TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND THE FIG TREE. One of my hobby horses is the contention that most of the people we meet have stories in their backgrounds that are more colorful than what you will find in literature. (One reason is that a lot of true stories would be rejected by a fiction editor as too implausible). Tennessee Williams was one of the great imaginative writers of the last century so I cite the story about the fig tree as supporting evidence for my theory. Mary Jane came across the story while performing duties as a dramaturg for an upcoming production of The Rose Tattoo. This article by Brian Parker on the Tennessee Williams studies blog has a wealth of information and ideas about The Rose Tattoo. It tells about how Williams was delighted by “his experience of Sicily with his partner, the ex-truck driver Frank Merlo….” The play is dedicated to Merlo “in return for Sicily”. Parker quotes Maria St. Just about the fig tree:
“[Merlo’s] mother … used often, after arguments, to climb the fig-tree in the backyard and sulk, sometimes for hours on end. I remember Frankie telling me that after one particularly blinding row, she refused to come down. Having shouted at her, and pleaded with her, her sons eventually took an axe to the tree, and brought the whole thing down, with her in it.”
(addition on January 4) Too implausible, I think, to put into a novel or short story.