Pretty much every time I read a book for book club, I come away thinking about how glad I am that I'm in a book club because it gives me the opportunity to read something I normally wouldn't. Cuz, yeah, this month's selection is a biography. I don't read biographies very often, because I don't like biographies. Reality is boring. Fiction's MUCH more fun.
I'm not sure why I dislike biographies, especially since most biographies I read, I wind up liking. Case in point: Terry Ryan's biography of her mother, recorded in The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio. Terry writes about her mother, Evelyn Ryan, and the hardships she went through raising ten children while avoiding the wrath of her alcoholic husband. With so many mouths to feed and not enough money, Evelyn supplements her income by entering as many corporate sponsored contests as she can.
It'd be easy to dismiss this book as just another tale of tough times in the Leave It To Beaver era, and, if that were all there was to Prizewinner, it'd be a pretty bland book. After all, the story isn't really that dark (at least as it's presented here) to qualify as a criticism of Picket Fence, U.S.A. There's too much optimism and lighthearted humor.
However, I get that criticizing the often-idealized 1960s isn't really the point of Prizewinner. Rather, Ryan's book should be seen as more of a family history. It's not meant to be compelling reading in the same way as a lot of novels. It's a celebration of the life of one remarkable woman who battled difficult situations with relentless positivity. Excessively focusing on the negative would undermine that message.
Now, for me, the real joy of Prizewinner is to be found in the examples of Evelyn Ryan's poetry and contest entries. She possesses a wit and knack for clever rhymes that rivals Ogden Nash. I chuckled more than a few times reading Evelyn's verses. She was a talented woman, one of the most remarkable of her ilk (the contesting housewives) and well-worthy of rememberance.
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