#BookReview: Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile

Why would anyone leave the bright lights and big city feel of Los Angeles for a small, “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,” town in southern Louisiana? If you’re Charley Bordelon, it’s because you’ve inherited eight hundred acres of sugarcane land from your late father; land you didn’t even know existed before his death. Far braver and more confident than most, Charley takes on the farm, doubters and her own fears.

With Charley, Baszile deals with the socioeconomic and racial divides of America. Coming from L.A., Charley is already an odd duck in Louisiana. Adding her privileged upbringing, her brown skin  and the fact that she's a woman in a world dominated by white men sets her apart from the rest even more. Immediately the other farmers, and even some of her family members, doubt that she’ll be able to plant and harvest the fields together in time.

While Charley’s story is interesting, I was much more interested in that of her derelict brother, Ralph Angel. Where Charley is educated, sensible and by the book, Ralph Angel is spur of the moment, resentful and spontaneous. From the time we meet him, he makes bad decisions but refuses to take the blame for them. It’s always someone else’s fault. As we learn his back story, it becomes evident that his resentment of Charley (and the world, in general) comes from a feeling that Charley was given opportunities that he wasn’t. Wallowing in a whirl of self-pity, coupled with coddling by Miss Honey, their grandmother, Ralph Angel was destined to become the terror that he ends up being. In a society where we love our sons and raise our daughters, it seems that Miss Honey is the biggest culprit in how Ralph Angel has turned out and, fully recognizing this, continues to make excuses for him and see the goodness in him where all others see the truth. 

The descriptions of the cane fields and Louisiana reminded me of Attica Locke’s wonderful book, The Cutting Season. Both ladies have done a great job of bringing the fields and bayous of Louisiana to life. I can’t recommend Queen Sugar enough.

384pp
Published: February 2014

#BookReview: Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons & Love Affairs by Pearl Cleage

It has occurred to me that I have no close woman friends with whom to share confidences, fears, lusts, dreams. I am keeping an entire area of woman thoughts tucked away with no outlet or possibility of exchange! - Pearl Cleage

When I initially started the latest from the fabulous Pearl Cleage, I think I expected it to be a letter to her daughter or some kind of "do this, don't do that" list.  Instead, I got so much more.  My acquaintance and fascination with Cleage and her work started back in the 90s.  I guess I never really gave any thought to how she, or any other author, arrived at the point in their lives where they had enough experiences to write about anything.  But Mother Pearl has lived!

Pulling bits and pieces from her personal journals, Things I Should Have Told My Daughter, feels like a mother introducing her real self to her daughter.  I think as daughters, we sometimes forget that our mothers existed in the world before us and lived lives that we can't imagine.  We realize they're human, but forget that they're not just mothers.  It's wonderful to watch Cleage go back through her journals and expose herself as a woman, sister, daughter and lover.

She's an unashamed feminist.

“If women said they were sorry only when we really meant it, most of our conversations would be cut in half.”

She's an fierce womanist.

“Note on Ms.: It has some fairly decent articles, but they are all/all/all, down to the last woman, middle class and overwhelmingly white…The women working on the magazine all try to identify with non-white women and say that among women “there are no barriers,” but the only black woman in the whole issue is a black welfare mother who is in the fucking back of the magazine. She is obviously being used as a token.”

Her thoughts on love:

"I don't think you can love a man and be free.  There is too much bullshit."

“Whew. This must be Joe Louis love. If you not careful, it will knock you out."

And sexuality:

"Some people like to do sit ups in the morning. I like to have orgasms."

You shouldn't just buy this book because of all of the quotable quotes (I haven't even included a fourth of what I highlighted as I read it).  You should buy it because as you watch Cleage go from a young twentysomething recruiting black grad students to teach at southern black colleges to a speechwriter for Maynard Jackson, when you see her hanging with her friend Shirley and realize that it's the same Shirley Jackson that goes on to become the mayor of Atlanta, you're witnessing history unfold before your eyes.  Cleage is witty and wise from start to finish, writing and sharing her thoughts unabashedly; what an absolute treasure for anyone lucky enough to stumble upon her words.

“This morning, we saw a big roach in the kitchen. “Kill it,” I say, “I don’t kill roaches,” he says, “they have powerful karma.” “Roaches,” I answer, swatting at it with my house shoe, “are the only creatures on earth who have no karma whatsoever. Who ever heard of roach karma? In fact,” I continued, “God doesn’t even admit to creating roaches. He looked up at the nasty little things one day and said, who created this motherfucka?”

320pp
Published: April 2014
Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.