Some People, Some Other Place by J. California Cooper

First published: 2004

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Domestic realism; historical realism; social realism

Time of work: 1894-1950’s

Locale: Chicago, Illinois, and environs

Principal Characters:

• The unborn narrator
• Eula Lee, a mother seeking a better life for her children
• Eula Too, the narrator’s mother and Eula Lee’s daughter
• Elizabeth Fontzl (Madame LaFon), a wealthy white woman who befriends Eula Too and operates a brothel in her home

The Novel

Some People, Some Other Place is a novel about the lives of people who are striving to find a better place, whether a better place in time, a better place to live, or a better place to be. Beginning around the turn of the twentieth century, the story opens with Eula and her husband attempting to bring their family to Chicago. They never make it there, but Eula shares the idea with her daughter Eula Lee, who also strives to take her family to Chicago and ends up only thirty miles away. Eula Lee continues the quest for Chicago, and her daughter Eula Too finally makes it to the city, albeit through tragic circumstances.

The ensuing story follows Eula Too’s life and development, and the novel’s other characters connect to one another through Eula Too’s life experiences. Narrated by the spirit of Eula Too’s unborn second child, Some People, Some Other Place provides insight into the hearts and minds of common folk—both good and bad. A theme unifying the book is the need for love in people’s lives and how the lack of love can drive people to engage in behaviors that are also both good and bad. The novel is set during the first half of the twentieth century and is interspersed with historical, social, and political commentaries on U.S. and world history. The narrator repeatedly interjects her own God-centered commentary upon events, as well as wise sayings meant to be helpful to the characters and readers.

At the age of fourteen, Eula Too leaves her small, poor country community for a supposedly better life in Chicago. She is taken there by a stranger and his friend who violently rape her, leaving her in the rain on a bridge. She is found by Madame LaFon, a wealthy white woman who sympathizes with Eula Too and brings her home to the suburbs of Chicago. This experience transforms Eula Too. She becomes pregnant as a result of the rape and gives birth to a girl, Jewel, whom she raises with help from Madame LaFon and Eula’s sister Earle (pronounced “early”). Eula Too learns about life from Madame LaFon, the women in her brothel, and her servants. She also maintains contact with Miss Iowna Hart, a neighbor from home who was a teacher to Eula Too beyond the classroom.

In Some People, Some Other Place, J. California Cooper presents a multiracial and socioeconomically diverse group of characters whose lives are all influenced and connected by Eula Too. Cooper depicts their fears, dreams, demons, and hopes, allowing readers to sympathize with their life struggles, by turns pitying the characters and cheering them on. Through the experiences of the characters, readers are subtly directed to reflect on their own life decisions and their implications, as the narrator encourages her readers to grow and develop. The bulk of the novel’s characters meet one another on Dream Street, a place filled with dreams deferred, but the dreams are eventually realized because of Eula Too.

The Characters

The narrator, though unborn, displays the wisdom of an older person. Cooper’s representation of her follows the African tradition of life circles, in which the unborn and the dead are closest to God. In Some People, Some Other Place, the ability of the living to choose between God and Satan pulls them further away from God and from knowledge of God’s presence in their lives. Eula Too helps to restore “the God” in the characters. The narrator also provides the social, historical, political, and sometimes spiritual context of the story. Through her brief commentaries on World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, readers are able to understand the period in which Eula Too lives. Moreover, the narrator provides readers with glimpses into the inner minds of other characters whom Eula Too encounters.

Eula Too grows and develops over the course of several decades. At an early age, she learns that life is hard and full of work. Her mother, Eula Lee, eventually gives birth to eleven children, half of whom Eula Too helps raise. Eula Lee, like her own mother, is disillusioned and discouraged by her economic plight. Her dreams are destroyed while she strives to reach a better place and better people among whom to live. Both women place an immense value on Chicago, believing that reaching it will make a better life possible. Eula Too realizes the dreams of her mother and grandmother by moving to Chicago, yet she goes beyond them, attaining wealth and happiness on Dream Street with her husband, Lamont Heavy, the narrator’s father.

