Sara Will by Sue Ellen Bridgers
"Sara Will" by Sue Ellen Bridgers is a poignant novel that delves into the transformative power of love and connection in the lives of its characters. The story follows Sara Will Burney, who lives a solitary life with her sister Swanee in a secluded mountain home, until the arrival of Fate Jessop and his teenage niece Eva disrupts their routine. Eva, fleeing her troubled family situation, brings her baby Rachel, and their presence challenges Sara Will’s emotional isolation. As the characters navigate their complex relationships, they confront themes of vulnerability, love, and familial bonds.
The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of loss, symbolized by the grave of Sara Will’s deceased sister, Serena. Throughout the story, the characters grow closer, particularly as Fate and Sara Will begin to explore their feelings for one another. Bridgers’ writing, recognized for its rich character development and evocative Southern setting, captures the nuances of human relationships and the significance of family. Originally labeled as an adult novel, "Sara Will" has been embraced as a young adult text and celebrated for its exploration of generational connections, making it a noteworthy contribution to contemporary literature.
Subject Terms
Sara Will by Sue Ellen Bridgers
First published: 1985
Subjects: Coming-of-age, death, emotions, family, and love and romance
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Domestic realism and psychological realism
Time of work: 1981-1982
Recommended Ages: 15-18
Locale: Sparrow Creek and Tyler Mills, North Carolina
Principal Characters:
Sara Will Burney , a middle-aged isolated woman who learns to love othersSwanee Hope Calhoun , Sara Will’s kind, more sociable sister who lives with herSerena Burney Jessop , Sara Will’s deceased sister, buried in an almost-inaccessible cemeteryEva Jessop , a teenage single motherLafayette “Fate” Jessop , Eva’s caring uncleRachel , Eva’s babyMichael Logan , Eva’s friend who wants to marry herChet Armstrong , the uncaring biological father of RachelClement , andHarriet Jessop , Eva’s parents
Form and Content
Sue Ellen Bridgers’ Sara Will is about the changes that love can bring to empty lives. Written in the third person, the novel explores how Sara Will, Fate, and Eva find meaning as they learn to care for one another. Sara Will Burney lives with her sister Swanee Hope Calhoun in an isolated mountain home on Sparrow Creek. Across the flooded valley is the grave of their sister Serena Burney Jessop. A middle-aged woman, Sara Will lives a self-contained, routine existence until Fate Jessop arrives with Eva, his sixteen-year-old niece, and her baby, Rachel.
Just as Fate, Eva, and her baby come unbidden into the Burney sisters’ lives, Eva had arrived a year earlier into her Uncle Fate’s life. Seven-months pregnant, she had fled her parents to an uncle she barely knew because her parents thought that she should give up her baby for adoption. Eva and the baby give Fate’s life purpose and love. When Eva’s friend Michael tracks down Eva because he wants to marry her, even though he is not the baby’s father, Fate flees with Eva and Rachel into Sara Will’s and Swanee’s hitherto uneventful lives.
Swanee welcomes the three strangers, but Sara Will only reluctantly permits them to stay. When Michael finds them, Eva rejects him. In spite of this dismissal, however, he stays with Sara Will, helping Fate make needed repairs to the neglected house. The presence of all these people in Sara Will’s home confuses her almost to a state of panic. Yet, she begins to be touched by them, feeling tenderness for the first time in years. On Thanksgiving Day, she recognizes the “possibility of loving them,” but loving makes her feel vulnerable.
Eva begins to treat Michael in a civil manner after he saves the baby from eating poisonous berries. Because Eva does not love Michael as he loves her, however, he decides to return home to college. His return address on the letter to the registrar reveals where he and Eva are. Eva’s worried parents, who previously had not known Eva’s location, arrive at Sara’s house on Christmas Day, only reluctantly to accept Eva’s decision not to return home with them.
Early on Christmas morning, Fate expresses his feelings for Sara Will, by whom he had been moved years ago when she cried out at Serena’s funeral. Christmas evening concludes with their aching first kiss. The next day, when Fate wrecks Sara Will’s beloved Mustang, Sara Will feels that he has betrayed her trust, so she moves to Mrs. Bloxton’s boarding house in Tyler Mills while the car is being repaired. Her agonizing loneliness there is broken when Fate sends her a note declaring that he does not want to lose her. After a brief, gentle courtship, they marry.
Although afraid of the water, Sara Will, along with her extended family, crosses the lake in the spring to the island where Serena is buried. There, Eva tells Michael that she loves him. As Sara Will restores her sister’s grave, she realizes that she has learned to live and to love.
Critical Context
Originally published as an adult novel, Sara Will was later accepted as a young adult novel and was recognized as an American Library Association (ALA) Best Book. Sara Will, like Sue Ellen Bridgers’ other young adult novels, stresses the importance of family. Critics, such as Joseph O. Milner in “The Emergence of Awe in Recent Children’s Literature,” see this emphasis on family as setting Bridgers apart from other young adult authors. Her novels examine relationships among the generations, often with teenagers connecting with their grandparents or people who represent tradition. Bridgers states that family life is “the core of my writing” in “Stories My Grandmother Told Me” in the ALAN Review. Permanent Connections (1987) expresses the importance of family connections in its title and in its story of Rob Dickson, who learns to accept his connections to his senile grandfather, his agoraphobic aunt, his injured uncle, and his father. Home Before Dark (1985) explores the changes that occur when Stella’s mother dies and her father remarries, causing Stella first to make their cabin a home and eventually to move to her new home. In both All Together Now (1979), the winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award and the Christopher Award, and Notes for Another Life (1981), teenagers live with grandparents who nurture them.
Bridgers is a Southern writer whom critics praise for vivid evocations of the smalltown North Carolina setting with which she is familiar, for rich characterization, and for the authentic voices of her characters. According to Bridgers, Sara Will came to her suddenly and fully developed, a compelling character. Bridgers captures Sara Will’s repression, emotional turmoil, and growing self-awareness in concrete, vivid details. Pamela Sissi Carroll, the author of the first doctoral dissertation on Bridgers, ranks her with writers of the Southern Renaissance. Both All Together Now and Notes for Another Life were nominated for the American Book Award and were named ALA Best Books. In 1985, the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents honored Bridgers with the ALAN Award for her outstanding contributions to young adult literature.