That’s another great joy of a really good novel – the ability to disagree with a character’s choices or actions, but still love them just the same.īeyond the North women, their entire neighborhood was essentially another character. Loving these characters does not mean loving all of their decisions – August in particular I think makes some complicated choices that I understood but also found difficult to accept. Joan and Mya are gifted musicians and artists, and Miriam and August are determined that their generation of North women will actually use their gifts, rather than squander them as August and Miriam fear they may have done. August is regal in her silk kimono, always with a cigarette dangling from her lips. The characters are what really make this book special. More time is spent on the brilliant North women and their various gifts. Content warnings for the abuse within – nothing is too graphically described but you may want to be cautious. I don’t want to share too much about the plot – I think it’s enough to know that there is trauma that begins but does not end with the lynching of their patriarch. The return to her home is fraught because of other events that have transpired, but the two generations of sisters do everything that they can to create their own world as they see fit. In 1995, Miriam returns to the home her father built, this time with her own two daughters in tow, leaving her abusive husband and returning to live with her sister. Myron’s death inspires Hazel to become more revolutionary, and her daughters Miriam and August (born in 1963, her father is suggested but never named) are raised in a household that values fighting for freedom. Ultimately he becomes the first Black homicide detective in the city – and is promptly lynched days later, in 1955, leaving behind a pregnant Hazel. Myron built Hazel a house, brick by brick, in the historic Black suburb of Douglas outside of Memphis. Hazel North married Myron in the 1940s, just before he enlisted to fight in the war. The characters in this novel experience some brutal tragedies, and yet the tone is overall quite hopeful.

For a story of such breadth it’s really quite short, which felt refreshing. This is an example of a multigenerational story, with many different timelines, done well.

Book memphis by tara stringfellow