Remembered

by Yvonne Battle-Felton

Paper Book, 2019

Status

Available

Call number

813/.6

Genres

Collection

Fiction

Publication

London : Little, Brown Book Group , 2019.

Description

Fiction. African American Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML: It is 1910 and Philadelphia is burning. The last place Spring wants to be is in the run-down, colored section of a hospital surrounded by the groans of sick people and the ghost of her dead sister. But as her son Edward lays dying, she has no other choice. There are whispers that Edward drove a streetcar into a shop window. Some people think it was an accident, others claim that it was his fault, the police are certain that he was part of a darker agenda. Is he guilty? Can they find the truth? All Spring knows is that time is running out. She has to tell him the story of how he came to be. With the help of her dead sister, newspaper clippings, and reconstructed memories, she must find a way to get through to him. To shatter the silences that governed her life, she will do everything she can to lead Edward home..… (more)

Media reviews

The Guardian (UK)

emancipated slave Spring is narrating her family history to her son as he lies on his deathbed in a debut novel that deftly explores generational trauma and the nature of enterprise, and gives a perspective on slavery not often explored: what happens directly after “freedom”. In style and

theme, the most obvious comparison is with Toni Morrison’s Beloved and its evocation of “rememory”, but narrative is less silky and sometimes brutal. Still, her characters get under your skin.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member moosenoose

“Most of the jobs I get, I get cuz I was a slave…Most of the jobs I lost. I lost for telling the truth.”

This book was confusing, in both the description and the plot. The synopsis described a mother watching over her dying son in 1910 Philadelphia. Yet in reality it spanned the period of the

American Civil War and slavery, with very little relating to Philadelphia or 1910. Whilst I expected a plot built around racial tensions, the facts of the historical account recounted by the mother did not tie into the ‘current day’ events of 1910 Philadelphia. Obviously, the prejudices and hatred still existed, but they were separate stories that did not gel.

Being under 300 pages, this was a short book, but there were far too many characters who appeared and then disappeared without much input. Deaths or disappearances were not expanded upon nor fully explained, and the pace was not consistent. This constant change of character and side-story did little to hold my attention. I’ve read many books (fiction and non-fiction alike) based on the barbarities of white privilege and am always left ashamed, embarrassed and angry. Yet this did not hit the nerve in the way it should have, which was disheartening.

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Physical description

293 p.; 23 cm

ISBN

9780349700489

Barcode

91100000188346

DDC/MDS

813/.6

813/.6

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