Happy, Norton?

Curious thing about this J. Robert Lennon/Happyland kerfuffle:

The metaphorical possibilities were just too tempting: The fabulously wealthy CEO of a doll company strides into a tiny, faded college town and single-handedly - some would say heavy-handedly - begins to transform it, building by building. Some villagers hail her as a savior; others accuse the doll mogul of trying to turn their town into a dollhouse. Coalitions form, and legal battles ensue. People shout if they want to be heard, whisper if they don't.

This much is true. But the story then diverges into two stories, one staying the course of fact, as reported in local and national newspapers, the other roaming through imaginative territory in the form of Happyland, the new satirical novel by Ithaca writer J. Robert Lennon. Whether fact and fiction should have diverged sooner, or maintained a wider berth, is a matter of perspective, especially lawyerly perspective. Norton, Lennon's erstwhile publisher, seems to have thought so, for it dumped Lennon's novel after preparing it for publication.

[...]

The inspiration for Happyland is obvious to those who have followed the events in Aurora, N.Y., home of Wells College, over the past six years as alumna Pleasant T. Rowland gave the town a $40 million facelift. Gossip, articles in the New York Times and a front page spread last March in Syracuse's Post-Standard - its headline was "What did she do to deserve this?" - serve up a tale of a town rent apart. Until it disappeared recently, there was even an entry in Wikipedia, the online "user-contributed" encyclopedia, which read, "The village struggles to retain its autonomy as Rowland, a Wells alumna and the billionaire creator of the American Girl Doll Company, attempts to change Aurora into her ideal of a picture perfect village."

"I actually find reality very distracting," says Lennon, as we sit in the kitchen of the Belle Sherman home he shares with his wife, writer Rhian Ellis, and their two sons. "I enjoy creating a purely invented universe. In fact, I resisted writing this book for a long time precisely because it was inspired by something real." When friends sent him town meeting minutes, he regularly tossed them, he says. He never even googled Pleasant (as Rowland is called by just about everyone).

Now, it's comforting (not to mention expected) to hear an author say "I enjoy creating a purely invented universe."  But what's interesting is that at least one other Lennon book enjoys strong, real-life pop culture correlatives:

As often poignant and insightful on the subject of sibling relations as it is laugh-out-loud hilarious, The Funnies is a bittersweet comedy that tells the story of the Mix family—a dysfunctional, semi-estranged brood forever immortalized as wisecracking imps in their father's nationally syndicated "Family Circus"-esque comic strip. When their cartoonist dad dies, his estate is divided among four of his five children. Instead of a cushiony bank account, Tim Mix, a struggling artist and our narrator, is given three months to learn to draw the strip. If he succeeds (which means selling out), he will have inherited a gold mine; if he fails, he will get nothing.

This is not to say that JRL is doing anything wrong or out of the ordinary.  Honestly, your pal here isn't at all sure how closely The Funnies cleaves to the actual family/character of The Family Circus' Bill Keane, although it's true that posters at Amazon have claimed that there are also fictional representations of Charles Schulz, Jim Davis, and Cathy Guisewite (among others) in it.  (I don't remember if I picked up on that or not when I read it.)  Still, the comic strip in the novel is clearly meant to evoke The Family Circus, right down to its name.  (See, of course, above.)

This all serves to raise the question of why Happyland spooked Norton:

What is it in Happyland that could've scared Norton away? The only connection [Lennon's agent, Lisa] Bankoff and [Harper's editor Roger] Hodge could think of is that Lennon's book satirizes a company (called Happy Girls) which potentially mirrors American Girl, a major doll company and publisher, owned by Mattel. According to Bankoff, the overlap between Lennon's fictional doll manufacturer and the woman behind American Girl may have raised possible legal concerns at Norton. "They could have been concerned that this person could be of a litigious nature and on that basis decided to not publish."

Whatever the reason, Bankoff said, she and her author were completely caught off guard by the decision. Norton had published Lennon's last novel, Mailman, and the publishing process, with Bob Weil as editor, was proceeding smoothly, said Bankoff. "To this day I don't understand Norton's concerns about this work of fiction," she said.

Harper's Hodge, who called the book a "broad social satire," said he couldn't understand Norton's hesitation and said the magazine is "completely unconcerned" about any potential controversy that could be sparked in reaction to the serialization.

Mysterious, no?  Yet no one seems to have asked about--or referenced--the possible precedent in JRL's own work.  (The New York Times brings up the fear of litigation as motivation, but then again it misses any connection between the present situation and The Funnies, summing up that work with one relatively nondescript sentence: "[T]he son of a cartoonist takes over his father’s comic strip after his death.")

Just overzealous CYA, perhaps?

Comments

[Aurora Coalition]

The story of the events in the village that inspired Happyland make it pretty clear who and what frightened Norton away from publishing this fictional account. See www.AuroraNY.org

[J. Robert Lennon]

Hi there--this is the author of Happyland--I found this post while googling myself. I just wanted to mention that, until recently, I had TOTALLY FORGOTTEN that I'd already written a novel inspired by a real figure--believe it or not. So perhaps I'm not as dedicated to a purely invented universe as I thought. But The Funnies does indeed bear the same resemblance to Bil Keane as Happyland does to Mrs. Rowland...that is, a great deal in terms of the plot outline and external trappings, but none whatsoever in terms of the personal details. I don't know anything about Bil Keane or Pleasant Rowland, and made up my characters from scratch. Thanks!