Review of The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray

I found The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray while browsing in my local library.  Lost in the stacks, searching for a few gems to devour while on vacation from work, it’s title and colorful, flowery cover caught my eye.   The first line, “You do a lot of thinking in jail,” captured my attention.  As I read on, Gray’s eloquent, poetry-like prose captured my heart.

            The story of a family’s unravelling when a mother and father-Althea and Proctor Cochran, are both sent to jail for fraud, Gray paints a portrait of what sociologists have been telling us for years-that when a person is incarcerated, their family members do the time with them.  This is especially true in this story because the Cochrans’ stole from the local community in the name of charity.  As the saying goes about the sins of fathers, so  the Cochran twins-Kim and Baby Vi, suffer through the brunt of taunting and ostracism from a town angry at their parents’ betrayal.  The twins respond in opposing ways.  Baby Vi, small and quiet, folds into herself and keeps her head down, seemingly trying to disappear.  Kim, large and defiant, lashes out, getting into trouble at school, missing curfew, and just generally making as many waves as possible.  Ironically, Kim is the one who made the phone call to police that started the fraud investigation and the reason that she called is slowly revealed throughout the novel.   Althea’s narrative is told in first person as she navigates life in confinement and confronts uncomfortable truths about herself.  The point of view switches between Althea and her sisters, Lillian and Viola, and the letters that Proctor to sends to Althea.   As the story progresses more is revealed about broken family dynamics and painful family secrets. 

    Anissa Gray is an award winning journalist, having won both Emmy and duPont awards for her work with CNN.  A graduate of Western Michigan University and New York University with a Master's degree in English, she currently lives in Atlanta with her wife.  She can be found at www.anissagray.com.

    As a reader, it is easy to assume that the girls referred to in the title are the twins, Kim and Baby Vi.  While they are obviously in need of care, having essentially been orphaned by the criminal justice system, you come to realize that all of the women in the novel are in need of care and feeding of some kind.  Althea, who was thrust into the role of matriarch when her mother passed when she was only twelve, resents the fact that she has always had to be the strong one.  Her resentment is so strong that it blinds her to how she treats her family, especially Kim.  "It had to be tough love with her, which is what Proctor doesn't understand.  I was tough because life is tough.....But Proctor wanted to be a buddy, a friend, and , obviously, their favorite....I'm the one who always had to do what needed to be done."  It takes a near tragedy for her to finally be able to completely face down the reflection in the mirror and begin to heal.  Viola relapses into a cycle of binging and purging (the book should probably have a trigger warning because of graphic depictions of her bulimia)  while trying to maintain a steadily crumbling facade of having it all together.  Lillian does everything she can to mute the pain of past abuse, and in the process, has muted herself and her voice.  As a black woman, this novel spoke to me on a deeply personal level as I identified with the characters.  While we may not all share the same trials, we share what so many black women do, and that is the struggle to make a place for ourselves and have our voices heard in a world that tries to silence and minimize our existence.  We are all in need of care and feeding of one kind or another, despite the strength that we show the world.  As Althea's mother explained to her, " 'boys and men are earth and stone....but you girls, us women, we're water.  We can wear away earth and stone, if it comes to it.' "  Even the mightiest river can dry up, if not continuously nourished at the source however.  We need care and feeding of our souls, in order to find the inner strength necessary to sustain our source and flow through a harsh world, leaving our marks like water carving out canyons, inch by inch.  

 

Review of Only Child by Rhiannon Navin

 

For better or worse, guns are as much a part of American culture as the Fourth of July and apple pie.  The debate over gun regulation is one of the most heated in the history of this country.  One of the unfortunate offspring off American gun culture has been mass school shootings, shattering the innocence of young lives and ripping families apart in the most heartbreaking ways.

