The Passing of Janet McDonald
On April 11, 2007, the world lost a prolific writer and extraordinary person. Janet McDonald, an award-winning contemporary American author and Paris resident, succumbed to colon cancer at the age of 53.
I first met Janet at the American Library on May 29, 1996. She had been invited to participate in an event called “Writers at Work: from Manuscript to Bookstore”, where writers who were visiting or living in France read from their books, discussed their works, and recalled the challenges of becoming a published author. The program described Janet as follows:
Janet McDonald, international corporate lawyer, has a contract with Farrar-Strauss to publish her memoirs, “a sort of Tree Grows in Brooklyn”.
That memoir, called Project Girl, was published in 1999. It is a raw, insightful story that recounts Janet’s lifelong struggle to reconcile her upbringing in a New York City ghetto and all its accompanying social and psychological demons with the brilliance that gained her entry into another world – that of Vassar, Columbia University, Cornell and NYU Law Schools and beyond. The opening chapter of the book quickly sets the tone for what is to come when Janet describes herself as a college-bound project girl as much drawn to books as she was tempted by violence.
During my few encounters with Janet, I found her to be quick-witted, eclectic and yet awkwardly shy. After reading Project Girl, I felt that my initial perception of her was correct. However, I learned that the awkwardness that I had noted was a manifestation of her struggle to find her place in society. For here was a woman who was at once a Mensa member and reformed drug abuser, journalist and rape victim, reformed arsonist and corporate attorney. Her life had been an incredible series of crashing defeats and phoenix-like risings. I stood humbled by her resilience and her ability to maintain a sense of humor.
Project Girl was named Los Angeles Times Best Book of 1999. With this acclamation under her belt, Janet went on to write five novels for young adults. Though she said that she began writing for this audience on a whim, she reached out to it from the vantage point of the “derailed” adolescence that she describes in Project Girl and did so with great purpose and success. Two of these novels, Spellbound (2001) and Chill Wind (2002), have been translated into French (Brooklyn Babies [2003] and top-tondes [2004], respectively). Spellbound was selected as the American Library Association’s Best Book for Young Adults and Chill Wind won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award.
Janet was a frequent guest at Patricia Laplante Collins’ Paris Soirees – weekly gatherings that unite Francophones and Anglophones for dinner and discussion of cultural topics. Janet wrote the following biographical sketch to publicize her last appearance there:
Becoming a writer. One day I was a lawyer drearily dividing my obscenely well-paid time between complex business deals and surreptitious Web-surfing. The next day, or so it now seems, I had a tell-too-much memoir and was on the Rosie O'Donnell show telling her too much about my life in the projects. And on NPR telling Ira Glass too much about my life in Paris. Since then, I've traded pinstripe suits for polka dot pajamas [sic] and delightedly divide my time between crafting characters and imagining plots.
In Project Girl, Janet describes the Paris that she knew when she first arrived in France and the city that she came to know as an attorney at a French law firm. She offers a unique perspective on life in the City of Light. Following the success of the book, I approached her about writing a literary walk based upon her places of residence and preferred haunts. The project was never completed, but I have resurrected my notes. Among her favorite activities were going to the movies, roller skating and playing Frisbee. She described her “once and future favorite spot” in Paris as the Eiffel Tower. For her, it was THE symbol of the place where she was finally happy…where she was home.
Janet’s latest novel, Off-color, will be published by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux in October 2007.
Monique Y. Wells is co-founder of Discover Paris! – Personalized Itineraries for Independent Travelers.
