Authors: Kit de Waal
“Yes,” says Leon.
“What I'm trying to say is this, Leon. And that was a bad example but never mind. This isn't the whole of your life, love. This is a bit of your life. It all seems bloody awful, I know, with your mom and Jake and . . .”
She takes a tissue out of her handbag and puts it in his hand. She undoes a family bag of Mint Imperials and tips a handful on the table and they roll all over the place.
“The thing is this and you have to believe me. I've made arrangements with the Social. I've been working on this for weeks but I didn't want to tell you until it was official. It's taken forever to get it all organized. So, the point is, you'll be with me until you leave school and even after, if you like. I get you. You get me. That's the deal. But it's got strings attached. Do you know what that means?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“It's got to be tied up.”
“No. Well, yes. It means that to tie the deal up, to make it a
proper thing that you can't undo, you have to make a promise to me. And if you make the promise you can't go back on it. Two promises, actually, Leon.”
“Yes.”
“Wipe your face.”
She sniffs and holds two fingers up but not the swearing ones.
“One,” she says, “you have to tell me when something's wrong. Don't matter what it is and it don't matter if it's me that's done it. And I'm not saying I can fix it, because I can't fix everything. I'm not a magician, am I?”
“No.”
“Second, don't run away.”
“Yes.”
“Sorry?”
“I won't.”
“Good. That's a deal then.”
“Yes.”
“No more sweets for a week. Not for me and not for you. We've gone overboard today and I get weighed tomorrow.”
She pinches the fat on the top of her arms.
“Shit.”
42
On the day of the Royal Wedding, Mr. Devlin comes by really early in the morning. He rings the bell before Sylvia and Maureen are out of bed, so Leon has to run to the door.
“Good,” he says, “someone's awake at least.”
He walks in and puts the kettle on.
“Sylvia said come early,” says Mr. Devlin and Leon runs and knocks on Sylvia's door, opens it an inch.
“Sylvia,” he says, “he's here.”
“Victor? Shit, shit, shit . . .” she hisses. “Ten minutes.”
Leon runs back to the kitchen.
“So,” Mr. Devlin says. “We've got a lot to do for your party.”
“It's not my party,” says Leon.
“It's not mine, either,” he replies. “She is not my queen, he is not my prince. I don't believe in royal anything.”
“Why not?”
“That's a long and complicated explanation and I haven't had my coffee yet.”
Leon takes a mug out of the cupboard and shows Mr. Devlin where the coffee is. Sylvia always makes Mr. Devlin's coffee, so she won't mind. Leon takes a bowl for himself and sprinkles his cornflakes in.
“Is your queen in Ireland?” he asks.
Leon needs to be at the sugar stage before Sylvia comes into the kitchen and catches him. Mr. Devlin leans on the kitchen counter and folds his arms.
“There are no kings or queens, Leon. There are people. This marriage is a marriage between two people, a man and a woman, nothing more. Maybe they love each other, maybe they don't, but it is not a fairy tale. It is a wedding. And today we're making a wedding party, a celebration for people who believe in witches and wizards and princesses rescued from towers.”
“Are you still coming?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was invited,” he says and nods at Sylvia, who is standing in the doorway pulling the belt on her dressing gown.
“Morning, Vic,” she says. “Bit early, isn't it?”
Sylvia has creases on her face and she keeps fluffing up her hair at the sides. She looks like she's still asleep. Mr. Devlin stands up straight.
“I'm sorry, I thought I'd make an early start. I can come back later.”
“Make me a coffee and I'll think about it.”
She brushes past him and opens the back door. She lights a cigarette and blows the smoke up the garden path.
“Don't say anything,” she shouts behind her. “I'm not having that conversation again. I have to have one first thing.”
“The worst one is the one you can't do without,” Mr. Devlin says.
“That apply to men?” she answers and he laughs.
Mr. Devlin is clean these days and he's found some other clothes. Leon has seen him washing his hands in the water barrel by his shed before he comes to see Sylvia.
While no one is looking, Leon sprinkles extra sugar on his cornflakes. Mr. Devlin won't notice anyway, because all he does these days is look at Sylvia, and she keeps saying what he thinks about things, like, “Victor thinks there'll be more riots,” or, “Victor thinks Northern Ireland is merely a symptom of a greater disease.” And Maureen always winks at Leon and raises her eyes to the ceiling. Sylvia saw a leather jacket on TV and she said she was going to buy it for Mr. Devlin so he didn't have to wear his army coat anymore but Leon thinks he will look silly in it, like he's borrowed it from Tufty.
