Mocha Girls Read book club is a bit unique because we read everything under the sun. And yes, as black women we have thoughts on it all. Take a minute to see what I have to say about today’s book from my TBR list.
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: Riverhead Books (September 17, 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0525535276
Synopsis
Moving forward and backward in time, Jacqueline Woodson’s taut and powerful new novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these families, and in the life of the new child.
As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody’s coming of age ceremony in her grandparents’ Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody’s mother, for her own ceremony– a celebration that ultimately never took place.
Unfurling the history of Melody’s parents and grandparents to show how they all arrived at this moment, Woodson considers not just their ambitions and successes but also the costs, the tolls they’ve paid for striving to overcome expectations and escape the pull of history. As it explores sexual desire and identity, ambition, gentrification, education, class and status, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, Red at the Bone most strikingly looks at the ways in which young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their lives–even before they have begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.
My Review
Following a simple plot; the coming of age for sixteen-year-old Melody, the story follows various characters’ perspective with anecdotes from both the past and present. This novel was a wonderful, character-rich, truly deep story that captures a family that’s built upon the foundations of wanting more for themselves and those around them. It explores how each character explores their individual life purposes through their relations and through their intentions.
Woodson is a true craftswoman of simplicity and complexity that her characters express so well. Using very simple language, she successfully tells a story that only her characters can tell us. She did a wonderful job weaving in various themes of class, the importance of education, motherhood, and sexuality.
There’s so much to say but with this being less than 200 pages; this is something I recommend you try for yourself. For me, this is a new literary classic in its own right!
Book Available on September 17, 2019.
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