The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by R.
Kent Rasmussen.

~~~~~

BOOK REVIEW

Hart, Lenore. _Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher_. New York:
St. Martin's Press, 2008. Pp. 371. ISBN 978-0-312-37327-6.

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Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
R. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, California

Copyright (c) 2008 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published
or redistributed in any medium without permission.

Mark Twain did not create many strong female characters, and his most
famous female creation is arguably Becky Thatcher, Tom's demure
sweetheart in _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ (1876). Although Becky is
certainly not a strong character, she and Tom are coequal literary
icons in the popular eye. What accounts for her exulted status? Is it
anything she does in _Tom Sawyer_? Or, does it have more to do with
efforts to raise her reputation to help interest girls in Mark Twain's
books?

Becky appears frequently in _Tom Sawyer_ but has little to do beyond
frustrating Tom with her fickleness and giving him a heroine to rescue.
The only notable initiative she takes occurs halfway through the novel
when she flirts with Alfred Temple, but even that she does merely to
make Tom jealous. Moreover, the bitter estrangement that incident
creates sets up a later scene at school in which Tom's sudden
volunteering to take a whipping that Becky expects to get herself seems
doubly heroic. From that moment, Becky stops being fickle and also
gives up any semblance of being an independent character, even though
her most memorable scene occurs later, when she and Tom get lost in the
cave. Even then, however, she has little to do but sobbingly resign
herself to death and allow Tom to save her.

When novelist Lenore Hart read _Tom Sawyer_ in the fifth grade, she
found Becky more "weepy and romantic and silly" than real girls. Many
years later, after visiting Hannibal, she decided to give Becky a
larger role in a story of her own. The result is _Becky: The Life and
Loves of Becky Thatcher_. In this full-length novel, a
seventy-two-year-old Becky, living in San Francisco in 1910, relates
the story of her life.

Pastiches using Mark Twain's characters are mostly attempts at sequels
to his original stories. For example, Clement Wood's _Tom Sawyer Grows
Up_ (1939) is a children's novel that continues Tom's romance with
Becky and pits Tom and Huck Finn against bank robbers. Wood followed it
with _More Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ (1940), which takes Tom and
Huck into Indian territory. A more ambitious attempt at a similar
sequel was Australian writer Greg Matthews's _The Further Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn_ (1983), in which Huck and Jim go west to the
California gold fields. More recent years have seen two separate
attempts to complete Mark Twain's unfinished "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer
Among the Indians," in which Huck, Jim, and Tom all go west together.
Yet another novel, Dan Walker's _Huckleberry Finn in Love and War: The
Lost Journals_ (2007) carries Mark Twain's characters into the Civil
War and has some interesting parallels with Hart's novel.

Jon Clinch made a much different kind of use of Mark Twain's characters
in _Finn_ (2007), a novel about Huck's vicious father that is
sufficiently original to stand well on its own. Definitely not a sequel
to _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ (1884), _Finn_ provides Huck's
backstory, and much of its narrative overlaps that of Mark Twain's
book. _Finn_ fleshes out minor incidents in _Huckleberry Finn_ and
fills in gaps in Pap Finn's story. Its brilliance lies in its
transformation of Pap into a complex and full-blooded character and in
raising intriguing questions about Huck without significantly altering
anything in _Huckleberry Finn_. Readers might reasonably object that
_Finn_ says things about Huck and Pap that Mark Twain never intended,
but they would have trouble finding anything in _Huckleberry Finn_ that
actually contradicts _Finn_.

The same cannot be said of _Becky_. This novel not only offers
wholesale revisions of _Tom Sawyer_ but also intrudes significantly
into the life of its author, Sam Clemens, and even negates the premise
on which _Huckleberry Finn_ is based. Hart's eponymous narrator sets
out her objectives in her untitled prologue, composed shortly after she
learns of Mark Twain's death in 1910. To her, "Sammy Clemens" will
always be "the redheaded child who never got a story straight; the one
who always had to improve on the truth." She complains that although
what Clemens wrote about the people of her childhood has "the _ring_ of
truth, it's what he left out that's important." The main thing he left
out, it seems, was the truth about her: "I was never that pale, limp,
blond-curled girl-child from a sentimental chromo. I was tough as any
boy, and kept my own secrets" (p. 4). This sounds a bit like a modern
feminist perspective; however, Becky's greatest ambition was merely to
be one of the boys, not to improve the lot of women generally. "I
wanted to belong," she says, "to be part of Tom's wild gang, no matter
the cost" (ibid.).

