… A long driveway traversed the length of the yard, cut in half by a folding wooden barn gate. The low house was a cat napping in the shade of plum trees. The book, which alternates between voices and time periods, opens in 1995 with 10-year-old Joan stating simply: “The house looked living.” A beat later, she elaborates: They have fled Miriam’s husband, escaping the violence he has inflicted on her for years. The story opens with Miriam North and her daughters Joan and Mya arriving at the family home in Memphis, where Miriam’s sister August still lives. A family tree contains multitudes.īut what of the setting? Readers of Memphis will find no shortage there, either. We can’t know where this family is going to take us, but we know there will be complexity and depth. These names, each with their birth, marriage, and death dates, are spread before the reader like a map.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |