Captan Billys

Captian Billy's is this great seafood restaurant near my house.  It's right on the water and the food is fresh and delicious.  It's one of those restaurants where there is butcher paper on the tables with a bucket in the middle for shells.  Honestly its one of the best places in Maryland.  Why am I telling you all this?  Well becase it's I know the setting week and Katherine Paterson's Jacob Have I Loved is set on an island inthe Chesapeake Bay.  One of the characters is Captain Billy. Louise takes the crabs she catches and brings them to Captain Billy to sell on the mainland.  I doubt this Captain Billy is the same as the one from my restaurant-but I like to think it is.


Captain Billy's Crabhouse-Photo taken by my Aunt Holly on her last visit.



From the title I just assumed the book was about a boy Louise was in love with. Really its a story about coming of age and sibling rivalry.  You see Louise is a twin and she feels her twin sister Catherine gets most of the attention.  Years of feeling this way produce this comment from Louise, "she said all of this in tht voice of hers that made me feel slightly nauseated, the one she used when she came home from spending all saturday going to the mainland for her music lessons, where she'd been told for the billionth time how gifted she was."  Can you hear the bitterness in that?  But with the bitterness there is honesty.  Children don't sugar coat things-they speak the truth plain and simple.

But Louise grows up she realizes she does not belong on the island. "the women of my island were not supposed to love the water.  Water was the wild untamed kingdom of our men.. .I suppose I knew that there was no future for me on Rass.  How could I face a lifetime of passive waiting?" So she decides to follow her dreams knowing people on the island will think she's crazy. But, "crazy peole who are judged to be harmless are allowed an enormous amount of freedom odinary people are denied."  I love this line because Louise realizes she is supposed to act a certain way and no longer has the freedom of childhood BUT she also realizes the way she is supposed to act is not for her so she looks for alternatives.

Speaking the truth, taking control of your life, being a little crazy...that's kids stuff.