Status
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
"Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench. Montgomery, Alabama, 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies. But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn-down one-room cabin, she's shocked to learn that her new patients, India and Erica, are children-just eleven and thirteen years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black, and for those handling the family's welfare benefits, that's reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica, and their family into her heart. Until one day she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened, and nothing will ever be the same for any of them. Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace, and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten. That must not be forgotten. Because history repeats what we don't remember"--… (more)
User reviews
Moving between 2016 and 1973, first person narrator Civil Townsend tells the story of an experience some fifty years in her past that continues to haunt her life and to influence every decision she makes. The setting is Montgomery, Alabama, 1973, a time and place still steeped in prejudice and racial injustice. Civil is a young black nurse stepping into her first job at the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, a Federal agency whose clients were mostly from poor black families.
The setting created by Perkins-Valdez is remarkable for its verisimilitude. A native Montgomerian myself, I was quickly drawn back to 1973, to a Montgomery inhabited by black families, many of them impoverished, a few relatively affluent; and by white people, many motivated by ingrained, often paternalistic, racism, others by idealistic passion for bringing real change to Alabama. The well-paced narrative moving between past and present kept me immersed in the unfolding events and in the development of Civil's character as she struggled to deal with them. And the theme of the destroying presence of racial and sexual injustice and its enduring impact on those caught up in it is as timely now as it was forty-eight years ago.
Take My Hand should be read and appreciated and remembered, not only because it is based on a significant landmark case that advanced women's fight for the right to control their own bodies, but also because it is a well written, compelling, highly readable novel. Anyone who enjoys reading southern fiction, reading about the civil rights movement and/or the women's movement, or just reading a good novel with strong character development and a heartrending plot should immediately add Take My Hand to their TBR.
(Thank you to Bookbrowse and to NetGalley for this ARC)
This was really good. I wasn’t surprised to read, at the end, that this was based on a real life story of two young girls that ultimately led to a trial and changes in laws. I was surprised to learn that Depo-Provera was available in the 70s. I hadn’t realized it had been around that long. There was a current-day story (2016) to go with the ‘70s flashbacks, but I’m not sure the current storyline really added anything to it – at least not for me. I did feel like, although Civil was trying to help, it got to a point where there was a bit too much overreach. That being said, she really did help that family.
A brilliantly written book that describes evil, poverty and conditions that most will find difficult to believe. It reminds us how government agencies and others have used their power to control people and achieve their goals. Have the medical methods and experiments with people really changed in the last hundred years? Does any government have the right to make choices for us or is it our right to make our own choices for our lives? Experimentation starts with those who are considered lower class, weak, poor, uneducated, and will eventually come for all of us except those considered the elite. I appreciated the author sharing all the long lasting impacts on each person and each family involved.
Ms Perkins-Valdez has written a story based on real history that makes it clear that we must watch for any government treatments, medicine, and experiments, especially those forced without any real informed consent.
For anyone who is not aware of what our government was capable of in the past and is capable of today, don't miss Take My Hand and the author’s note. Beware your eyes will be opened and this story will haunt you.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book. Unforgettable! Bravo! 5 Stars
But this story is loosely based on true events that didn't happen that long ago. To say the least, it can be less than comfortable to think of a number of people who were wrong or wronged in an atrocity like this as people who are still alive today, and abuses like it did not come to an end back in the far, far history of old, twentieth-century America.
Even coming to this story with prior knowledge of the real-life events it addresses, I still cringed while reading about the abominable Tuskegee Syphilis Study/Experiment on Black men, the "coerced sterilization" of disadvantaged women (and girls) in the United States, and "the history of medical experimentation on Black people."
I suspected this book wouldn't be an easy read for me, and it wasn't.
I read it anyway.
Now, what I was glad to find here is that this book is well-written fiction by a skilled novelist. Granted, some of the story's points are a bit repetitive; I found the characters pretty difficult to connect with and wound up feeling neutral about the heroine at times when I wanted to feel more; and it seems this novel just misses ending on an especially downbeat, even rather pessimistic note.
Still, the characters are layered, and the story critically explores a range of effects on human bodies, minds, and hearts in the midst of some complex issues. Yes, the issues of ethnicity, class, sex, healthcare, and justice are complex, and in light of the need for further social change in these areas, we accordingly need novels like this.
