Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Yesterday, while chopping onions for dinner, I cut my finger with my (quite sharp and large) knife. It bled enough that when I got into the shower and the water hit the bandaid/tape on my finger it looked a bit like a watered down version of “Psycho” in there. I took off my bandaid to change it just now and decided to leave it off a bit and let the skin around the cut dry, but it’s therefore unprotected and I’m typing gingerly as a result. (Of course, if I’d left it on together with the tape around the outside, my finger would probably have been too big to hit one key at a time, so there’s that.) Hence, my review of Gone Crazy in Alabama is going to be shorter than I’d planned when I finished it; on the other hand, the cut hurts less today than I was afraid it would, given that the knife cut through the top part of my fingernail.

Short version, then. Gone Crazy is the third novel about the Gaither sisters, and after each I’ve been torn between ‘that’s a solid and well-written story’ and ‘but the adults want to be so much more likable!’. Cecile is always frustrating, and in this third book her journey to Alabama and stance once she gets there clash with her maternal legacy of abandonment and complete lack of nurturing. (f one considers her background, I suppose it doesn’t NOT make sense, but as a parent and teacher, it still makes me crazy.) Pa irritates me as well, although I suppose he’s a product of his time, and Big Ma makes me nuts in a different way. As for Ma Charles and Miss Trotter, well–there’s plenty of dysfunction here to go around. I can’t really speak to whether this is an accurate picture of African-American culture and family life in the late ’60s; it may well be. (If the responsibility placed on Delphine is a product of that, than that is what it is, although that bothers me as well.) For me, the Gaither sisters trilogy is compelling but frequently frustrating and/or upsetting, especially as a parent; I’d be interested to know what its target audience thinks. As for you–you’ll have to make up your own minds about this one! And that, I’m afraid, is that; as book it probably deserves a bit more from a review, but I’m trying not to push my finger. Have a lovely afternoon!