We can’t know where this family is going to take us, but we know there will be complexity and depth. Recommended to those that love historical fiction-especially surrounding Civil Rights-and to those that enjoy stories about multiple generations of families.These names, each with their birth, marriage, and death dates, are spread before the reader like a map. This is my only real criticism.īecause I was a bit behind, I checked out the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons, and the narrators, Karen Murray and Adenrele Ojo, do a superb job.
The story arc is a mighty shallow one, and I’d be hard-pressed to identify the climax. The characters are resonant and believable my favorite is August. Stringfellow writes about the past as it was, rather than as she wishes it was. What I appreciate is the lack of reliance on cheap pop cultural references, and also the lack of revisionism. On the one hand, I didn’t learn anything new, but I am a history teacher. I also love that the narrative embraces only women, across three generations.Īs with all good historical fiction, there’s a hidden history lesson here as we follow the Norths across time. Hazel is Miriam and August’s mother, and the time is the 1930s, a dark time indeed for African-Americans. About a third of the way through we find an additional point of view from a character we haven’t met yet, and since we’ve heard from Miriam and August as well as Miriam’s girls, I’m expecting Hazel to be the daughter of either Joan or Mya, granddaughter to Miriam, but that’s not the case. The family’s story follows them across time and points of view, but always from the point of view of one of the women. They’re headed to live with Miriam’s sister, August, in Memphis. She gets a few things and herds her daughters, Joan and Mya, out of the house. The story commences with Miriam planning to leave her abusive husband.
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