Only Child by Rhiannon Navin explores a Sandy Hook-like school shooting and its aftermath from the unique perspective of one of the six year old survivors.  From the opening pages, when Zach Taylor hides in a closet with his teacher and the rest of his first-grade classmates, the author draws us in with his simple yet profoundly insightful perspective on the events taking place.  As the adults around him fall apart, Zach retreats into another closet- in his brother's room, where he processes his emotions through painting and reading a popular children's book series.  The author tells an unfortunately all too familiar tale through the eyes of a sensitive, soulful little boy, who readers quickly realize is wise beyond his young years.   

Originally from Bremen, Germany, Rhiannon Navin came to New York City and pursued a career in advertising.  Now a wife and mom living outside of New York, Only Child is her first novel.

Only Child is an exciting debut from a first-time novelist.  Navin took an extremely difficult topic and handled it with great care and compassion, avoiding the potential landmines of over-emphasis on actual violence or political debates.  Her focus on Zach's family as a microcosm of the community around them, provided an intimate portrait into the lives of victims and survivors of gun violence and the use of a six year old narrator provided a refreshingly beautiful perspective.  There were times when Zach thought and said things that were so profound that it took my breath away.  When Zach's dad explains what the word sympathy means to him, he responds by saying, "I only noticed how Andy acted bad all the time.   That he was being mean to me.  A lot of times I didn't like him because of that, and I didn't try to feel the sympathy with him.  Maybe Andy wouldn't have acted bad a lot of times if he could have noticed that we were feeling the sympathy with him.  I don't know."  Many adults couldn't figure out the things that Zach did, especially the adults in his family.  But what made him so unique, is that the author still managed to remind us that he was actually a child with all the accompanying behaviors, including tantrums, bedwetting, and clinging to a favorite stuffed animal.  Ironically, that is what made Zach's voice so compelling.  While we as adults can't sit down and agree on how to keep first-graders from getting massacred at school, a six-year old figured out how to heal his family, and spread that healing to his community.  If we could all only see the world through the beauty and innocence of a child's eyes.

Review of The Blackbirds by Eric Jerome Dickey

The Blackbirds is the latest novel by the prolific author Eric Jerome Dickey.  I read this book as part of an online book club that I've recently joined, and though I must confess that I voted for a different book for the group's selection, I am so glad to have read the novel. (Shoutout to the members of R.E.A.D.!!!)

The plot traces the lives of four best friends who live in the same apartment building.  Indigo, the owner of the apartment building, is the child of a wealthy Nigerian family and the on-again, off-again girlfriend to a superstar NFL player.  As he cheats on her and stalls on putting a ring on her finger, she wavers between him and her ex-boyfriend, an equally famous NBA player. Kwanzaa is a Starbucks barista and college student, trying unsuccessfully to get over her broken engagement and cheating fiance.  A chance encounter with a handsome, mysterious customer leads to a wild fling with details that outdo even some of the author's most sensual works!  Destiny is the infamous title character from a previous EJD work, Chasing Destiny.  She is all grown up but still fighting the demons of her tragic past.  Ericka is a divorced teacher, left by her pastor husband while fighting cancer.  She is also fighting a strong, hidden crush on Destiny's father.  The novel is divided into sections based on each character's  birthday, and there is enough drama, romance, and fast-paced dialogue to keep readers turning pages well into the wee hours of the morning.

Eric Jerome Dickey is the author of over twenty novels, including the Gideon series, one of my personal favorites.  He also penned a series of graphic novels featuring the Black Panther and Storm, the African weather witch of X-men fame.  He hails from Memphis, but now makes his home as a nomad, traveling from place to place.  Learn more about him and his works at his website.

