I thought I'd follow up my review of Gordon Korman with a look at a series he also enjoyed as a child, The Great Brain books by John D. Fitzgerald. My older brother gave me the first book in the series as a Christmas gift when I was in fourth grade. I was initially somewhat skeptical, but The Great Brain ended up being one of my favorite series. I had a lot of reasons to like The Great Brain. The books were narrated by John, the youngest in a family of three children, just like me. I already had a like of period-era stories about con men; I've loved the movie Paper Moon since around the age of eight. But I'll admit the biggest appeal of The Great Brain was that the Fitzgerald family was Catholic, and I was obsessed with the author's portrayal of their religious identity.
The Great Brain books, though narrated by youngest brother John, are mostly about his older brother, Tom. Tom is highly intelligent, hence the nickname "The Great Brain," and he uses his brain to concoct all sorts of money-making schemes. When John isn't one of The Great Brain's victims, he is a reluctant partner in crime. Set in Utah in the late 1800s, these books make use of all sorts of dated terminology that found its way into my childhood vocabulary. Tom is a "swindler," his brain "works like sixty," and the kids love the Sears Roebuck catalog.
In every book, John explains that his family is in the religious minority, noting that his hometown of Adenville is made up of about 2,000 Mormons, 500 or so Protestants, and only about 100 Catholics. They are only able to attend true Catholic services once a year, when a priest visits the town to hear confessions, baptize babies, and perform marriages, all in one week. The family places a high value on education (their father is the only man in town with a college degree), and in The Great Brain at the Academy, Tom and eldest brother Sweyn are sent off to a Catholic boarding school, since the local school does not go beyond the sixth grade. This is by far the most heavily Catholic book in the series, but even if it wasn't for that, it probably still would have been my favorite overall. The Great Brain is really at his best in this book.
The Catholic Academy for Boys is run by Jesuits, and it's a strict place. The boys study Latin, make weekly confessions, peel potatoes for punishment, and do daily calisthenics instead of sports. Tom quickly makes an enemy in Father Rodriguez, who refuses to call him Tom, stating he will be called by the name he was baptized with, Thomas. Tom has such a disdain for Father Rodriguez that he even writes to the pope, telling the pontiff horror stories about how the academy is run like a prison.
Tom wants the boys at the academy to have a little fun, and his first scheme is opening a candy store. Candy is against the rules, and one of Tom's bunkmates even tells him it's a sin. In typical Great Brain fashion, Tom starts a bet:
He removed his catechism and his Bible from his suitcase and placed them on the bunk. Then he took the three silver dollars from his pocket and put them on the bunk.
"Now put your money where your mouth is, Rory," he said. "I'll bet those three silver dollars against just twenty-five cents of your own money that you can't show me any place in the catechism or the Bible where it says that is a sin for a fellow to have all the candy he wants at a Catholic academy" (56).
Rory admits that it isn't a sin, but it is breaking the rules. Undeterred, Tom sells candy, smuggled from home, doubling the cost he paid at the store to make a profit. When his supply runs out, he must devise a way to get more candy. He whittles a key to the attic out of wood, where he then climbs out the window and is able to buy candy at a local merchant.
When the entire academy takes a trip to the Salt Lake City theater, they witness the Mental Marvel. The Mental Marvel is blindfolded by his assistant, and the assistant then asks members of the audience to hand him an article they have on themselves, like a watch, a wallet, or glasses. The Mental Marvel then identifies the item. Tom is determined to find out the trick to the Mental Marvel's act, and bets all of his classmates that he can read minds, too. They doubt him, but The Great Brain gets the best of them yet again, when he determines the whole act is just based on a code language shared between the assistant and the Mental Marvel.
By the book's close, Tom and Father Rodriguez respect each other, with Father Rodriguez finally agreeing to call him Tom. Tom regrets his letter to Pope Leo, realizing that the academy really isn't such a bad place after all. The academy becomes one of the first schools in the area to have a basketball team, and when the Bishop visits, he tells Tom the Church will suffer a great loss if Tom doesn't use his great brain to become a priest. John is certain that there's no danger of that. There's no way Tom's "money-loving heart" would allow him to take a vow of poverty.
The Great Brain at the Academy is a fun read, but within its pages, it also includes a history of the Jesuit order, an introduction to several different saints, the text of common Catholic prayers, etc. Even though I was raised Catholic, I certainly wasn't familiar with the Catholic culture of Utah at the turn of the century. After reading the book, I had to ask my mom to give me a little context for some of its references. Perhaps not surprisingly, The Great Brain books (in which the author John D. Fitzgerald shares his name with the narrator) are loosely autobiographical. He clearly knew his setting well, and that is what makes the series stand out.
Fitzgerald published seven Great Brain books in his lifetime, and an eighth was published after his death. They were at their height of popularity in the '70s, and were even made into a movie adaptation. Mercer Mayer provided the illustrations. The series is still in print, and the author also wrote a highly-regarded memoir of his childhood called Papa Married a Mormon. I haven't read it, but I think I'll seek it out.
