“History had awakened me to the fact that racism is the only food Americans crave.”
A few months ago, I was in London on holidays. And yes, I did buy a lot of books. This was one of them. Waterstones had them everywhere as the fiction book of the month May 2023. And after reading the description on the back, I got to know that it also got longlisted for the “Women’s Prize of Fiction 2023”.
This story is told from four different perspectives over 50+ years, Hazel, Miriam, August and Joan. Hazel was the grandmother, August and Miriam her daughters, and Joan is Miriam’s daughter. The book starts with Miriam and her two daughters fleeing to Memphis because of their father’s temper. August takes them in with open arms, but there’s darkness in this house. It all started with the lynching of Hazel’s husband, the first black officer in Memphis, only days after his first day. All of the North women have experienced pain through the hands of a man and had to live with the grief. But there is also Miss Dawn, a woman that has known all three generations and had seen them grow up. She helps each of the women in her own way, through letting them paint her hands or marrying on her front lawn.
This story is one full of pain and grief, but also so much more. It’s not just a story about the bad things, but also how four different women who are each other’s safe haven. It just feels like magic and at some point, I really thought Miss Dawn could be the fairy godmother to the whole family. Tara M. Stringfellow wrote a beautiful book and even though I’ve never been to Memphis, it just felt like I was right there.