Hart is actually not the first writer to carry Becky's story into the
20th century. In 1984, Bernard Sabath, a playwright best known for _The
Boys in Autumn_ (1981), which reunites Tom and Huck in middle age,
published a play about a middle-aged Becky titled _Hannibal Blues_.
That dramatic work brings Becky back to Hannibal as a more strongly
feminist character than Hart's Becky. However, it has been seen and
read by too few people to have made any lasting impression, so it is
fair to say that Hart is working in a new field.

To fit Becky into Tom's world, Hart treats _Tom Sawyer_ much as John
Seelye treats _Huckleberry Finn_ in _The True Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn_ (1970, 1987). Seelye essentially rewrote Mark Twain's novel,
omitting portions he believed did not belong--such as the evasion
chapters--revising other parts, and using stronger language throughout.
Hart's story is mostly original but incorporates substantial parts of
_Tom Sawyer_ and makes changes at least as significant as those that
Seelye makes in his book. Seelye's goal was to make _Huckleberry Finn_
more realistic in the context of its time. Hart's goal is to make Becky
Thatcher a more realistic female character by rescuing her from the
Victorian myth of woman as angel in the house. That is a legitimate
objective. After all, _Tom Sawyer_ is essentially a boys' story in
which everything is seen through the eyes of boys. It is thus perfectly
reasonable to assume that while _Tom Sawyer_ may reflect how boys
remember its events, it does not necessarily depict those events
accurately. Hart's _Becky_ is thus a kind of corrective. However, while
Hart liberates Becky, she may inflict more damage than necessary on her
source materials and weaken her own book in the process.

_Becky_ is a well-written book but one that demands a close reading to
appreciate its nuances as its shifts around in time. Its conceit is
that it claims to be a true story about real people with whom Sam
Clemens grew up in Hannibal and later used as characters in his novels.
In her prologue, the elderly narrator indicates that "Becky Thatcher"
is not her real name (a name she never reveals); she evidently uses it
simply because it is the name Clemens invented for the character he
based on her. It thus seems to follow that "Tom Sawyer," "Huck Finn,"
"Aunt Polly," "Sid," "Mary," "Judge Thatcher," the "Jim" of
_Huckleberry Finn_, and other names appearing throughout her narrative
are also Clemens's inventions for people whose real names were
different. This is an intriguing premise on which to build a novel, but
Hart's selection of names raises some questions.

_Becky_'s central narrative opens in Hannibal, Missouri (_not_ St.
Petersburg) in 1864, when Becky is about twenty-six years old and is
married to Sid Hopkins, Tom Sawyer's cousin and the son of Tom's late
aunt, the "widow" Polly Hopkins. Becky and Sid share Polly's house with
two sons and Sid's sister, Mary, a consumptive who has been advised
never to marry or have children. In _Tom Sawyer_, Sid is Tom's
half-brother, not his cousin, but his connections to Polly and Tom's
cousin Mary are unclear. Making Sid Tom's cousin and Mary's brother
clarifies some points, but making Sid Polly's son introduces fresh
confusion. For example, if Becky is Polly's daughter-in-law, why does
she consistently call that woman "Aunt Polly"? Equally puzzling is
_Becky_'s substitution of "the widow Watson" for _Huckleberry Finn_'s
"Miss Watson." The choice of "Hopkins" for Sid's family name is also
curious, as the only character in _Tom Sawyer_ with that name is Mother
Hopkins, whom Huck Finn believes to be a witch. Perhaps Hart is simply
having some fun with us here. Could the many inconsistencies and
ostensible errors in the novel be deliberate hoaxes on readers?