This novel takes readers on a roller coaster ride of emotions.   I laughed out loud literally at the antics of the women and their sharp wit and brutal humor.  I cried with them as they faced heartbreak and disappointment.  I raged against men who broke their hearts, and in Ericka's case-a bitter mother who was much better at dishing out bitterness and animosity than love.  On the other hand, I marveled at the strength of the relationship between Indigo and her mother.  As they discussed relationships, her mother told her, "you are better than me, Indigo.  You are better than me in every way.  You are the woman I admire and adore.  Don't let a man kiss you and turn a princess into a frog."  I cheered for Destiny as she fought to reclaim her life and stop living in the shadows.  I nearly stood up and shouted "Amen" when she told a man from her past, "I am a black woman, overworked, stressed, abused, and I have demons.  Oppression, fear, being marginalized creates demons.  Every black person in America should have demons, or they are spiritually dead.  You'd have to be crazy to not have a breakdown."  The novel is not all serious conversation, however.  Those EJD fans who turn to his books for the spine-tingling, graphic sex scenes will not be disappointed.  There is truly something for everyone in this novel.  This is a true gem from a beloved author.  EJD certainly rose to the occasion with this work.

Review of Across Great Divides by Monique Roy

Roy, M. (2013).  Across Great Divides.

Across Great Divides by Monique Roy is a featured novel in a Closed the Cover blog tour and is also a part of a Rafflecopter giveaway (see bottom of this post). This novel spans three continents during the World War II era, starting in Berlin, Germany as notorious dictator Adolf Hitler begins his rise to power, and was inspired by the author's grandparents, Jews who fled his regime.

Eva and Inge are beautiful, identical twins living idyllic lives as teenagers in Berlin.  They are the daughters of Oskar, a master jeweler and Helene, the elegant matriarch who holds her family together with a quiet, dignified strength.  Eva's best friend Trudy is an integral part of their lives, even eating with the family during the Shabbat-the weekly Sabbath meal, even though she is not Jewish.  Things quickly take a turn for the worst, however, when Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany and begins his reign of terror against the Jews.  Trudy is forbidden by her family to associate with the twins and eventually becomes a part of the Nazi Youth program.  The twins' younger brother Max, becomes actively involved with a Jewish underground resistance group, against their parents' wishes.  Max urges his family to flee the country but Oskar, like many Jews of the time, resists.  However, after the terrifying events of Kristallnacht in which Jewish shops and synagogues are vandalized and destroyed, Oskar finally realizes that his family is not safe in Germany anymore.  Forced to sell his business, he manages to hide some precious diamonds but is unable to keep a beautiful, very expensive emerald necklace from being confiscated by the Nazis.  Ironically, Max's underground connections are able to secure the necessary visas for the family to flee to Antwerp, Belgium.  During their flight, they are joined by a young refugee named Isaac, who quickly falls in love with and marries Inge. While in Antwerp, Eva also falls in love, with a young man named Carmen. The war quickly spreads to Belgium and they are forced to flee again, this time to Rio de Janeiro, and finally to South Africa.  Carmen and Oskar establish themselves in the growing diamond industry in the country, Max enrolls in university, and the twins live as homemakers.  However, the ugly stain of discrimination once again rears its head, this time in the form of apartheid, which affects Eva's maid and brings back horrible memories of their experiences as Jews in Nazi Germany.   Throughout their travels and experiences, the emerald necklace continues to play a part in their lives through the people that they meet, keeping them connected "across great divides".

Monique Roy has a degree in Journalism from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and is the author of a children's book called Once Upon a Time in Venice.  Born in Cape Town, South Africa, she was inspired to write Across Great Divides by her grandparents, European Jews who fled the Nazi regime. To find out more about Ms. Roy, read the author Q & A on the Author Interviews page of this blog.

Across Great Divides handles an often-told narrative in a unique way.  While the story does begin in Berlin and includes experiences of discrimination that the family faces as Jews, the bulk of the plot is centered around their flight to different continents and their interactions with one another. Ms. Roy does a great job of quietly drawing comparisons between the Holocaust and the South African system of apartheid by showing the human impact of those who suffered under these regimes, as well as showing the irony of Oskar and Helene's acceptance of the apartheid system despite the discrimination that they themselves faced.  Across Great Divides a briskly paced,  brightly detailed story of love, family, survival against overwhelming odds, and the struggle to maintain hope even in the most dire of circumstances.

Click here to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for a copy of the novel:

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