east/west/north/south

I’m happy to be paired with another African Canadian woman author, Itah Sadu, in this latest review in the Chronicle Herald.  George Elliott Clarke is a prominent African Canadian author/scholar/poet who teaches at the University of Toronto, but his heart is still in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Whenever he’s asked to review black books, George kindly includes me, which I greatly appreciate since no other book reviewer has reviewed my work in a Canadian newspaper.  Maybe that will change once A Wish After Midnight is re-released early next year.  I’m dying to share the news with everyone, but the publisher has asked that I wait until their official press release goes out later this month.  But it IS going to happen…

I dedicated most of yesterday to reading Carleen Brice’s second novel, Children of the Waters.  Timing is everything, and I was glad to open this book and find a black (biracial) woman restraining herself from going off on an annoying white woman in her African dance class.  I’d just had a nasty encounter with a white woman in a store, and as my cheeks flushed with rage and embarrassment (Q: “Why do they think they can act that way?” A: “Because we LET them, that’s why.”) I tried to talk myself out of making assumptions and generalizations about ALL white women.  It’s so easy to slip into stereotypes, but Brice’s point in this novel (and at her fabulous blog, White Readers Meet Black Authors) is that these comforting “types” don’t always serve us in the end, and Brice boldly lets her characters “go there” in order to expose just how biased we all are.  As with her first novel, Orange Mint & Honey, this second novel has an unexpected ending and two women struggling to forgive and forge ahead.  Billie learns she is pregnant and decides to go ahead at all costs, then learns she was adopted at birth and actually isn’t “black-black” but biracial.  When her white half-sister Trish shows up desperate for family, Billie isn’t sure she can overcome her aversion to white women and the oppressive history of bigotry that led to her adoption in the first place.  Interestingly, there’s very little focus on the birth parents in this novel; I have a friend who’s a transracial adoptee, and her focus is definitely on finding out more about her biological mother and father, particularly their health history since her daughter has a genetic heart defect.  Children of the Waters takes a different approach, stays rooted in the present, and ultimately gives us hope for a future where “alternative” families can connect through compassion and brutally honest communication.

Back to Canada for a moment: my cousin gave me an amazing book for my birthday—Vincent Lam’s Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.  I’ve never been a fan of medical dramas (ok, I used to watch St. Elsewhere back in the day) but this book was strangely riveting despite its detailed descriptions of medical procedures.  The real insight is into the lives and minds of medical interns who cram for exams, overcome personal trauma, and then go on to become practicing doctors who are believed to be infallible.  The short stories share a common cast, and as I neared the end, my heart was positively thumping…Lam himself is a doctor, and so writes somewhat dispassionately about fluids and orifices, but he also captures the desperation not only in the ER but in the lives of overworked, lonely physicians who form lasting connections to their dying patients and one another.  There’s no George Clooney in this book, but trust me—you won’t miss him.