Mr. Devlin finishes his coffee and puts the mug on the side.
“Right, me and Leon can start. Mr. Atwal is bringing the trestle tables in his van. I need the triangles from you and the flags on string.”
Sylvia laughs.
“Triangles? Bunting, you bloody fool, bunting. How many times?”
“Ah, yes, bunting,” he says but Leon knows he's teasing her.
Maureen shuffles into the kitchen in her new purple slippers.
“Well, they fit,” she says, smoothing her dressing gown over her belly. “Thank you, Leon. Though how you managed to get the money and go to my favorite shop and get the right size, I don't know.”
“I . . .”
“He did some clearing for me,” says Mr. Devlin and winks. “Once we got the go-ahead from the committee, we had to get the place ready for the party so he helped me.”
“Hmm,” says Maureen as she shoos him out of the way and puts the kettle on. “Didn't realize that I was moving into a house of conspirators. Sylvia's decided to stop buying cake, biscuits,
chocolate, and anything that tastes nice, thank you, Sylvia,” she shouts. “Leon's never in the house and couldn't get the dirt from under his fingernails if he washed with carbolic soap, and as for youâ”
“What about him?” says Sylvia, coming in from the garden.
“He's got you like a sixteen-year-old, that's what.”
“Belt up, Mo. You're jealous.”
They elbow each other and start sniggering like little girls but the kitchen's too small, so Leon goes and gets his backpack and puts it up by the front door. Then he goes into the lounge and presses the button on the television.
“No you don't, mister,” shouts Maureen. “Not today.”
From then on it's up to
the allotment and job after job after job for Leon. No one seems to realize he can't be in two places at the same time. Hold this, carry that, wait here, duck under there, balance this on that, fetch me this, hold that straight, little to the left, higher, where's my this, have you got a that. It goes on all morning until the wedding itself. When everyone else disappears to watch it on television, Leon, Tufty, and Mr. Devlin decide to stay where they are. They sit on the folding chairs while Mr. Devlin's barbecue heats up and Tufty takes some cans of Coke out of his tub.
“May I ask if you remembered the right music, Mr. Burrows?” says Mr. Devlin. “Please have some regard for your neighbors. We don't all like African music.”
“Reggae, man. Roots, rockers, dub.”
“Precisely. We don't want that today. At least, the ladies won't want it. I don't mind.”
“Yeah, right.”
Leon likes it when they pretend to argue like they used to. He gets up and pokes the charcoal with the metal tongs.
“What do you think, Leon?”
“It's nearly ready.”
“Good,” says Mr. Devlin, “and don't forget to water your plants before the guests arrive. It's going to be hot.”
Leon finishes his drink, takes his backpack, and walks over to his plot. It's taken weeks and weeks but finally some of his Scarlet Emperor beans are ready. They are so tall they hang in twisting plaits off the top of their wigwams, and tiny little bean pods are sprouting everywhere.
Leon fetches his watering can and fills it up. He waters his Scarlet Emperor plants until he's sure they have everything they need. He's always been good at looking after things. When Maureen comes he's going to pick all the best beans for her but he'll let the tiny little ones stay out in the sun for a bit longer. Tufty told him that he had to leave some of the beans on the vine to grow long and fat, then at the end of the summer he has to pick them, hang them up to dry in his shed, and put them in a jar for next year. Mr. Devlin said that next spring he can have half a plot instead of a quarter.
One of the young pods hangs low, right next to Leon's face. He pulls it off gently and breaks it open. Inside are five tiny black seeds, smaller than his little fingernail. He picks one out and holds it up to the sun. It's glistening and damp from its bean-pod bed and so light he can hardly feel it on his palm. It's as black as the middle bit of Jake's eyes, and just as sparkly. If Jake was here, Leon would let him hold the little seed for a moment but he would have to be careful in case he's still putting everything in his mouth.
Leon rolls the seed between his fingers and feels it yield under his skin. It's strange to think that this little black bean will grow up to be a big plant and that plant will have its own seeds to make another plant and another seed and this will go on, over and over again, for years, and he remembers what Maureen said about Jake. He hasn't left forever.
