Dusky Day: A College Story

Dusky #1

by Florence Crannell Means

The prequel to The Singing Wood, this novel chronicles the first year of Dusky and her brother Paul's experiences at Highland University in California.

271 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

Florence Crannell Means was an American writer for children and young adults.

In 1946, her novel about Japanese internment, The Moved-Outers, won a Newbery Medal honor award and the Children's Book Award (now Josette Frank Award).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to the reading notebooks I kept meticulously way back in pre-goodreads days, I know I read this 1933 college story once before, finishing on February 15th, 2002. I wish I could remember how I came to hear of the book, and how I managed to read a copy without apparently owning it. Inter-library loan? Did I buy a copy and not keep it? The book made very little impression on me. I could recall that it was set at a college in Southern California, and that orange groves figured into the story, but mostly what endured was an impression that Florence Crannell Means was kind of dull. However, after reading Shuttered Windows, my interest in Means revived, and I decided to give her another try.

I liked Dusky Day way better this time around. I suspect that in 2002 I had a hard time warming to college fiction that wasn't set in the early 1900s at an East Coast Seven-Sisters type college, the sort of book that will always be the heart of the college fiction genre to me. However, in the intervening years, I've read a wider swathe of vintage fiction, and I guess I've become kind of inured to mid-20th century concerns about dating and getting into the right sorority, and don't automatically turn against a book for focusing on them.

In this book, Dusky and her brother Paul (presumably they are twins although this isn't made clear) leave their Colorado home, where their parents are struggling to make ends meet, to attend Highland College in Southern California. An aunt they haven't seen since childhood is grudgingly providing college tuition and expenses, but only if they attend Highland. Dusky and Paul are resentful, because their mother read aloud a letter that wasn't meant for their eyes saying that their aunt doubts they were worth it. They are determined not only to prove her wrong, but also to work as hard as they can while at college to earn money to pay her back and not be in her debt.

I was agreeably surprised to find that there was a lot of pleasantly rich detail about college life at Highland, and that we get at least some sense of Dusky's academic life and intellectual development -- things that so often are completely glossed over or omitted in many college stories. There are also several plot strands, some involving Dusky's roommates, some hints of budding romance to come, a thread about an elderly local couple near the college struggling to maintain their orange grove, and of course the all important sorority question. I read in an essay about Means that this book was based on her daughter's college experience, but irritatingly, the essay doesn't mention the college's name. I wonder if anyone who attended it would be able to recognize it. There's lots of local color and lush depictions of California agriculture, which was a refreshingly different sort of setting for this kind of book. All of this is not to say that Dusky Day is a neglected gem anyone who likes vintage books should seek out at once -- there's a slight mystery element I haven't mentioned that is kind of silly -- but it's a worthy addition to my college fiction collection, and best of all, there's a sequel.

I wonder if anyone who hasn't read the book would be able to guess what "Dusky" is short for. I bet not! Answer in the the spoiler space. Loduska. Not a name I've come across before. Perhaps Means, who had a religious quasi-missionary background was thinking of Loduska Wirik, a missionary to Japan?