Read Receipts 002
The Seven Daughters of Dupree, My Parents’ Marriage, and Unburnable.
We all have an inheritance.
If we’re lucky it’s property or a prized family recipe.
Sometimes it’s a parent’s good looks.
Often it’s things we carry unknowingly, like how to love and who is deserving of the truth. These things, while invisible, can be sticky, requiring a lifetime to carve one’s self from the murky footings of previous generations. And still, even with the best of intentions, trap doors of familiarity remain embedded in the path.
Self determination is as personal as it is ubiquitous and in The Seven Daughters of Dupree, My Parents’ Marriage and Unburnable autonomy is not without challenge.
With settings in American, West African, and Caribbean cultures, respectfully, characters battle the hooks of the past in hopes of a brighter future.
The Seven Daughters of Dupree
About
Tatiana (Tati), like most fourteen-year-olds, thinks her mother, Nadia, is all in her business while not revealing much of her own. Chiefly, the identity of Tati’s father, a source of tension within their otherwise close relationship. Tati’s quest to get answers through secret keeping is but the latest stop in a long line of women who hoped silence would be preservation for themselves and those they love. The past becomes not so distant when each generation is finally able to learn from the last.
My Thoughts
I know a novel is really good when I’m still curious about characters long after I’ve closed the book. Williams created women who are very messy, very human, and all deeply relatable. I know many of them. One with a stiff upper lip, one looking for love in all the wrong places, one who is heartbroken, one holding on a little tighter to what remains after loss. Like real life, not everyone gets a happy ending but it’s exciting to root for characters as they struggle under the weight of their responsibilities and find comfort in the hands that have come before and after them.
Best Part
Towards the end of the book Williams makes a style choice to preserve the dignity of a character. Cool points to her for the respect shown.
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My Parents’ Marriage
About
Kokui has no interest in following in the footsteps of her parents when it comes to love. However, creating something she’s never seen before, an honest, loving, relationship, proves harder than anticipated. Her idealism meets the jagged teeth of reality as she tries to hold her marriage together across social class, migration, and devastation.
My Thoughts
No marriage is perfect but witnessing a toxic union will have you making silent promises to avoid a similar situation. What we focus on, however, is what we imitate. Family, therefore, can be a launch pad, a crutch, or a downfall. Sometimes all three at once, when it comes to love. Brew-Hammond demonstrates want is a powerful thing as long as it is backed up with action.
Best Part
Cheating behavior gets called out when a friend’s husband was being flirty with his mistress. We all deserve someone that has our backs when we are not around.
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Unburnable
About
Twenty years have passed since Lillian left Dominica for the United States yet, not much has changed for all the time gone. Eventually, with the support of a colleague, she returns to learn the truth of her family and in the process uncovers the history of an island.
My Thoughts
There’s so much beauty in folklore. What is blended, carried across oceans, then preserved on the tongue through oral history. The keepers of culture matter. Telling one’s story protects lineage, especially when celebrating different dialects and accents.
This book puts the diaspora on its back, for that we should all be so grateful.
Best Part
The magic of language and the way things get lost in translation.
You just gotta read it.
You won’t be disappointed.
If you found comfort or clarity here, someone else might too.
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TODAY’S TIDBIT
About a month and a half remains to view Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s, Many A Moonlit Caveat, at the Jack Shainman Gallery.
I first fell in love with her creations at the Whitney Museum’s “Edges of Ailey” exhibition, last year. Known for her use of shadow to provide grounding and emotional weight, this exhibition delivers eight pieces of moody storytelling.
LET ME KNOW
-Go Knicks!
- What are some of your favorite intergenerational novels?
-I’ve been really into mortuary science lately. Any genres you’ve grown to enjoy unexpectedly?
-My nail game poppin or nah?
I haven’t had time to get into The Seven Daughters of Dupree. Maybe I will before the end of the year.
Mortuary Science? What prompted your interest?
I've been looking forward to reading The Seven Daughters of Dupree. Mortuary science, you say? Do tell us more. Nail game poppin'.