Chicago Catholic Story on The Brown and White by Lawrence Norris

 Chicagoland

Mount Carmel alum writes a ‘fictionalized memoir’ of his days at the school

byline Chicago Catholic

July 17, 2017

Larry Norris was a freshman at Mount Carmel High School in 1967-1968, a year that was pivotal in Chicago’s history. He recalls that history 50 years later in “The Brown and White” (2016, Sporting Chance Press), a “fictionalized memoir,” seen through the eyes of Collin Callaghan, a freshman at what Norris calls St. Mary’s College Prep. But the school, and, indeed, the South Side neighborhoods that the eponymous “Brown and White” school bus traverses, are clearly rooted in Norris’ experiences as an adolescent in an unsettled time.

Norris answered questions about his book by email for Chicago Catholic.

Chicago Catholic: You call “The Brown and White” a “fictionalized memoir” and you changed the names of not only people, but also the high school and other Chicago landmarks. Why did you want to make some of it fictional instead of writing a straight memoir, and how much did you change?

Larry Norris: I wanted to write a book like John Powers’ “Last Catholic in America” and “Do Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up” in that the people who are characters can recognize themselves, but it would be up to them. I also wanted the book to be of interest to a wide audience.

From my publishing experience, books are more powerful when they are organic -- when each reader brings into the mix his or her own experiences as the book is being read. When I read Powers myself, I thought about our Catholic culture and some of the things were so funny, yet so true. It was post Vatican II and things were a bit wobbly.

It also seemed easier to think about Power’s fictitious Seven Holy Hills and not to get hung up on the fact that his experience was at St. Christina and Brother Rice. Sometimes when you write about a particular school, that is where your market begins and ends. I love my school, Mount Carmel, but I am hoping the book works for everyone.

Fiction also allows you to round out the edges. It might also make it easier if I get a call from Hollywood and they want to make a movie from it.

Chicago Catholic: You said you’ve been writing this book for 40 years. Why did it take so long for the story to mature? What perspective do you have now that you didn’t have when you started to think about it?

Norris: I was talking to a priest that I knew 40 years ago and he said anyone can make fun of things in writing. I took that to heart and I wanted my book to be a positive book -- although I wanted to keep it real and be funny.

I wrote the various episodes of the book over many years. I was in no hurry; the world had four books by John Powers and several more on Catholic culture. Then, about 20 years ago, I had to take another pass at the entire book because I lost the file.

I went back and spent more time examining the times to describe the setting. I wanted to make sure that the book was about my experience and I wasn't trying to extend too far beyond that. In high school and college, I read a half-dozen books about the black experience. I didn't want to pretend I was the second coming of James Baldwin. So I tried to tell my story, a white boy’s story.

Chicago Catholic: The year you write about – 1967-1968 – was a tumultuous time for Chicago, and much has happened since. How do you think that time changed the city? How did it change Mount Carmel High School, in the near and long terms?

Norris: That's a big question. I had some idea of how the city was changed, but I was very young when that happened. So I guess you could say that much of what I describe was symptoms, not cause and effect.

I wrote about a few experiences that we had and focused on family and teachers. The year's events served as the backdrop, but I kept the book focused a personal level -- not a treatise on the times.

I hope readers will especially enjoy the family stories -- I think that's the strongest part of the book. I have both male and female fans of the book and that makes me feel good.

Mount Carmel survived and not only that, it was able to continue its mission to graduate one class after another of "Men of Carmel." Huge improvements have been made with gifts by generous alumni and the school now has a beautiful campus.

It’s blocks away from the site of the future Obama library. The student body is an ethnic alchemy -- students now will get an even better education. The future looks bright. People see Carmel as an athlete’s school, but it is certainly much more than that.

Chicago Catholic: The book covers not only a time of great social change, but also the freshman year of high school – nearly always a stormy time – for your protagonist. How did the turbulence of the time affect you as you were growing up? How did your growing up change your understanding of the times you lived through?

Norris: I kept the book light and wanted to focus on the fact that we almost all survive tough times and we do so with our family, faith, friends and help from others like teachers. In high school, there is also a tendency of not taking things too seriously. Personally, I think the 1960s left many of us shaking our heads and trying to come to some kind of closure, but I am not sure we will see it.