He unzips his pack and tips everything out, his gardening tools and his packets of seeds. He scratches out a straight line with his trowel and makes ten little holes. He picks up the packet of Take-A-Chance and tips the seeds into his hand. They are small and brown with wrinkled skin and nobody knows what's inside. He places them carefully in the soil and covers them over. He'll water them and look after them and hope for the best. There are lots more seeds to plant but he's got too much to do today, and anyway, he can hear Maureen calling. She'll want him to do another job or carry something or fetch her a chair.
“Leon!”
He turns and runs.
“Coming!”
Acknowledgments
I've had lots of help along the way. You know who you are, hand-holders, tear-wipers, cooks, listeners and laughers, critics, advisors, strategists, dressers, nip-and-tuckers, trainers, architects, sages, and optimists as well as the lovely, quiet people of constant faith, always in the background with affection, tea, and biscuits. Thanks to you all: Caroline Smith, Anna Lawrence, Steph Vidal-Hall, Elisabeth Charis, Rhoda Greaves, Bart Bennett, Justin David, Nina Black, Esther Moir, Lezanne Clannachan, Matt Hodgkinson, Renni Browne, Leslie Goldberg, Julia Bell, Annie Murray, James Hawes, and all the dedicated writers of Oxford Narrative Group; also Julia de Waal, Edmund de Waal, and Alex Myers.
Thanks also to the scary talents at Leather Lane Writers for your support, your brains, and your dedication to the craft.
I'm indebted to Venetia Butterfield and the Viking team and to Millicent Bennett at Simon & Schuster US for incisive editorial brilliance. Special thanks and appreciation to Jo Unwin, my wise and clever agent, for being there and taking me forward.
Thanks to Marcus Gärtner at Rowohlt Verlag in Germany, Melissa van der Wagt at Uitgeverij Cargo in the Netherlands, and Deborah Druba at Editions Kero in France for all their energy and enthusiasm for Leon's story right from the beginning.
To my brothers, Conrad and Dean, and sisters, Kim, Tracey, and Karenâcan't put it into words but probably don't have to. Always.
Thank you to John for his love and support. And, finally, to my beautiful children, Bethany and Luke, admiration, boundless love, and my profound gratitude for inspiring me to tell Leon's story.
Simon & Schuster Reading Group Guide
My Name Is Leon
By Kit de Waal
This reading group guide for
My Name Is Leon
includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author
Kit de Waal.
The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
Introduction
Set during the race riots of the 1980s,
My Name Is Leon
tells the story of Leon, a half-black nine-year-old boy who struggles to make sense of his changing world. After his mother suffers a mental breakdown, Leon and his baby brother, Jake, are sent into foster care. Jakeâwho is whiteâis soon adopted, and Leon is left wondering why his home life has fallen apart. Meanwhile, at a local garden where Leon likes to ride his bike, racial tensions spark between a West Indian political activist and an aging member of Ireland's IRA. When life at his new home becomes too much for Leon to bear, he sets out to find Jake and his mother but comes face-to-face with the ugly realities of inequality and injustice instead. Amid the chaos, Leon and those around him learn that love and tolerance can often be found in the most unlikely places.
Topics & Questions for Discussion
“You're nice and big for your age. A right little man” (1)
, the nurse tells Leon when he visits the hospital the day Jake is born. Discuss your first impression of Leon and Carol. Is the nurse right in her assessment that Leon is a “right little man”? Do you think his size changes expectations for his behavior, and does he meet these expectations? Is Carol's initial behavior in the hospital indicative of what is to come? How so?
2. On
page 23
Leon notes, “things have started to get jangled up at home.” Discuss the ways in which Carol's depression becomes increasingly apparent from Leon's point of view. How does Leon attempt to cope with the changes?
3. Consider the ways in which notions of right and wrong are examined in the novel. Do the adults appear to have a better grasp than Leon of right and wrong in their dealings with Leon and Jake? Consider Carol, Tina, Maureen, Sylvia, Mr. Devlin, and Tufty in your response.
4. Do you think Carol is a character foil for Maureen? Compare and contrast Leon's two mothers. Do Maureen's virtues seem more apparent in light of Carol's shortcomings? How so?
5. Revisit the scene beginning on
page 58
, when Maureen comforts Leon after a bad dream.
“You will be all right, Leon. You will be all right” (61)
Maureen assures him, insisting that one day he will be reunited with his baby brother. Does this scene act as a hinge for Maureen and Leon's relationship? Do you think this could be the moment Maureen begins to consider herself as more than a temporary foster mother to Leon? And does Leon begin to trust Maureen after this?
