historical inaccuracies—and there were more, but I didn’t want this review to be 1,000 words—coupled with the rushed ending, have me landing on 5 out of 5 stars.
Deceptive Calm really educated me on just how severe racism was (and sadly still is) in the US. I feel that this book would appeal to a broad range of people, especially those who want to learn more about this time in history. If this book improves one person’s attitude, it’s done its job. If, however, that person, like me, is a stickler for historical facts, they may want to skip this one as it’ll infuriate them as much as it did me. As it’s set in the late 1960s and into the 1970s, some terms used to describe black people are used freely and may trigger some readers.
******
Deceptive Calm
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
As a fan of historical fiction, I'm always on the lookout for books that can educate and entertain. Deceptive Calm, with its captivating storytelling, is loaded with American history, which I loved reading and often stopped to research further some of the facts provided. That’s where my problems with the book began, more of that shortly.
The story revolves around Vanessa Condon, who was abandoned by her parents as a baby at an orphanage for black children in Charleston, South Carolina. Due to some genetic anomaly in her background, Vanessa has very light skin and is mainly mistaken for white. Her childhood at a black orphanage was filled with love due to the doting Sister Rosalie. The problem for her is that she was never adopted, as all the black parents thought she was white.
After a harrowing experience in her late teens (no spoilers), she decided to run away and start a new life. She discovered a scheme where you could get a new social security number under the identity of a baby who had died by presenting the baby’s birth certificate. In the 1960s, the department didn’t match birth and death certificates, so it was a common form of fraud and very successful. Vanessa found one of a white baby named Vanessa Morgan and surprised herself when the social security card was approved. Armed with this, she headed to California to begin a new life.
Does she succeed? Do things go her way? Or does her past catch up with her? You’ll need to read the book to find out.
I absolutely loved Vanessa’s story, which spanned several decades. I was fascinated by the history of the times (I was born in 1968) and loved reliving life during those years.
Now, here are the things that bothered me about the book. My primary concern is that if a novel is marked as historical fiction and refers to real-life scenarios and famous historical moments, it must correctly provide the facts. Unfortunately, the author of Deceptive Calm falls short a few times.
Firstly, the book is set in 1968, and in Chapter Two, the author refers to Governor McNair declaring South Carolina under ‘martial law.’ In fact, Governor McNair declared a ‘state of emergency’ in Charleston, which is not the same thing as martial law; it’s very different. That’s not all. The book mentions it as happening in 1968, but it was actually in April/May 1969, a year later. All of this can be verified from legitimate sources, such as The New York Times, from that era.
Another glaring example concerns Dr Martin Luther King’s assassination. He was shot at 6.05 pm on 4th April 1968. Yet in the book (Chapter 5), the date is mentioned as the 3rd of April. Sure, it’s only a day, but a date this significant in history earns the respect of being quoted correctly whenever it’s used.
Another error concerns the unfortunate ‘Killer Rabbit’ incident involving President Jimmy Carter. It’s well-known that this happened when he was fishing in Georgia alone in a flat-bottomed boat when a swamp rabbit made a bee-line for his boat. He used his oar to splash water at the rabbit to scare it off. Yet Chapter 11 of the book claims he was canoeing down the Potomac River (which doesn’t flow through Georgia), and he was caught on camera beating the rabbit with his oar and later calling it a ‘killer rabbit.’ In reality, the media created that term after a discussion with his press secretary, Jody Powell, and he never used it; he is quoted as calling the rabbit “just a nice, quiet, typical Georgia rabbit.”
My other issue with the book is its pacing. It has 23 chapters, twenty-two of which build the story, and everything culminates in haste in the final chapter. It felt rushed, as if every story arc had to be wrapped up in the shortest possible time.
I struggled with rating this book. The storyline is 5-star gripping and engages the reader; that’s not in question. However, the multiple historical inaccuracies—and there were more, but I didn’t want this review to be 1,000 words—coupled with the rushed ending, have me landing on 5 out of 5 stars.
Deceptive Calm really educated me on just how severe racism was (and sadly still is) in the US. I feel that this book would appeal to a broad range of people, especially those who want to learn more about this time in history. If this book improves one person’s attitude, it’s done its job. If, however, that person, like me, is a stickler for historical facts, they may want to skip this one as it’ll infuriate them as much as it did me. As it’s set in the late 1960s and into the 1970s, some terms used to describe black people are used freely and may trigger some readers.
******
Deceptive Calm
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