The novel's central storyline traces Becky's life from the Civil War's
final year through the aftermath of the 1876 massacre of Custer's
troops at Little Bighorn--a crucial event within the novel. Although
Becky loves Sid, it is clear that she has never stopped loving Tom,
whose name she repeatedly evokes. As her account unfolds, she often
looks back to earlier periods to fill in background information and to
comment on incidents that Clemens distorted in _Tom Sawyer_, a book
that she regards as a betrayal of her friendship with Clemens.

Several experiences prove Becky to be tougher than most men. Concerned
about Sid's safety in the chaotic fighting among Union, Confederate,
and brigand factions in southern Missouri during the Civil War, she
sets off to bring him home. Dressed as a man, she joins a Union outfit
and acquits herself well in a heated battle. After finding Sid wounded,
she nurses him and gets him home. To escape Missouri's growing anarchy,
she persuades Sid to take the family west, where Sam Clemens has
already gone. The family arrives in Virginia City, Nevada, where
Clemens is still reporting for the _Territorial Enterprise_. There she
teaches school while Sid struggles to find work as a lawyer. When
Clemens moves on to San Francisco, he bequeaths a mining claim to Sid,
who soon strikes a rich silver vein. The family's finances dramatically
improve, but Sid's involvement with a vigilante group leads to his
assassination, making Becky a widow. Becky then sells most of her
interest in the mine and relocates to San Francisco, where she takes
the nearly indigent Clemens into her home. Although Becky is set for
life from her mining income, she finds an outlet for her restlessness
by helping Clemens write stories for the _San Francisco Call_. In what
will surely be a surprise to those who have studied Clemens's life, it
was Becky, not Clemens, who wrote a story about police abuse of Chinese
residents that the _Call_ refused to print.

(SPOILER ALERT)

Underlying _Becky_'s central narrative thread is Becky's struggle to
work out her feelings for Tom Sawyer, from whom she has been estranged
since an incident that occurred in her childhood. In her many narrative
flashbacks, she explains how as a girl she forced her way into Tom and
Huck's "Freebooters" gang and eventually regarded her freedom to go off
on nocturnal adventures with the boys as the most important thing in
her life. Little Sammy Clemens (who is described as younger than Becky
and her friends, although he was born in 1835, while Becky was
apparently born around 1838), knew about Becky's exploits but
deliberately omitted her from several of Tom and Huck's most dramatic
adventures when he later wrote _Tom Sawyer_.

Becky's first important adventure occurred the night that Tom and Huck
saw Dr. Robinson killed in the town's graveyard. Chapter 9 of _Tom
Sawyer_ fails to mention that Becky was with the boys that night.
Moreover, it was Muff Potter, not harmless Injun Joe, who killed the
doctor. Further surprises follow. Several days after the murder, _both_
Tom and Huck publicly testify that they saw Injun Joe do the killing.
Becky is outraged and puzzled by Tom's blatant lie and willingness to
let an innocent man be hanged. Later, she learns why Tom has lied: He
has a morbid fear and deep hatred of Indians going back to his infancy,
when Indians killed his parents. He despises Injun Joe merely because
he is an Indian and wants him dead.

The Tom of Mark Twain's _Tom Sawyer_ admires Indians, but even in that
novel it takes all the courage he can muster to testify publicly
against Injun Joe, who _is_ guilty of murder. Would a boy with a
preternatural fear of Indians publicly accuse an innocent Indian of
murder? Becky herself wants to see justice done but does not come to
Injun Joe's defense for fear of losing her freedom if her parents find
out she has been sneaking out at night. Instead, Becky begs Tom to tell
the truth. In one of her story's strangest episodes, she has an
accidental encounter with Injun Joe, who begs for a chance to ask Tom
to tell the truth. Joe agrees to meet Becky and Tom inside the town's
great cave during Becky's coming picnic party. How unlikely is that?
Given Becky's awareness of Tom's fear of Indians, should she expect him
to welcome a face-to-face confrontation, deep inside a dark cave, with
an Indian whom he has falsely accused of murder? Naturally, the moment
Tom sees Joe in the cave, he grabs Becky and runs. They soon get lost.