6. Why do you think Leon enjoys visiting the Rookery Road Allotments? Do the
“tidy rows of flowers and vegetables” (98)
provide order for a boy whose life is messy and out of his control? Might the fragile plants described as
“babies . . . babies [who] need looking after” (120)
act as a metaphor for Jake and everything Leon is missing at home?
7. Do you agree that love is a possible theme of
My Name Is Leon
? Is love both the undoing of and salvation for these characters? Consider Carol, Leon, Maureen, Mr. Devlin, and Tufty in your response.
8. Part of what makes
My Name Is Leon
so memorable is the child narrator. Leon, like all children, both misunderstands situations and simultaneously seems to grasp the complexities of life better than the adults. For example, on
page 116
Leon visits Maureen in the hospital and notices that “her mouth is smiling but her eyes are sad.” Discuss other moments in the novel when Leon seems wise beyond his years. Why do you think children notice what adults do not?
9.
“I could be him, Mom. . . .You could come back for me and sometimes, I could be him” (146)
, Leon cries to Carol. For their broken family, shared memories are the only thing that still unites Sandra, Leon, and Jake. What role do you think memory plays in the novel as a whole? Is it memory that sustains Leon through his heartache?
10. Sylvia, though less motherly than Maureen, at times offers Leon what he most needs: laughter. Point out a few examples in the novel where Sylvia helps Leon find the humor in the absurd. Why do you think laughter is a good medicine for pain?
11. Why do you think Leon steals? What significance do the money and items he takes have for him? Do you think the stolen items give Leon a sense of control or order? Consider Leon's breakdown in the shed with Tufty and Mr. Devlin in your response, paying particular attention to the moment when Leon says,
“Everyone steals things from me” (252)
.
12. Race plays an important role in
My Name Is Leon
. Would you characterize some of the characters in the novel as racist? Why or why not? Discuss the ways in which race directly impacts events in the novel, specifically for Leon, Jake, Carol, Mr. Devlin, and Tufty.
13. What significance does the title have for the story? Why do you think the author emphasizes Leon's name? Are our names what are central to our identity?
14. Revisit the moment when Leon last meets Carol, beginning on page 305. In light of the ending, do you understand this scene as a final goodbye between mother and son? Do you think it is pivotal that Carol tells Leon
“I still love you” (279)
?
15. How does the final image of Leon rolling a seed between his fingers resonate with you? Leon muses that his seed
“will grow up to be a big plant and that plant will have its own seeds to make another plant” (288)
. What is Leon saying,
really?
Do you think this image indicates that his life will turn out to be okay?
A Conversation with Kit de Waal
1.
My Name Is Leon
is your first novel. Can you describe the experience of writing this for us? What inspired you to tell Leon's story?
Leon was actually a character I wrote in another book. He was a minor character and an adult but he kept appearing on the page and seemed to have a story to tell. I used to think about him all the time. I realized early on what drove him, and thought about his childhood life, and I originally wrote a short story based on his experience. It's part of the chapter where he loses his brother. However, it wasn't a successful short story, because it was too big for the container. It had to be written, but to be honest, I was a bit afraid of it; didn't think I had the talent or the nerve. It's one of the stories I felt a huge responsibility to get right because of the subject matter and the people involved.
2. Describe the research that went into the making of this novel. Was it a lot or a little? Did you need to research the race riot scene in particular?
There was virtually no research involved. I used to write training manuals for foster carers and social workers (in another life); I sit on an adoption panel (a local government board that makes decisions about which children should be adopted and who should adopt them); I was a magistrate (lay judge) for many years; and I have two adopted children. My mother was a also foster carer. As for the riots, in 1981 I was living about a quarter of a mile away from some of the worst riots in the UK. So I think that a lot of the detail came from my personal experience.
3. Leon is a very convincing child narrator. What was the most challenging aspect of writing from a young boy's point of view? Why did you decide to tell Leon's story from his point of view?
The most challenging aspect was thinking all the time about what is important to a child versus what we as adults notice. For example, sometimes I would literally get out of my chair, squat down, and look at the world from four feet high. What is different? What do I notice about people from that height? Then I tuned into my memories of being with my parents and their friends. Oh the boredom! The conversations that seemed to have no point about people I didn't know, about subjects I couldn't care less about, and all the time having to be quiet or having the door shut as soon as things got interesting. I tried to translate that into Leon's life, and work out what he would be thinking given his circumstances and preoccupations. I also wrote with a picture of Leon (a picture of a child from the Internet) pinned on my screen so I didn't forget whose story it really was. Lastly, I tried to not use any words that Leon wouldn't understand or get the gist of. I tried to simplify the language of the book as much as possible. Apart from the psychologist's report that he sees in the social worker's bag, the language is made up of words in Leon's knowledge if not his repertoire. As for telling the story from his point of view, no one else could know what he feltâno one else could tell his story but himself.
