Susan Marcus Bends the Rules by Jane Cutler (review)

Upon arriving in the small town of Clayton, Missouri, in 1943, former New Yorker Susan experiences deep culture shock: in her Bronx neighborhood, everyone got along and everyone thought about the war all of the time, while in Missouri there are still lingering Jim Crow laws and you’d hardly know there is a war going on. When she and her new friend Marlene become friends with Loretta, the young African-American girl who lives illegally in the basement apartment with her mother, Susan wants to challenge the Clayton status quo, and the thee girls decide to peacefully take on Jim Crow by riding a bus together through town. The story is largely an episodic series of summer snapshots infused with Susan’s growing social awareness, and the slim novel is generally successful at portraying a period in history through an individual point of view. Susan’s perceptions seem at times anachronistically contemporary, though, and the bus event fizzles as a great act of defiance, leaving the story without a major conflict and resolution. The novel may nevertheless appeal to young readers who, like Susan, seek ways to challenge injustice as well as those who simply appreciate a solid friendship story.