Jewel, the narrator’s sister, is born as a result of the vicious rape of Eula Too on her way to Chicago. Jewel is raised by Earle, Eula Too’s sister, whom she brings to live with her after her father dies, when Eula Too is about seventeen years old. Jewel obtains all that money can buy, but, like Madame LaFon, she struggles with self-love and self-worth. Jewel develops a special relationship with Madame LaFon, who, for her own reasons, insists that Eula Too keep the child (as Madame LaFon lost her only child when she was pregnant as a teenager). Jewel could be considered a spoiled brat, who travels abroad, goes away to school, and lives a “dream” life but is never truly satisfied.

Madame LaFon, born Elizabeth Eve Fontzl, is a pivotal character in Some People, Some Other Place. She grew up in Placeland, the small town where she and Eula Too eventually settle. Placeland, also called Place, houses Dream Street and its diverse residents, including Chinese, African American, white, desperate, desolate, kind, mean, rich, poor, and middle-class people. Elizabeth Fontzl became Madame LaFon after she met an older, wealthy, married gentleman in New York City, where she worked in the perfume section of a department store.

Elizabeth is beautiful; when she was a young woman, men were drawn to her, and this fact was not lost on her. Her benefactor, whom she loved, never left his wife, yet he provided Elizabeth with all the comforts of wealth—homes in several parts of the world, international travel, and money of her own. She did not have to work, and she wanted for nothing. When her lover died, Elizabeth began a brothel as an afterthought, because his colleagues called on her to “serve” their needs. Elizabeth, however, wanted nothing to do with these men. She lacked love from her mother and never had any true friends besides Marion Green, an African American neighbor from Dream Street.

Critical Context

Some People, Some Other Place is J. California Cooper’s fourth novel. A well-established author and playwright, Cooper has written seventeen plays, more than five collections of short stories, and many novels. Beloved and respected by readers and her colleagues alike, Cooper does not receive the same level of acclaim as Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, yet the caliber of her writing and its impact is as great. A reclusive storyteller, she refuses to reveal her first name or her age, as her pen name consists of a first initial, the place of her residence, and her last name.

Some People, Some Other Place continues to cement Cooper’s reputation as a respected writer and a major contributor to the canon of African American literature. She has an established following and has shared favorable positions on African American best-seller lists, as well as national critical acclaim. Like her plays, short stories, and other novels, Some People, Some Other Place provides multilayered, complex, complicated, fulfilling, and worthwhile stories of African Americans. While Cooper’s novels include characters of all nationalities, her central focus on African American voices brings depth to literature in general and enhances the African American canon. Her particular attention to detail, as well as her concentration on lessons learned and life enhancements, follows an African American literary and oral tradition of art with a purpose—to enhance, teach, tell, strengthen, and empower.

Bibliography

“African Americans Select Their Favorite Books of the Twentieth Century.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 26 (Winter, 1999/2000): 122. Cooper lists her own favorite works, providing insight into her aesthetic tastes as well as the influences upon her writing.

Bush, Vanessa. Review of Some People, Some Other Place, by J. California Cooper. Booklist 101, no. 3 (October 1, 2004): 307. Emphasizes Cooper’s skill at character development and her interest in universal themes.

Carroll, Denolyn. “Sometimes I Cry, Sometimes I Laugh: J. California Cooper Spins Tales of Common Folk Who Insist on Being Heard.” Black Issues Book Review 6, no. 6 (November/December, 2004): 52. A profile of the author and her work, focusing on recurrent themes.

Weaver, James. “Rehabilitative Storytelling: The Narrator-Narratee Relationship in J. California Cooper’s Family.” MELUS 30, no. 1 (Spring, 2005): 109. Interesting discussion of Cooper’s use of the narrative voice in an earlier work; suggestive of her later deployment of the narrator in Some People, Some Other Place.