My novel Feldy’s Girl is the story of a young woman attending State University in State City, Iowa, in the late 1960s, and coping with the many societal changes of the time: the sexual revolution; racial tensions; the Vietnam war; the evolving role of academia. Teresa Feldevert has grown up a local celebrity in State City: the daughter of a legendary football coach who, when the story opens, is Athletic Director at State University.
Teresa is almost too good to be true: pretty, serious, religious, overachieving, and constantly optimistic. She’s dating the State University Rivercats’ star quarterback, making friends with the leaders of the New Left movement on campus, getting involved in a sordid murder case, and learning more than she had ever expected to know about the drama and power struggles inherent to athletics and politics. She’s often perplexed by her personal relationships and the tough questions that arise when traditional and modern values conflict.
I wrote this book with one imaginary reader in mind: a woman of middle age, who has loved college football all her life long—she might root for any NCAA football team in the United States—and knows enough about it to have some idea of the various intrigues that can take place behind the scenes.
This is primarily a sociological novel, but it’s very personal. It drills down into Teresa’s psyche as she considers her role in society at large, and within a family. You see her thinking hard about complex questions like her vocation; her place in the world; morality; religion; and what love means. The story has to do with the complicated relationships between parents and children, and the social scenes that developed at colleges and universities all over the country in those days.
Teresa holds some pretty strong opinions about religion, politics, and her personal moral code—but she’s also unsure on a lot of issues. She grows, morally and intellectually, throughout the book, and you never quite know what direction she’s likely to take, till she makes her decision. But when her mind is made up, she goes ahead, and it’s up to the reader to decide whether or not the book ends happily. I didn’t have a message in mind when I when I started writing this story. Teresa’s character being what it is, the outcome is inevitable—and entirely her doing.
Some readers might notice that certain characters look a little like certain historical figures, and certain incidents might remind them of actual events that went on at approximately that time, but this is not historical fiction. I created a time-line of my own, and a lot of the incidents could be compared to the kind of situations that would have arisen at any number of major universities in that period. In some ways, Teresa is a kind of Everywoman—although quite an extraordinary one—and State University could stand for any of several large midwestern universities. But it would be absurd to pretend that real people and real events didn’t inspire this book.
I drew influence from Herman Wouk’s novel Marjorie Morningstar, and from Vance Bourjaily’s Now Playing At Canterbury, which was also set in State City. You might even call Feldy’s Girl “fan-fic.” I got the Bourjaily family’s permission to borrow a couple of characters—Mona and Mike Shapen—from his novel, plus a few walk-on characters and landmarks. Canterbury has been one of my favorite novels for many years, and I was glad to give it this little tribute.
I’m indebted to William Makepeace Thackeray, who had such a talent for drawing complex characters who aren’t entirely heroes or villains. Also to Philip Roth and Flannery O’Connor, both of whom used religion so cleverly. And to George Orwell, the master of the political novel.
I loved writing this book.
