Review by Booklist Review
Jerkins (Caul Baby, 2021) presents a multigenerational exploration of trauma. At their engagement party, Ardelia's fiancé, Oliver, presents her with a treasured family heirloom, a love letter from an enslaved woman named Tirzah to her beloved, Harrison. Separated by the Civil War, the couple attempts to reunite through the postwar Freedman's Bureau, but when that fails, each eventually marries and raises a family. They never stop loving each other, however, which has consequences for their spouses, children, and descendants. Jerkins follows Harrison and Tirzah and their families from the Reconstruction-era South through the Great Migration to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Ardelia delves further into her own family history, the connections between the thwarted lovers from the letter and her own relationship become increasingly clear. Jerkins' meticulous research brings to life the optimism of the free Black community of Nicodemus, Kansas, and the allure of Chicago for Black southerners. Fans of Honorée Fanonne Jeffers' The Love Songs of W. E. B. DuBois (2021) and Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend (2023) will appreciate Jerkins' lyrical family saga, a novel that will also give book groups much to discuss.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Jerkins (Caul Baby) delivers a plaintive story of a present-day Black couple and their ancestors in the post--Civil War South. In 1865, Union soldier Harrison returns to the plantation where he was enslaved in Natchez, Miss., to look for his beloved Tirzah. Unable to find her, he seeks help from the Freedmen's Bureau. Meanwhile, Tirzah, who is living in Louisiana and working as a schoolteacher, writes letters to Harrison and sends them to the bureau, but they're delayed in reaching him. In a parallel narrative set in 2019 New York City, physician Oliver Benjamin gives his fiancée, Ardelia Gibbs, a family heirloom, one of Tirzah's letters to Harrison. After one of Oliver's patients dies, he retreats emotionally, and Ardelia spends her free time digging through her own family tree, leading to some life-changing discoveries about her and Oliver's ancestors. Jerkins meticulously links Ardelia's and Oliver's stories with those of Tirzah and Harrison, uncovering secrets held by the couple's families and revealing what happened to Tirzah's letters and how one of them managed to be passed down through Oliver's family. The result is a memorable tale of love and legacy. Agent: Monica Odom, Odom Media Management. (Apr.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
New fiction from the bestselling author ofCaul Baby (2021). In 2019, Ardelia Gibbs and Oliver Benjamin are celebrating their engagement on the roof of a restaurant in midtown Manhattan. White linen tablecloths. Floral arches. Sliders and macarons. Nineties soul on the sound system. As the celebration is winding down, Oliver taps his glass to get everyone's attention. He has a gift for his bride-to-be: a letter that has been passed down from generation to generation in his family, a letter written by a woman named Tirzah to a man named Harrison in 1865. After this prologue, the narrative moves back in time to Mississippi in the aftermath of the Civil War, back to the time in which Tirzah sent a letter to her beloved Harrison with no guarantee that he would ever receive it. The couple had been separated and, while the Freedmen's Bureau gave them a way to find each other again, there was little chance of them reconnecting. In the mythic version of the American story, emancipation is a single glorious moment when enslaved people become free. Jerkins makes it very clear that the truth is not nearly so simple as she explores a growing family tree and more than 100 years of history. The journey Jerkins' characters take is similar to the story she shares about her own ancestors in her memoir,Wandering in Strange Lands (2020). In this work of fiction, as in her nonfiction, the author underscores the fact that establishing freedom and protecting freedom is very different from being granted freedom. And by beginning her narrative at a contemporary engagement party, Jerkins foregrounds the unifying power of family and community in creating a Black culture that doesn't just survive, but thrives. A multigenerational exploration of slavery's legacy and the power of Black joy and Black love. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
