Moon over Manifest

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. Delacorte Press, 2010.

Twelve year old Abilene has been sent by her father to the town of Manifest for the summer of 1936. Abilene is unsure why her father does not want her to accompany him as he rides the rails to search for work, but she is determined to find out why Manifest, a place she has never been, is where her father wishes her to go. While in Manifest Abilene works for Miss Sadie, a fortune teller, to pay of a debt, but finds that she is learning as much as she is working. Miss Sadie, rather than tell the future has chosen to tell Abilene of the events of Manifest in 1918, in particular the exploits of two teenage boys, Jinx and Ned. Soon Abilene becomes enveloped in the Miss Sadie’s story, and is determined to solve the mysteries intertwined in both the past and present. Over the course of this novel Abilene learns of her father’s past and come to better understand that lives that they have lead both together and apart.
The story within a story format of this novel can lead the reader to some confusion regarding the characters of the story, but a “cast list” of sorts is included at the beginning of the novel. Vanderpool does a beautiful job of intertwining the dual story lines, with seamless connections between the events of 1918 and 1936. The revelation of the story teller as a key player in the history of the town and story of the Jinx and Ned also reinforces the metafiction label that can be applied to this historical fiction novel.