The cave scene that follows is similar to that in _Tom Sawyer_, except
for its resolution: It is Becky, not Tom, who finds a way out of the
cave several days later. Afterward, as in _Tom Sawyer_, Judge Thatcher
has the entrance to the cave sealed to keep other people from getting
lost until Tom reveals that Injun Joe is still inside. Again as in the
original story, the cave is reopened and Joe's dead body is found
inside the entrance. Now, however, Becky is more disgusted than ever
with Tom for having caused Joe's death. Why Tom should be any more
responsible than Becky is unclear. In fact, why Joe would have remained
inside the cave for several days after the abortive meeting is also
unclear, as the cave is not his hideout in this story.

There is naturally much more to this novel than what has been outlined
here. Huck Finn and Jim play minor roles throughout the narrative, and
Tom eventually comes back into Becky's life in a big way. Meanwhile, as
Becky repeatedly professes her love for Tom, one wonders why. Stripped
of much of his heroism and dignity, Tom has little left to be admired.
Sid is easily the better man, and Becky occasionally admits as much.
The end of the novel offers Tom a chance for redemption, but if he
takes it, Becky may lose him forever.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

In an interview included in the promotional material sent with this
book's review copy, Lenore Hart says she "read hundreds of books on
Missouri, Nevada, San Francisco, and Panama and Cuba" and "verified
everything in historical sources." Perhaps that claim should be taken
with the same grain of salt applied to Clemens's claim to have invested
twelve years in the research for _Joan of Arc_ (1896). Hart's novel
does a fine job of depicting conditions in Missouri during the Civil
War and the flush times of Virginia City, but historical errors and
anachronisms often intrude throughout her book. For example, Becky
arrives in Hannibal aboard a train from St. Louis around the year 1849
(p. 13), but the real town's first railroad did not begin operating
until 1859, and its St. Louis line opened even later.

A smaller error, but one mentioned more than once, is Becky's allusion
to living on "the crookedest street in San Francisco" (p. 4). This is
an evident allusion to the famous Lombard Street; however, that street
was not made crooked until the 1920s. More jarring to those familiar
with Mark Twain's writings are _Becky_'s repeated descriptions of
pre-Civil War steamboatmen wearing uniforms. In _Life on the
Mississippi_ (1883), Clemens remarks that the postwar appearance of
uniforms on steamboats was a bigger surprise to him than "all the other
changes put together" (chapter 25).

There is much to be said for elevating Becky's role in _Tom Sawyer_.
However, must that be done at the expense of diminishing Tom so greatly
that little remains for Becky to love? _Becky_ also does significant
damage to _Huckleberry Finn_, whose narrative is driven by Pap Finn's
return to St. Petersburg to claim Huck's share of the wealth Huck and
Tom divide after finding Injun Joe's treasure in the cave. The Joe of
_Becky_ hides no treasure, so there can be no fortune for Pap to claim.
_Becky_ does acknowledge that Jim sought his freedom in a voyage down
the river with Huck; however, Jim somehow returned to Hannibal as a
slave. He was later freed, but perhaps it would have been kinder to
leave him out of this story.

_Becky_ is an often entertaining and engaging novel, and many readers
will enjoy it as the story of a spunky girl caught up in exciting
adventures and obsessed with her one true love. However, the
publisher's flyer may go too far in describing the book as "in the
spirit of _Finn_ and _Wicked_ . . ." Comparing _Becky_ to _Finn_ is a
major stretch. On the other hand, if _Becky_ resembles the backstory of
the wicked witch of _The Wizard of Oz_, maybe there is more to Mother
Hopkins's role in _Tom Sawyer_ than meets the eye.

_____

ABOUT THE REVIEWER: R. Kent Rasmussen's most recent books are _Critical
Companion to Mark Twain_ (2007), a two-volume revision of _Mark Twain A
to Z_ (1995) and _Bloom's How to Write About Mark Twain_ (2008). His
review of Jon Clinch's _Finn_ appeared on the Forum in April 2007 and
can now be read on the Forum's Web site.