Remembering Janet McDonald

I considered publishing this posting on the anniversary of Janet’s passing, but thought that it would be more appropriate to publish it during Women’s History Month – a time when women’s stories garner more attention and when we collectively celebrate womanhood.


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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” for writers who were visiting or living in France. Participants 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 would be called Project Girl (1999), and it went on to be named Los Angeles Times Best Book of 1999. Raw and insightful, it poignantly tells the tale of Janet’s lifelong struggle to reconcile her upbringing in a New York City ghetto 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.

After Project Girl, Janet went on to write six novels for young adults. She reached out to this audience from the vantage point of the “derailed” adolescence that she describes in Project Girl, and did so with great purpose and success. Spellbound (2001) was selected as the American Library Association’s Best Book for Young Adults and Chill Wind (2002) won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award. Janet’s last novel, Off-color, was published by Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux in October 2007. Four of her books have been translated into French.

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. 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.

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.

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