Blue Hole Back Home

Blue Hole Back Home is a novel by Joy Jordan-Lake, set in North Carolina. As the novel opens, the narrator, Shelby Lenoir Maynard, is sitting in the Public Garden in Boston, when she sees a face that brings up old memories. The novel consists of Shelby’s reliving of the summer of 1979.

That summer, Shelby was a sophomore in high school. She spends most of her time hanging out with her brother, Emerson, and his best friend, James, who are a year ahead of her. She finds girls her age to be overly concerned with trivial matters like boys and makeup. She is seen as one of the guys, and they affectionately refer to her as “Turtle.”

A new girl comes to town and she sticks out like a sore thumb. Her name is Farsanna Moulavi. She is dark-skinned and speaks with an accent, her family having just immigrated from Sri Lanka. Farsanna soon finds herself the target of school bullies but carries herself with a confidence that negates their cruelty.



As the summer rolls in, Emerson, James, and Shelby start their own business, Big Dog Lawn and Garden Beautifiers, offering their services doing yard work around the neighborhood. Once work is done for the day, the gang heads to the local swimming hole, known as the Blue Hole. On the way, they pass by Farsanna’s house, and Shelby can’t help but notice how down she looks. She insists that they stop and invite her along. Farsanna hops into the back of the pickup truck and they ride together to the Blue Hole.

This soon becomes a tradition, with Farsanna joining in the group’s activities, in spite of Shelby’s hesitance to form friendships with other girls. As their friendship grows closer, each of them starts to recognize the racial tensions that exist below the surface of their quiet suburban town. They become concerned for their new friend and her family, especially when they overhear a conversation between some men and the local Reverend about how down in the Valley, things are so bad that whole city blocks are being lit on fire. When the gang reads about the incidents in the newspaper, the article states that they believe the culprits are black, although Shelby and her friends know this is not true and are outraged that someone would print prejudiced lies.

As the summer goes on, Farsanna, or Sanna as she is nicknamed by the group, becomes a fully-fledged member of the Pack, as Shelby and the boys call themselves. Shelby notices that both her brother and James are in love with Sanna, which throws her off momentarily. Although the boys argue over Sanna, in the end, they come to a peaceful resolution.



Sanna calls Shelby with an unexpected invitation to sleep over, and Shelby reluctantly accepts, hoping Sanna will not mention either of the boys in their lives. After a dinner that is too spicy for Shelby to enjoy and an embarrassing moment in which Sanna’s mother insults the American way of life, the two girls walk to the nearby Dairy Queen. As they are leaving, Mort is revving his truck, also ready to leave the Dairy Queen. Soon after, the girls and Sanna’s dog, Stray, are nearly run over by a swerving truck on the dark road home. Shaken, the girls quickly get to Sanna’s house.

Shelby sees that tensions are building surrounding the Moulavi family, and the town she previously thought to be warm and welcoming is turning violent. One day after work, Emerson’s truck is set on fire, with two sticks in the shape of a cross burning in the cab. Shelby wants to keep it quiet, but Emerson understands things have now gotten out of hand and they should tell someone what has been happening. They drive Farsanna home, noticing that something is hanging from the tree in her yard—her beloved dog.

The harassment continues as each member of the Pack finds a blazing cross as tall a man pitched on their front lawn. Shelby is now convinced that they need to tell someone what has been going on. Before they can do that, the tensions escalate and Klansmen attack Farsanna’s home, fatally wounding James as he attempts to protect her and her family.



Farsanna and her family board a Greyhound bus for Washington, D.C., in hopes of creating a new life there.

Emerson is now a professor of seventeenth-century literature and lives in Seattle. After attending Wellesley, Shelby moves to Boston, though she still prefers the simple things of her growing up years to the nicer things she now has in her life. She only returns home twice—to bury each of her parents. Boston is now her home.

The flashback is over as Shelby is again in the Public Garden, watching a woman whom she believes to be Farsanna. As she heads back to work, Shelby writes a note on a business card and hands it to the woman without speaking to her, hoping that she may one day receive a letter of forgiveness so that she may, in turn, forgive herself.