This was a thought-provoking and often difficult read - but one that I think people should pick up.
Brilliant story-telling follows a blood trail through generations of Black American women; it's split into three 'books': the book of Grace, the book of Delores, and the book of Rae. Each woman stares down terrible hardship and attacks on their dignity and freedom from a range of oppressors, both inside and outside their homes. Sometimes they do this with grace, sometimes with anger and sometimes with despair - they are real, flawed characters and that gives their stories a sense of raw realness too.
As times change (the book spans from the 60's to the 00's) the one constant is the cruelty and unachievable expectations heaped on these women from all angles; from society, their families, their friends, themselves.
It's clear from the sensitive writing and poetic prose that these are precious representations to Denene Millner and she handles them with love and care. It's a sprawling epic about huge and tiny things all at once, it reminded me of the Love Songs of W E B Du Bois in the way it used character-driven stories spanning many years to highlight the state of society at different points.
Brilliant story-telling follows a blood trail through generations of Black American women; it's split into three 'books': the book of Grace, the book of Delores, and the book of Rae. Each woman stares down terrible hardship and attacks on their dignity and freedom from a range of oppressors, both inside and outside their homes. Sometimes they do this with grace, sometimes with anger and sometimes with despair - they are real, flawed characters and that gives their stories a sense of raw realness too.
As times change (the book spans from the 60's to the 00's) the one constant is the cruelty and unachievable expectations heaped on these women from all angles; from society, their families, their friends, themselves.
It's clear from the sensitive writing and poetic prose that these are precious representations to Denene Millner and she handles them with love and care. It's a sprawling epic about huge and tiny things all at once, it reminded me of the Love Songs of W E B Du Bois in the way it used character-driven stories spanning many years to highlight the state of society at different points.