The Jailing of Cecelia Capture
The Jailing of Cecilia Capture is a novel by Janet Campbell Hale that was first published on March 1, 1985, by Random House.
The noval is about a young American Indian law student who is jailed on her 30th birthday for drunk driving and held on unidentified charges. While waiting to find out why she is being held, she reflects back on her life so far. It is second of four books written by Hale.
Plot
Cecelia Capture is an American Indian of mixed heritage who has been jailed on her 30th birthday. Having been arrested on drunk driving charges and being held for welfare fraud charges she hadn't known about, she goes on a journey of retrospection. Cecelia reflects on her life as a poverty-stricken child growing up in an increasingly emotionally abusive home, first on an Idaho reservation, then moving to Tacoma, Washington when she was 12 years old. She convinces her mother to leave her alcoholic father to go live with her sister when she is 13 years old. Her parents eventually reconcile, but Cecelia reaches her breaking point, leaving home at 16 and moving to San Francisco.Cecilia meets the love of her life, who, after only three days together, ships off to Da Nang, Vietnam. He is killed shortly after. Cecilia finds out she is pregnant a few weeks after he left. She considers her life as a "welfare mother" and the struggles she had with people expecting her to fail. She goes on to a community college, then on to U.C. Berkeley where she meets her husband, Nathan. They move to Spokane, which Cecilia hates because it reminds her of her childhood. She eventually leaves to go back to Boalt Hall Law School and lives in San Francisco on her own until the narration returns to her present time in jail. So unhappy with her life, she becomes suicidal. After everything Cecelia has gone through, she finds new resolve and puts the gun away.