To Come and Go Like Magic (review)

Twelve-year-old Chileda (Chili) Sue Mahoney is having an eventful life: there's the arrival of her seventy-year-old Uncle Lu, the return of her pregnant older sister, a burgeoning friendship with welfare kid Willie Bright, and the coming of Miss Matlock, an elderly substitute teacher who left Chili's hometown of Mercy Hill, Kentucky to see the world, just as Chili dreams of doing, but who has a mysterious history. Set in the mid-'70s, Fawcett's novel offers a series of Chili's reflections, each self-contained (most are a page or two long) and each contributing in different ways to the overall themes of the novel. Problems rise and fall among the tales, some addressed, some left in a state of conflict, from Chili's changing relationship with her two best childhood friends to the changing dynamics within her home and hometown. Chili handles it all, sometimes awkwardly, sometimes gracefully, but at all times with a sincerity befitting to her character and her determination. Because of the nonlinear storytelling, characterization comes in pieces, background information is delivered in chunks, and imagery trumps plot development; the result is a beautifully crafted collection of vignettes that evocatively recall the role of family, friendship, and community in Chili's world.