Starla

Starla Jane Claudelle is a redheaded white girl of 9 who serves as the principal protagonist and narrator of the novel “Whistling Past the Graveyard” by Susan Crandall. Starla is the daughter of Porter and Lulu and is the granddaughter of Mamie. Disinterested and childish, Starla dislikes her grandmother’s strict ways and ultimately runs away from home to avoid them. She is determined to find her mother, who left for Nashville to make it as a singer years before. Starla considers her mother to be a shining example of motherhood, and a wonderful human being despite everyone else telling her otherwise. Starla catches a ride from Eula and Baby James, only to end up nearly strangled by Wallace. Eula agrees to bring Starla to Nashville. Along the way, Starla experiences racism firsthand, directed at Eula by whites and directed at herself by blacks. It angers Starla, but brings...