Chicago Catholic: The metaphor of the bus – “the Brown and White” – runs through the pages until, at the end, it stops, replaced without a word. What came to an end for you that year?

Norris: The story of the first year ended with my friends stopping by my house and sitting on the front steps with my parents. The Brown and White is a pervasive metaphor: the bus, the students, school colors, etc. At the end of the last chapter, we are taking a rest after the brown and white boot camp. We saw everything in brown and white.

The epilogue is a critical part of the book's message in that it talks about teachers that gave us everything they had.

"The Brown and White" is available on amazon.com.

The Top of the Book Pyrimid: The Brown and White?

I remember years ago when a Chicago Catholic radio station was getting started it just broadcast non-stop Bishop Sheen programs all day long. I remember seeing actual programs when they first appeared on TV.  My parents loved Bishop Sheen and I don't know how to describe it, but when you watched Bishop Sheen, you were at ease and inspired at the same time.  You felt like it was really cool to be Catholic. 

When I hopped in the car in the early morning about 20 years ago and heard Bishop Sheen once again, it was little different. The signal was not very strong, but it was almost like you were hearing Bishop Sheen come from the grave--he was speaking to me one-on-one. At the time, it was during our short Chicago days of winter and I was always listening in the dark. The lights on the radio glowed on the dashboard as the Bishop talked through all kind of Chicago weather. 

As I get older, I hate to say it, but I do wonder if we will ever have a speaker quite like Bishop Sheen.  I like to think we will. 

If you were a Father Corapi fan, you remember he was excellent as well. Father Corapi could talk about Catholic doctrine and somehow make it clear, painless and interesting.

I suppose everyone has his or her favorite speakers and writers. I am always amazed to see the C.S. Lewis classic Mere Christianity on top seller lists as it approaches 70 years old. As a publisher, I have to say that kind of success is just unbelievable. 

I am an author myself and I certainly don't put myself in the same company as these great authors and speakers. But I will say that when I was writing The Brown and White I was trying to convey the emotions of Catholics at the time in the late 1960s. The world was a very scary place for many of us, but we did find comfort and faith in our homes and with our friends. 

I also tried to capture some of the Irish sense of faith and humor. I hope I did.  On Amazon, I do have some good reviews from people I respect very much. I just need a few thousand people to pay the $12.50 price for the book on Amazon and life will be very good!  

The Brown and White is a fictionalized memoir and when people express a positive view of it, I feel like they would like my family in those days. And I do find that very exciting. Of course, if it turns out I just sell a few hundred copies of the book, I will start feeling a lot smaller. 

A Saint for Book People in Time of Need

Book sellers and publishers need someone who can intercede on their behalf to a higher power. Book people have faced lingering storm clouds lasting several years! One cloud is the economic forces that have reduced consumer confidence and the second cloud is the changing state of publishing and bookselling today. The book business has taken many twists and turns in the last decade. Lots of very smart book people who were highly successful in the business a decade ago are out of business today. Despite a lot of grousing about book prices, the margins on book selling has always been puny compared to many others business. Publishers have often struggled with a mix of book titles that yield one winner for every nineteen money-losers.

Many believe ebooks will only make things worse. What the ebook revolution does is lower the bar for entry and introduce hundreds of thousands of titles that would never have seen the light of day had someone had to invest several thousand dollars to have the book produced in print. The same dynamic is played out with print on demand. As out of pocket costs decrease, entry increases.

The new easy entry market has greatly impacted those people who were willing to put some "green" skin in the game--be they publishers or self-published authors who were willing to spend a few thousand dollars to have their books see the light of day. Virtual books that can be sent to consumers about as easily as a telephone call have heaped upon the reading public a mountain of choices. How are these hundreds of thousands of new authors able to invest their time to put new titles out in the market of titles that seem as vast as desert sand? Well a visit to some of the sites where authors meet and greet these days "virtually" suggests that authoring and self-publishing has become kind of new age hobby. Write a book in retirement or while someone else pays your bills or while you pay your bills yourself with money you made doing something else. Spend some time attempting to land the book with an agent or a publisher. Wait a short while and then self publish with the help of thousands of do-it-yourself sites or consultants. Then sit back and chat online about the wonderful work you have done and the awful state of the publishing industry. I kid you not--this is essentially the theme.

