Prejudice in 2020 and My Novel MRS. LIEUTENANT
When I tried to get my women’s friendship novel MRS.LIEUTENANT traditionally published in 2008, I was told by one NY editor that there was no longer prejudice in the U.S. Frustrated with the book’s rejections, I submitted the novel to the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition, and MRS. LIEUTENANT was chosen as a semifinalist.
Now 12 years later in 2020, when the U.S. may finally confront the issues of pervasive prejudice, I feel strongly that the self-published novel — inspired by my own experiences as a new Mrs. Lieutenant — could be especially compelling if re-released by a traditional publisher. (The novel received good reviews on Amazon.)
The four POV characters are a Northern Jew, a Southern Baptist, an African-American and a Puerto Rican. The novel’s logline is:
Women’s friendship drama MRS. LIEUTENANT – When four diverse young women arrive at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, as new officers’ wives in the spring of 1970 right after the Kent State shootings, they must overcome their prejudices and bond together in order to survive their new roles during the unpopular Vietnam War.
In the novel the situation of the African-American officer’s wife becomes precarious as the four women practice a skit satirizing the Army to be performed at an officers’ wives’ luncheon. In my actual experience the African-American wife withdrew from the skit without offering an explanation. I fill in this “gap” in the novel by my own knowledge as a Jew of how the actions of one minority group member can be blamed due to prejudice against that entire minority group.
On the MrsLieutenant.com website there is is a Vietnam War history lesson plan for grades 9-12 that includes discussing racial prejudice only six years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
And here are two other blog posts of mine that speak to topics of civil discourse in 2020: