Monique B. reviewed on + 27 more book reviews
Overall, this was a pretty good book. It was a difficult read for me, though. There were so many underlying stories, and the fact that it was told out of sequence, with so many characters, that I was a little confused at times. This book touches on slavery, voodoo, interracial marriage, family relations, prejudice in the African American community based on skin color, expectations for people who've made it in the African American community, genealogy...
There is a lot of racism, and a lot of the use of the n-word, that I was uncomfortable. Although I'm African American I've never experienced much of either of those two issues, which is probably what made them uncomfortable for me. I've never heard the n-word used in my immediate family ever. Not from my parents or siblings. If my memory is correct, I was 18 the first time I heard that word, and I remember the specific circumstance. It wasn't pleasant, and I'll never forget it, though.
Oh my gosh this family has a LOT of issues and secrets. Whew! Nefertiti, called Titi, birthed a child at a young age and gave her up for adoption. She has been estranged from her family for years, and chooses the weekend of her father's 75th birthday celebration to come home and begin to search for the daughter she gave up for adoption. Her current husband, her second, doesn't know that she gave birth to a 3rd child, and is multi-racial, but could pass for white. Nefertiti's family and Nefertiti herself have unresolved issues around this. Isaac, her first husband and the father of her two other children, who cheated on her and ended up marrying the woman he cheated on her with, and who now makes him absolutely miserable, wants her back. Pharoah, who is the father of the girl she gave up for adoption, has served two tours in Vietnam, and is unstable, also wants her back.
Her father is down-right mean to her, and she doesn't understand it except that she's being punished for getting pregnant at such a young age, which would ruin her father's standing in the community as a minister. The real reason is so much worse.
This book describes the events from the Wednesday that she comes back home to Shallow's Corner to the day after her father's birthday celebration, and is packed with intrigue. All the way to the last page. I didn't know that very last secret was even coming!
There is a lot of racism, and a lot of the use of the n-word, that I was uncomfortable. Although I'm African American I've never experienced much of either of those two issues, which is probably what made them uncomfortable for me. I've never heard the n-word used in my immediate family ever. Not from my parents or siblings. If my memory is correct, I was 18 the first time I heard that word, and I remember the specific circumstance. It wasn't pleasant, and I'll never forget it, though.
Oh my gosh this family has a LOT of issues and secrets. Whew! Nefertiti, called Titi, birthed a child at a young age and gave her up for adoption. She has been estranged from her family for years, and chooses the weekend of her father's 75th birthday celebration to come home and begin to search for the daughter she gave up for adoption. Her current husband, her second, doesn't know that she gave birth to a 3rd child, and is multi-racial, but could pass for white. Nefertiti's family and Nefertiti herself have unresolved issues around this. Isaac, her first husband and the father of her two other children, who cheated on her and ended up marrying the woman he cheated on her with, and who now makes him absolutely miserable, wants her back. Pharoah, who is the father of the girl she gave up for adoption, has served two tours in Vietnam, and is unstable, also wants her back.
Her father is down-right mean to her, and she doesn't understand it except that she's being punished for getting pregnant at such a young age, which would ruin her father's standing in the community as a minister. The real reason is so much worse.
This book describes the events from the Wednesday that she comes back home to Shallow's Corner to the day after her father's birthday celebration, and is packed with intrigue. All the way to the last page. I didn't know that very last secret was even coming!
