I read this book through Netgalley. It will be published on July 11, 2017. Preorder your copy now.
I
am fascinated by historical fiction that takes place in my lifetime. On the one
hand, it takes me back to my youth where I can re experience the events I lived
through. On the other, novels like this show me this time through the eyes of
someone who inhabited a vastly different reality. Because of this, they expand
my perceptions so that I experience and understand my own history anew.
Sophie,
her older sister, Lily, and their parents live in Los Angeles in 1965. They are
a well to do black family who have just moved into a primarily white neighbourhood. Their
parent's relationship is tenuous. Both are well educated professionals. Their
absent, philandering father is a defence attorney, and their controlling mother
runs an art gallery. Sophie has a lot to deal with as she anticipates
Lily leaving at the end of the summer to go away to college.
The
story begins with the family hiring a new housekeeper, Mrs Baylor. Sophie and
Mrs Baylor don't hit it off. Sophie misses their previous housekeeper while Mrs
Baylor assumes that Sophie thinks she is better than her because her skin is
lighter.
Skin
color, and shades of color play a significant role in this novel. Lily passes
as white and manages to get a job in a salon that is reputed to not hire
colored people. When Lily begins a relationship with Nathan, Mrs Baylor's son,
their mother does not approve. She claims that it is because they are too different,
but the reality is that Nathan, who is a student at Berkeley, has darker skin.
The two continue a clandestine relationship that Sophie keeps secret. Nathan
introduces the girls, both advertently and inadvertently, to new ways of
looking at themselves in relation to the white world around them. The backdrop
of the Watts Riots show them that no matter how well off they are, and where
they live, they are not immune to the racism that surrounds them.
Sophie's
best friend, Jennifer, is a white girl who lives across the street. She sticks
up for Sophie when a group of other white girls reveal their racism. When
Jennifer befriends one of these girls, Sophie begins to understand that
Jennifer really doesn't understand what life is like for her.
Karen
English has created a brilliant cast of complex characters. They are fully
realized, nuanced people, flaws and all. She manages to highlight their
humanity, no matter what happens. I appreciate that Jennifer and her family try
hard to not see skin color as an issue, but that we also understand how
impossible this is. It's only in the past few years that I have come to see my
own ignorance in claiming to not see this difference.
This
is an important coming of age novel. Sophie has a lot to come to terms with:
who she is and wants to be, her changing family circumstances, her sister
leaving home, and what it means to her be a person of colour. At the same time,
it's sure to educate and open the eyes of readers as well.
The
best books are those that transform the way you see the world.
This is one of
those.
It begs to be paired with The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.
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