If you happen to be one of those who write books or are in publishing to make a living, you may need help. But you might not need help from a marketing consultant, a web page guru, an epub expert or anything of that sort. You may need help from a higher power! I'm talking about the highest of powers. No, not Google or Amazon or Apple. How about God?

You can certainly take your woes right to the Man. You simply get on your knees, close your eyes and tell the Boss you need help.

Additionally, if you happen to believe in Saints, there is a special one who can intercede on your account if you ask him.

In some circles, people pray to saints asking them to intercede on their behalf to God. There are a million different ways to look at this and I am not going to get into it much here. To many this seems odd, a kind of polytheism, but for many it's a wonderful way to include a whole "village of holy people" in their lives. There are endless stories of saints that make up an enormous literature of faith and inspiration.

The Man for Book People

Saint John of God is what reporters today would call a "great story." John was born in Portugal in 1495--just a few years after Columbus "sailed the blue." He came from modest, but devout parents. As a youth, he was innocent and virtuous. But when he joined the military of the King of Spain Charles V, well, that's when things went south. According to Butler (the old authority on all things saints), the "licentiousness of his companions" helped him go astray. Eventually, he renewed his faith, but not after he had done some things that he would regret for the rest of his life.

It might seem very strange to us, back in those times, some holy people would actually go out and seek martyrdom. They would go out into the world maintaining a holy attitude and life mission in the midst of authorities and ruffians who had their own mission in life--to kill those who didn't believe as they did. Saint John of God decided to seek martyrdom. He thought Africa would be a good place for it.

Traveling to Africa, he prayed, repented, and humbly served a once-prosperous Portuguese man and his family who had fallen on hard times. However, before he ran into some nasty people or a despot who would kill him for his faith, he was somehow convinced that martyrdom was something that one should not seek directly. He settled on something a little less dramatic for his mission. He left Africa and traveled to Spain. He traveled the countryside selling religious articles and books. According to Butler, on the road, John had a mystical experience meeting a child who turned out to be the Christ child. The Child called him "John of God" and said "Granada will be your cross." John then moved on to Granada where he sold little devotional books and statues. This was something fitting a pious man and it was certainly something that might help others find virtue. His brief bookselling days earned him the title of Patron Saint of Booksellers long after his death. The designation of Patron Saint of Booksellers also takes in others involved in the book trade such as publishers. He is Patron Saint of Hospitals and the Sick.

But John was a bit of a zealot. After hearing a sermon by a famous preacher of the time, John D'Avila, Saint John went mad with guilt and remorse--he cried out in church and then ran around the streets where people threw things at him. He gave away any money he had made and all his possessions. Many preachers are actually very practical people despite the negative things you might hear. D'Avila was one of them. He tried to talk some sense into John of God and it seemed to work for a while, but then a kind of madness crept back and John was committed to a "madhouse." A madhouse in those days was a place where mentally ill patients were treated cruelly. D'Avila must have been appalled when he heard of John's fate and set out again to set Saint John right. D'Avila convinced him that he could do more positive things than punish himself--he had been punished enough at that point. Thus, Saint John went out renewed with piety and charity to serve the poor, the sick, and those who were the most vulnerable in the society. He created a hospital.

Saint John became so well known for his piety and devotion to the poor, that the rich were often competing with each other to see who might offer the most support and aid to the "hospital" he created. He achieved a certain fame from his work, but for his part, Saint John had no interest at all in being esteemed by anyone for anything. When one woman called him a hypocrite, it was said he gave her some money and asked her to go out in public and proclaim the same. When a complaint came to the Archbishop that Saint John was harboring bad women and the idle in his hospital, Saint John prostrate himself before the man and cried out that he was the worse person at the hospital and that he had fallen short of serving others like the Master they both served. No doubt the Bishop backed off.

In time, everyone looked at Saint John as a force for virtue and holiness. He gave 100% to his "mission." And like everyone who give 100%, he wore himself out and took ill. When he took ill, he had to be ordered to leave service at his hospital. As he neared death, he gave one final blessing to the community. He died at exactly 55 years of age.

Saint John would receive credit for the founding of the Order of Charity, which was in fact formally organized after his death. He wasn't in the book business for long, but he certainly followed his heart and his convictions. He was certainly a man of great passion. If you are in the book business, pray to Saint John and ask him to put in a good word for you. No doubt he will do it stridently.

If you'd like to see my book business go to Sporting Chance Press.