IV. A Little Princess
(Clarice recommends a book to Hannibal)
Have I told you about A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett?
It meant a lot to me as a kid growing up.
Back then, I couldn't go to a bookstore and get whatever I wanted,
Because momma had bills to pay and mouths to feed
From whatever daddy could bring home in his check.
..
But the local library was something else -
It had all types of good books,
Enough for a young scrawny girl from Boone County
To believe in something else but coal, lumber, railroad tracks, and despair.
..
"If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside."
That got me through a lot.
When others put me down for being an orphan, a nobody; poor tornado-bait pone-eatin' white trailer trash…
I reminded myself that "to have money isn't everything, and being kind is worth a great deal."
..
That book taught me a lot,
Got me through a lot.
It helped pick me up
From the little attic of the Lutheran home
To college at UVA,
And, no matter how you'd call it,
A shot in the F.B.I.
You could say if it ain't for that book,
I wouldn't have stood before you in that dungeon,
And we wouldn't be where we are today.
..
"Lots of wealthy, clever people have done harm and have been wicked."
I think you can attest to that -
But this book also says no one's gotta keep being that way.
I think who you've become is a testament to this.
..
So, when you tire of reading about Wilde's Salomé,
Let me read you about Burnett's princess.
You may find I'm not so frightening to figure out after all.
And what made me, while humble fare,
May be far nobler than the Metamorphoses that Ovid regales.
...
(Note: Parts in quotations are directly from A Little Princess. It's one of my favorite books too!)