The author's personal history (abandoned on the steps of an orphanage when she was a baby, the 'miracle' of being adopted into a loving family, although not knowing it wasn't her birth family until, aged twelve, she came across her adoption certificate whilst 'snooping') shape and drive this at times harrowing, but always intensely moving and thought-provoking story. As is the case for so many women who have been adopted, it wasn't until she became pregnant and was being asked questions about her familial health that she realised that, not knowing anything about her blood-family, these were questions she would never have the answers to. In her acknowledgments she shares that it was her subsequent 'meditations on miracles, adoption, motherhood, Blackness, Black womanhood, choices and blood' which led her to write this novel in order to explore these issues and to give a contextual voice to mothers who feel forced to abandon their babies.
Although it is, of course, impossible to actually walk the proverbial mile in another person's shoes, I found that the author's powerful, intensely evocative and frequently poetic prose quickly drew me into the inner lives of her empathically-portrayed three main female characters (birth mother Grace, adoptive mother Lolo and Rae, the daughter who is the link between them), enabling me to gain at least some insights into the challenges and dilemmas they faced in their lives. The storyline spans the tumultuous decades between the 1960s and the early twenty-first century, allowing reflection on both the huge cultural changes which have taken place, as well as the racial inequality which still exists. Rather depressingly, the themes explored were not unfamiliar (racism, bigotry, exploitation, patriarchy, misogyny, cycles of sexual and physical abuse, the influence of nature v nurture, to name just a few) but the visceral quality of the author's writing made it impossible to look away from the effects of these on the characters' lives, relationships and sense of identity, making this an at times deeply-disturbing story to read. However, to off-set this, it is also a story about the power of love and the importance of feeling secure in our identity.
Although it is, of course, impossible to actually walk the proverbial mile in another person's shoes, I found that the author's powerful, intensely evocative and frequently poetic prose quickly drew me into the inner lives of her empathically-portrayed three main female characters (birth mother Grace, adoptive mother Lolo and Rae, the daughter who is the link between them), enabling me to gain at least some insights into the challenges and dilemmas they faced in their lives. The storyline spans the tumultuous decades between the 1960s and the early twenty-first century, allowing reflection on both the huge cultural changes which have taken place, as well as the racial inequality which still exists. Rather depressingly, the themes explored were not unfamiliar (racism, bigotry, exploitation, patriarchy, misogyny, cycles of sexual and physical abuse, the influence of nature v nurture, to name just a few) but the visceral quality of the author's writing made it impossible to look away from the effects of these on the characters' lives, relationships and sense of identity, making this an at times deeply-disturbing story to read. However, to off-set this, it is also a story about the power of love and the importance of feeling secure in our identity.