Rachel's story is revealed slowly throughout the book, and it is also a book about what it means to be biracial, what it means to be uneducated, poor, addicted, what it means to not surrender pride and a sense of self worth. But it is not predictable; it is not full of cliches.
There is also Brick, aka Jamie, aka James who grew up in the projects in Chicago and who runs away when he is 11 years old, whose mother is a prostitute who turns the TV on loudly when the men are over so noises from the bedroom are not as obvious. One day Jamie sees what he initially thinks is an egret fly past his window. He has a Roger Tory Peterson field guide and is captivated by the flight and freedom of birds. But it is not an egret; it is a family.
This book is mostly about Rachel going through adolescence while living with her Grandmother, and it is about her insistence that "color" not define her, and about her wish to "take the long road" and not get drawn into provincialism either through the attitudes of those around her or by making wrong choices. To her the long road means she can do anything she chooses in life instead of accepting the constricted options of her Grandmother's world; she can go anywhere she wants. She also has to somehow preserve her sense of her parents and understand what has happened to her.
When I read a book like this, I learn and understand a bit more about the very complex fabric of the psychosocial blanket that covers America and Americans today, and it helps me try to be a better person.
The book is "the winner of the 2008 Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice."
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