A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood
Starred review from May 31, 2021
Journalist and novelist Turner (Only Twice I’ve Wished for Heaven) delivers an immersive and often heartbreaking portrait of life in the historic Bronzeville section of Chicago. Raised in Chicago in the 1970s, Turner traces her roots in Bronzeville to her great-grandparents, who left Mississippi during the first wave of the Great Migration. Interweaving her own journey from childhood to adulthood with those of her best friend, Debra, and her younger sister, Kim, Turner sets the trio’s personal tragedies and triumphs against the backdrop of a post–civil rights era landscape that saw dreams of racial equality dashed. She vividly describes the community’s deteriorating conditions, including crowded schools, escalating drug and gang violence, and crumbling buildings, as well as more intimate matters, including her discovery of her journalistic vocation, Kim’s teenage pregnancy and descent into alcoholism, and Debra’s path into drug use, which resulted in her incarceration for murder. Throughout, Turner’s grandmother, mother, and aunt exhibit the resilience and strength of many Black women, a theme that takes its most affecting form in Debra’s rehabilitation. By turns beautiful, tragic, and inspiring, this is a powerful testament to the bonds of sisterhood and the importance of understanding the conditions that shape a person’s life choices. Agent: Steve Ross, the Steve Ross Agency.
Starred review from July 1, 2021
In this absorbing memoir, journalist and novelist Turner (An Eighth of August) presents a story of second chances: "Who gets them, who doesn't, who makes the most of them." Turner, her younger sister Kim, and her best friend Debra grew up in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, a center of Black business and culture. The three girls were close and spent time together exploring the neighborhood, finding treasures, and planning for their futures. As the girls grew up, their paths began to diverge; Debra moved away, Kim began skipping school, and Turner focused on academics. As Turner began her career in journalism and settled down with her family, Debra and Kim both struggled with addiction and experienced devastating life events. With sensitivity, Turner examines all three of their lives in an attempt to understand how three girls starting in a similar place ended up on varying life paths. The author's engaging writing will keep readers turning the pages. VERDICT Turner shares Debra's and Kim's stories with aplomb, celebrating the bright moments of their lives while honestly depicting their suffering. She has a stellar ability to present the personalities of her loved ones, especially the women in her life. This memoir is a compelling testament to the power of women's relationships.--Anitra Gates, Erie Cty. P.L., PA
Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 15, 2021
Journalist and novelist Turner tells a story of second chances, lost and found, in a memoir centered on the decline of Chicago's once-storied Bronzeville section. The author, a former Chicago Tribune reporter who grew up in Bronzeville in the 1970s, when Chicago seemed poised to offer its Black residents opportunities it had denied them since her great-grandparents had moved to the city from Mississippi during the Great Migration. But Turner and her younger sister, Kim, and best friend, Debra, stumbled frequently as they worked toward college or other goals amid drug- and gang-related crimes and a decaying infrastructure. In this heartfelt and well-informed but overlong memoir, the author entwines their stories with those of the three strong women who were "the original three girls from Bronzeville": her mother, Aunt Doris, and her maternal grandmother, who said, "Low-income people don't have to be low-ceilinged people." Turner eventually found professional fulfillment in a high-flying journalism career, but her life remained profoundly marked by tragedies involving Kim, an alcoholic and teenage mother, and Debra, who smoked crack and went to prison for murder. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, Turner reconstructs decades-old scenes and verbatim dialogue that build on stories she first told in the Tribune and on NPR. The high point of her narrative comes in an extended account of Debra's successful reconciliation meeting in prison with relatives of the man she killed. Some of the potential impact of the book leaches away in repetitive or overwritten accounts of the author's conversations with sources, which often include needless details or pleasantries such as, "Thank you for making time for me." Nonetheless, this book offers hope to anyone who wonders whether, after a terrible crime, attempts at reconciliation are worth it. Turner doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties, but she leaves no doubt that--when the process works--the gains are vast. A sensitive tale of tragedy and redemption against formidable odds.
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Starred review from July 1, 2021
Novelist and former Chicago Tribune columnist Turner brings to the fore three wildly different, profoundly connected girls who lived at the heart of the African American hub in Chicago known as Bronzeville during the 1970s. In a subsidized high-rise building, Turner, her younger sister, Kim, and her best friend, Debra, forge a tight bond that will resonate throughout their lives. Despite the support of loving maternal relatives, the three girls absorb the brunt of strained family relations and disruptive life changes that will long influence their choices and actions. Through adolescence and into adulthood, the three go through harrowing ordeals (molestation, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, incarceration) that test their faith in each other and in themselves. While Turner is able to find a way forward, reaping the fruits, however bitter, of her experiences, Debra and Kim are captive to more precarious trajectories. Turner vividly recounts the neighborhood's atmosphere and history, framing the ongoing struggles of Black women. This look-back echoes the heartache of Jeff Hobbs' The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace (2014) in its tale of insurmountable difficulties thwarting hopes and dreams. Turner's candid memoir of entwined yet divergent lives is a probing inquiry into fate, frailty, tenacity, and ultimately, redemption.
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