Today is the official Pub Day for Passing Fancies, my second Julia Kydd historical mystery. I feel proud and grateful, but also subdued. While I want to recognize all the hard work and care that went into its making–my own and that of the talented crew at Lake Union Publishing–it feels a bit hollow, if not crass, to trumpet the occasion. Right now, in this watershed moment in American history, there are far more important and urgent things to focus on.
There is a bitter timeliness to the book’s appearance just now, though. Passing Fancies itself grapples with the ugly realities of deep systemic racism in American society, and the parallel blight of white ignorance, denial, and complacency. An interviewer recently pointed out that in the novel “Julia faces the racism of the era and has an epiphany of her own.” When asked why I chose to explore the subject, I replied:
I often hear friends and acquaintances, who are white like me, talk about racism with sympathy for people of color, as if the problems don’t involve white people too. In fact, centuries of racism shape the experiences of all Americans, not just those of color. But because racist policies and values have always benefited white people—whether or not we condone or even perceive them—we tend not to see, or to deny or justify, our advantages. Julia is disturbed to realize this about herself, and readers may squirm too. Unfortunately, history is full of uncomfortable truths we cannot escape. As Faulkner once famously put it, “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Black Lives Matter. Black lives have always mattered. The challenge Julia encountered in 1925 is even more critical now: to make sure Black Lives Matter to cops, to government officials, to the media, to everyone who wields power in this country, and to every single American.