Wow, I am still horrified at what happened to those two little girls. I am glad that Civil was willing to fight back. I thought this was a very interesting and well paced read. The modern day story wasn't really necessary, an epilogue would have served just as well. I found myself researching sterilization and the Tuskegee Syphilis Studies after reading this book. I hope it brings attention to both of these horrifying issues. Overall, 4 out of 5 stars.
This book is extremely important, and sadly, forced sterilization is still prevalent today, including immigrants crossing the southern border being involuntarily sterilized. I thought the author brought a unique voice to this novel in telling the story of the desperate living situations, and how these children and their families were misled. Everyone should read this.
Based on the true story of poor minority women and how they were treated by the federal government. On the heels of the Tuskegee experiment, this new scandal is just as terrible as children were also victimized. The horrors that were inflicted on these poor women ranged from uninformed sterilization to tubal ligations that the women believed could be reversed.
I had heard wonderful things about this book and I was afraid that it would not live up to the hype but it very much did. This was a well-researched, well-written account of what could have happened when the government's behavior was discovered. I look forward to reading more thought provoking historical fiction from Dolen Perkins-Valdez.
It's 2016 and Civil Townsend, now in retirement, feels compelled to share with her daughter, a piece of dark history in her life that took place in the early 1970s, when she took a job at a family planning clinic in Alabama…
Civil is fresh out of school,
Civil is shocked by their near homeless living conditions, and by the age of the girls- one of which was only eleven years old and hadn't even started menstruating.
Believing she was doing the right thing, she intervenes on the family's behalf, pushing the boundaries of her job description.
But she also begins to question the healthcare decisions made on behalf of these girls and others like them, once again taking matters into her own hands.
This novel is based on shocking true events, where the government, through the guise of free healthcare, manipulated both the poor women the clinic catered to, as well as the healthcare professionals who thought they were doing the best thing for their patients.
Emotional, terrifying and powerful- this rich novel remembers shocking atrocities, but also serves as an eye-opening and poignant cautionary tale.
A must read!
Although I appreciated the story and the revelations of these shameful acts in the past, I felt a little like this was non-fiction at times because the characters felt flat to me.
The chapters
Physician and Hospital Requirements: 32 states require an abortion to be performed by a licensed physician. 20 states require an abortion to be performed in a hospital after a specified point in the pregnancy, and 17 states require the involvement of a second physician after a specified point.
Civil’s father is so reminiscent of my father and husband. I truly adored his character. I prized how she was patient with her mother and cared for her despite her mental health. The familiar landscapes in the novel resonated with me, Wetumpka, crepe myrtles, cotton fields, Montgomery, Selma, the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tide versus Auburn Tigers, and the Magic City Classic in Birmingham. The major crux of this whole novel was defined in chapter 31, when the testimony was brought before a subcommittee in Washington DC. There were a lot of jaw dropping moments while reading this historical fiction. A constant page turner.
You can anticipate that there will be disappointments but you wish for the better as you progress in the story. I appreciate the three years of research that the author put into writing this novel, and taking creative licenses to imagine what the nurses had to contend with. Superb character building and historical content. The story took me on an emotional journey. This was a five star read for me.
In 2016, Dr Civil Townsend, reflects on her time three decades previously when she worked with Montgomery (Alabama) Family Planning. In 1973, she was a nurse and hoping to help women take some control over their destinies. She was particularly involved
Perkins-Valdez took inspiration from a shameful episode in America’s history, when poor, Black people were used as subjects for medical studies without their informed consent.
Additionally, Perkins-Valdez looks at the class distinctions between poor, rural Blacks and the wealthier professional Blacks. Civil belongs to this latter social class and she has to make a conscious effort to hide her judgment of the way her patients live. She behaves compassionately towards them and even risks her career to fight on their behalf, but she has never encountered these conditions and it is difficult for her to hide her reaction.
I was certainly aware of the syphilis study done at Tuskegee, but I was not aware of the studies and policies on birth control and sterilization perpetrated against women of color. Kudos to Perkins-Valdez for shining a light on these policies in our history.
Lauren J Daggett does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. I did get confused a few times when the storyline jumped from 2016 to 1973 and back again. But context usually made it clear in which era the story was taking place.