What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

Joyce Mitchell is Ava’s older sister. She is a primary character who plays an important role in Ava’s evolution over the course of the novel. Ava sees Joyce as a reliable and resilient force. For example, after the sisters’ parents died, Joyce and her husband, Mitch, became Ava’s guardians. In the narrative present, Joyce sends Eddie to collect Ava from the airport because a woman showed “up on her doorstep in labor and had to be driven to the hospital” (14). Ava deems Joyce’s behaviors in both these situations as typical because “[a]nybody with trouble knew if they could get to Joyce, she’d take care of it” (14). Joyce believes that most situations are fixable if someone responsible is there to help. Joyce’s character is shaped around this principle as she devotes her life to helping and supporting others.

Joyce’s character also proves resilient outside the context of her relationship with Ava. Joyce will do anything to help her little sister, but she is also a social activist at heart. She had a career in social work before her two young children and husband died in tragic accidents. Therefore, devoting herself to her community is a way for Joyce to channel her pain into meaningful work. Despite the tragedies Joyce suffered from a young age, she never gives up. She doesn’t abandon Ava when their mother dies by suicide on Joyce’s wedding day, and she doesn’t abandon her community when Mitch and her children die. Her work is evidence of her strong will and determination.

The Sewing Circus is Joyce’s main enterprise in the narrative present. After Mitch died, Joyce returned to New Light Baptist Church and realized that the church’s women’s group, the Sewing Circle, needed revitalization. She is the new leader of the group and uses the space to teach its young female members about personal, sexual, and family health and well-being. Throughout the novel, the church’s pastor and his wife do everything in their power to impede Joyce’s work with the Circus. However, Joyce never abandons the women with whom she has formed important connections. She starts holding meetings in her house, creates a new community center on an alternate property, and invests in the women’s lives outside the context of the group, too. Meanwhile, Joyce is also raising a foster child, who she names Imani. Her dedication to these relationships reveals her strength of character while simultaneously inspiring her sister to grow and change.

Eddie Jefferson is a primary character who influences Ava’s growth throughout her summer in Idlewild. Ava first reunites with Eddie when he picks her up from the airport in Part 1. Because Eddie was a close friend of Joyce’s late husband, Mitch, Ava is familiar with Eddie. However, she soon learns that Eddie has changed since she was last in Idlewild.

Eddie’s character holds symbolic significance because he’s undergone both difficult experiences and significant changes. He served in Vietnam as a young man and returned home angry and intolerant. Unable to channel his psychological unrest, Eddie began dealing drugs. This enterprise ultimately led him to kill his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend and to serve 10 years in prison for the crime.

In the narrative present, Eddie is peaceful, soft-spoken, and spiritual. He practices t’ai chi, listens to jazz, gardens, and cooks. To Ava, his life is both idyllic and free from stress or trouble. Therefore, when she learns the truth about Eddie’s past, she struggles to reconcile the Eddie she knows with this former, violent Eddie. Eddie’s story inspires her to ask questions about culpability, justice, and the human capacity for change. Ultimately, she forgives Eddie for his past because she also wants to be forgiven for hers.

Eddie and Ava have a close, meaningful relationship. When Ava first realizes she has feelings for Eddie, she feels afraid. She doesn’t think Eddie will accept her or want to be with her because she is HIV positive. However, Eddie doesn’t judge or stigmatize Ava. The two create a new form of intimacy together. Their relationship ultimately teaches Ava how to give and receive love. Marrying Eddie at the end of the novel illustrates her desire to be open to life despite her diagnosis.

Gerry Anderson is a secondary character. She is married to the pastor of New Light Baptist Church, Reverend Jonathan Anderson. Her character is a narrative device who creates conflict for the primary characters throughout the novel. When Joyce first tells Ava about Gerry, Ava doubts Gerry is as bad as Joyce suggests. However, upon meeting Gerry, Ava understands that Gerry’s rigid beliefs and seemingly unfeeling attitude threaten Joyce and her work with the Sewing Circus.

Gerry tries to thwart Joyce’s efforts with the Sewing Circus because she deems Joyce’s ideas ungodly and sinful. For a time, Ava and Joyce can’t believe how much energy Gerry is devoting to destroying the Circus. After Gerry kicks the group out of the church, accuses Ava of seducing her grandson, Tyrone, and gets Social Services to remove Imani from Joyce’s home, the sisters realize that something is causing Gerry’s behaviors. In Part 4, a former congregant of the Anderson’s church reveals to Ava that Gerry helped to cover up her husband’s child abuse scandal. Reputation is of utmost importance to Gerry. Rather than using her position of power to help others, she uses it to protect herself and her family.

Reverend Jonathan Anderson is a minor, static character. He became the new pastor of New Light Baptist Church shortly before Ava moved back to Idlewild. He lives with his wife, Gerry, and grandson, Tyrone. Because the main characters only see the reverend at church on Sundays, they assume that he lives a pure and blameless life. Whenever he fails to attend scheduled meetings with Joyce and Ava, for example, Gerry informs them that her husband is hard at work on next Sunday’s sermon. Therefore, Gerry is the force who keeps the reverend’s reputation intact. She devotes her life to protecting how others see him, and what they know about his life.

In Part 4, Ava and Joyce learn that Reverend Anderson abused countless members of the youth program affiliated with his former Chicago church. Instead of receiving justice, Reverend Anderson left town without charges and with a new job at a new church. His character continues to hold a position of power until Ava threatens to go to the papers with the reverend’s story if he and Gerry don’t leave town. The reverend’s character also creates narrative tension, although his true nature isn’t revealed until the novel’s end.