4. As the daughter of a mixed-race couple and the mother of two Native American children, do you feel particularly called to write about race and racial tensions? How do you manage to navigate the complexities of race in your work?
My children are actually not related by blood. My daughter is Lakota/black/white and my son is Caribbean/white. My husband is Austrian/Dutch/English and I am Caribbean/Irish. I wish I could answer the question about navigating the complexities of race but it's so second natureâfirst natureâthat I hardly realize I'm doing it. In 1960, when I was born, there were virtually no mixed marriages. My siblings and I were “both” and “neither.” We were not part of either immigrant community (Irish or black), or English quite obviously, yet we were part of all of those communities and saw them from the inside and the outside. This belonging and not-belonging actually gives you the ability to articulate, I feel, what it is to be black or white or Irish or neither, because you have an objective eyeâwhen you want it. And, of course, you feel deeply when any of those communities are maligned or suffer racism and exclusion. It is indeed a complex issue and one that's not become any simpler with time.
5. Did you draw from your real-life experiences to write about the foster care system?
Yes, my mother was a foster carer and a childminder. She's not exactly Maureen and not at all like Sylvia! She did, however, fill our house with children and playmates. There were already five of us and there were at least five other children around throughout my childhood. Our house was a mess of toys and diapers and bottles and sterilizers and bikes and hanging laundry and biscuits and tears and laughter. It wasn't idyllic, as we were pretty poor and always hungry, but there was something delightful about the ever-changing playmates and chaos.
6. Do you agree that ultimately
My Name Is Leon
is a novel about love? Why or why not? If not, what would you name as the major theme(s) of the novel?
It most definitely is a love storyâseveral love stories. It's about the love of a mother for her children, the love of two sisters, the love of a stranger for a child, and ultimately the love of one brother for another. It's also about loss and acceptance. There are many losses in the book: Leon's parents' loss; Tufty and Mr. Devlin have both lost children; Maureen and Sylvia have both lost men; Leon's grandmother loses her son, her life, and her grandson; and, of course, Leon loses his brother, his father, his mother, his belongings, his identity, his school, his bedroom, his toys, his grandmother, his sense of self-determination, his agency.
7. Why did you choose to set the novel during the 1980s? In your opinion, have racial tensions improved since then? If Leon and Jake were to be taken into foster care today, do you imagine their fates would be different?
I set the novel in 1981 because racial tensions were very high; the Royal Wedding of Charles to Diana had reached frenzy point by the summer, and I wanted Leon to be as insignificant as possible in relation to these big social events. I also wanted him to be outside of the house, and as we know, these days boys of that age are on their PlayStation 24/7! Unfortunately, yes, if Leon and Jake were taken into foster care today they would very likely be split up.
8. As someone who has worked for years in criminal and family law and who frequently writes about the forgotten and neglected, do you think Leon's story is a common story? Do you think that arguably all of the characters in the novel are forgotten or neglected in some way?
Leon's is sadly a very common story. Black boys over seven years of age are extremely difficult to place in adoptive homes. White, healthy babies are very easy to adopt; there is a long waiting list for them. Leon's story is played out over and over in adoption services all over the UK. He will go into care: if he's very, very lucky he will stay with the same foster carer until he grows up, but that would be unlikely. More commonly, he would move several times during his foster care. Black men and boys are overrepresented in prisons, in mental health institutions, and in unemployment. Many of those men and boys have come through the care system which, although it is populated by committed social workers and foster carers, often fails to replicate the best of family life. That is not to say that all family life is good. Leon would not have thrived had he stayed with his mother, but when family life works for children, it works well.
I think all the characters are forgotten or overlooked in some way. I am truly fascinated by the notion of being nobody or being seen as nobody. Maybe it's being the onlooker again, being slightly outside of the mainstream. I don't think there are any insignificant people or insignificant stories. There are huge domestic dramas happening all over the world at any given time: on a park bench, in a small kitchen, in a hospital waiting room, at the side of the road. Those are the stories I'm drawn to telling.