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PRODUCT
Memphis: A Novel
Product Description:
Price:
$6.99
Detailed description:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY• A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s discovery that she has the power to change her family’s legacy.
“A rhapsodic hymn to Black women.”—The New York Times Book Review
“I fell in love with this family, from Joan’s fierce heart to her grandmother Hazel’s determined resilience. Tara Stringfellow will be an author to watch for years to come.”—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone
LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Boston Globe, NPR, BuzzFeed, Glamour, PopSugar
Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.
As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger—that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush.
Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love.
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Product group:
Categories: Best Books of 2024 So Far
Product name:
Memphis: A Novel
Price:
$6.99
Cliente Kindle –
One of the best books of this year. What a beautiful journey. Such atmosphere…it felt like being in memphis. Marvelous!
DixieAl –
This story of black lives centered in Memphis tells the strength of women in the face of racism, poverty, marital failure, rival gangs, religious doubt, catfish fries, rape, imprisonment, and their struggles to overcome, which they do. Beautifully written.
barbara –
This book starts a little too dramatically for me, but it calms down, and ends up being a really good read.
Lovely words , very sincere and deep characters. I really enjoyed ,t
Amazon Customer –
for women everywhere suffering, knowing, heartbroken, loving, raging, tending, hoping and laughing. we are together even when we are alone.
Amazon Kunde –
Ich bin weder PoC noch eine Frau.
Und dennoch könnte ich mich aufgrund der Schreibweise komplett einfühlen. Ich konnte nicht aufhören zu lesen! Auch die zeitversetzte Erzählweise der Hauptprotagonisten fand ich super. Sollte man jemand sein, der nur sehr langsam Bücher liest, kann ich mir vorstellen, dass diese Art der Kapitelanordnung auf Dauer sehr anstrengend sein kann.
Karla W –
This is a good book. We read it in book club and all 6 of us enjoyed it. The characters were interesting & well-developed with my favs being Joan & Mya. The story was well written & held our interest. We had a good time discussing the book. Highly recommend.
errin edwards –
I recommend
FleaB –
This book is so very well written. I felt Memphis in the summer. I heard the noise and the music and smelled the food. This novel is a delight to the senses but a drain on the heart.
Amy S Tinson –
To be honest, this was a bit of a tough read.
‘Memphis’ is a powerful story, woven over several decades, about three generations of North women. It is a tale of family, love & race, all written together with beautiful settings & descriptions.
However, it is also steeped in darkness & difficulty, touching on subjects (racism, rape, abuse to name a few) that can be hard to swallow (or read).
I also sometimes struggle when reading books like this one, simply due to my own lack of understanding from my white privileged upbringing. But as the chapters went on, I found myself drawn into Memphis & the women & people encompassed in it & it reminded me exactly why I DO pick up these books in the first place – to try & learn & understand what it might be like to be a different race, colour or creed.
Whilst this was a compelling book, it was rather tough to follow as well, as it would change narration & time periods often.
Overall, ‘Memphis’ was well worth the read & very deserving of it’s literary awards.
The rain coat was a good buy. good materials –
The book was awesome, it will keep you wanting to learn more and more,
Joy R –
Story was good. However the constant going back and forth in time was annoying. I had to bookmark the family tree page and keep referring to it. There were some unbelievable parts as well…one how did Myron build this house by himself? 2. What mom would move her daughter in with her the kid who raped her? 3. That august would just throw up her hands when Derrick started with the gangs. 4 that Joan would go visit Derrick and send him pictures. 5. How old is Ms dawn??? I liked the writing style so I may read another book by this author.
Kathi –
I have become a fan of little white girl Jenna Bush’s book selections. I love how she is giving so many Black and Brown and underserved authors a spotlight. This is the first one I have not rated four stars, and it had a lot to do with the author doing so much jumping around through time that I struggled to keep up. I enjoy a bit of time jumping, but at this level it’s distracting. Stringfellow is clearly a storyteller at heart, and this story is interesting. The strong Black female characters are well drawn. They aren’t perfect, which makes them even better. I do feel like Mya has a story that we did not get to hear. Alas, in all the jumping around, none of the chapters were hers.
The writing is beautiful; the author draws pictures with her words, and certainly understands character development. This may be the reason why I felt something was lacking. I wanted more about what happened to and with these women along with knowing about who they were. The story of August’s father seemed to be hastily created, as if the author forgot to talk about him and then remembered before going to press. The book is worth reading, but in my opinion, not up to the standards of Jenna’s other picks. 3.5 stars.
AM Kipp –
Told from the perspective of multiple generations, at different times, of a family of women from Memphis. Here we meet Joan, Miriam, August, Hazel, and Della, as well as other characters that enrich, weave, and shape their lives. History is woven into these pages, along with different perspectives of times and situations. After all, what looks the same to a 10 year old and a 35 year old? Time also shifts things. What people experience and think, of past and present, as they grow older. What it means to be a black person, but especially a black woman, in the heart and heat of Memphis. What experiences will shape each of these strong, gifted black women?
I genuinely can’t say enough about this book. It’s not overly long, but it is rich in everything. 30 pages in, I was laughing at some things, but I also knew I would be crying before long, and I was right. This is beautiful, and sad, and funny, and real. I loved the author mixing in bits of history as she told this story from all of these different angles. Even when you guess at what is going to happen, or what has already happened, it still grabs you by the heart when it does. The characters are human, flawed and wonderful. Learning as they go. Finding the beauty in the anger. If I could give this more stars, I would. I couldn’t put the book down, the plot and the author’s unique storytelling kept me riveted.
In addition, this version has a poem for Gianna Floyd, a recipe, some background on the author and the book, and pages of wonderful thank yous. It also has questions for a discussion with your book club. I hope Tara M. Stringfellow publishes more books, she has a big fan in me.