McFadden's Sugar and other titles remain key recent novels of black women's search for, and claiming of, origins; this flawed but engrossing multigenerational saga takes its place among them. Pregnant and chronically "displaced" at 38, Sherry sets off with her mother, Dumpling, on a road trip from Nevada to a family reunion in Georgia. Along the way, she presses the reluctant Dumpling for family stories, intending to write a history as a project of self-discovery. The road trip sections are awkward and perfunctory, but Sherry's transformations of Dumpling's stories-creating a book-within-a-book reaching back 150 years-are terrific. One memorable section relates how a group of slaves cannily manages to take over the plantation from its deranged master; a later section tells of Dumpling's mother, Lillie, who fled Georgia for a wild life in Philadelphia; a puzzling slap Sherry received from Dumpling at a family get-together is also eventually explained. With her deep engagement in the material and her brisk but lyrical prose, McFadden creates a poignant epic of resiliency, bringing Sherry to a well-earned awareness of her place atop the shoulders of her ancestors, those who survived so that she might one day, too. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Nowhere Is a Place
Narrated by Myra Lucretia Taylor
Bernice L. McFaddenUnabridged — 9 hours, 4 minutes
Nowhere Is a Place
Narrated by Myra Lucretia Taylor
Bernice L. McFaddenUnabridged — 9 hours, 4 minutes
Audiobook (Digital)
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Overview
Sherry has struggled all her life to understand who she is, where she comes from, and, most importantly, why her mother slapped her cheek one summer afternoon. The incident has haunted Sherry, and it causes her to dig into her family's past. Like many family histories, it is fractured and reluctant to reveal its secrets; but Sherry remains determined.
In just a few days' time, her extended family will gather for a reunion, and Sherry sets off across the country with her mother, Dumpling, to join them. What Sherry and Dumpling find on their trip is nothing less than the assorted pieces of their family's past. Pulled together, they reveal a history of amazing survival and abundant joy.
A Blackstone Audio production.
Editorial Reviews
Pregnant and unsettled about her life's direction, Sherry, an African American, persuades her mother, Clementine "Dumpling" Jackson, to drive with her from Nevada to Georgia for a family reunion. Sherry, now in her thirties, has been traveling the world, drifting from man to man trying to find where she belongs. She has been mostly estranged from her mother since taking up with a white piano player. Catching him cheating, Sherry leaves Chicago for Mexico, where she meets a new man. To continue her recovery, she wants to write a book in order to understand her past. Once on the road, Sherry shares her plan and asks Dumpling to tell her some of the family tales. McFadden (Sugar) cleverly weaves this story within a story, sparing little of the murder, rape, and incest the family has endured. While emotional, McFadden's prose avoids sentimentality as it traces Sherry's journey to understanding and forgiveness. Myra Lucretia Taylor's reading adds vitality to the story and skillfully captures the dialects of Dumpling and her descendants. Recommended for larger public libraries.-Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
A displaced African-American woman and her estranged mother rediscover their heritage and each other en route to a family reunion in rural Georgia. With a fine new man and baby on the way, free spirit Sherry feels her life is finally on track, but she also realizes she cannot move forward without facing certain events from her past, including an inexplicable moment of violence in her childhood that distanced her from her mother Clementine "Dumpling" Jackson. With reconciliation and resolution on her mind, Sherry convinces her mother to drive with her to their ancestral home of Sandersville, Ga., to attend a family reunion. Along the way, Sherry questions her mother about their shared ancestry in the hopes of writing a family history. The story then shifts to Sherry's imagined version of that history, beginning with her Yamasee Indian great-grandmother Lou, who was abducted in childhood and sold into slavery. The resilient Lou has three children with fellow slave Buena Vista, all the while facing one harrowing experience after another. After the Civil War, and unaware that slavery has ended, Lou's children Jeff and Suce take over their cotton plantation from their weakened master and participate in several brutal (and perhaps justifiable) acts that foreshadow much of the family's tragedy for generations to come. Dealing with murder, rape and incest, this often grim tale is lightened considerably by a no-nonsense running commentary from the lovably flawed Dumpling, who thinks the past should be let go. Well paced, with excellent dialogue, Sherry's story-within-a-story is sometimes hampered by southern gothic cliches. Assured and engrossing tale of survival and forgiveness.
"A poignant tale of self-discovery in the face of a complicated family history."
"Telling her story from two perspectives and on two levels—the mother-daughter relationship and Sherry’s fictional account—McFadden brings added texture to this story of reconciliation."
"With a good dose of poignancy about life and finding the wisdom of the world for ourselves, Nowhere Is a Place is a fine addition to modern literary fiction collections."
"Compelling, beautifully written, and profoundly human, McFadden has conjured a tale of a fractured family who journey across the country and back through history to unearth painful truths that unexpectedly reshape their relationships with each other."
"Nowhere is a Place is a powerful portrait of family secrets, damage, and healing, probing deep below the surface of an African American family’s history to mend present day relationships . . . Ms. McFadden has a beautiful writing style that is simultaneously lyrical and transparent. In parts of the narrative, time seems to stand still as she describes an event in riveting minute to minute detail. Other times she employs a kind of poetic shorthand that condenses long periods of time, years even, into a few sentences."
"Bernice L. McFadden’s Nowhere Is a Place is a hauntingly-disturbing and redemptive frame story of many generations of a Yamasee Native American and African American family from pre-slavery times until July 1995."
Sherry looks forward to a road trip with her estranged mother, Dumpling, as a chance to delve into family history and better understand her own struggle to find a sense of belonging. Myra Lucretia Taylor's narration takes the listener into the simmering tension between the no-nonsense mother and bohemian daughter, who are, nevertheless, almost mirror images of each other. Taylor creates unforgettable voices for a variety of characters as Dumpling's stories unfold a 150-year genealogy and stimulate long overdue dialogue. Through Taylor's lyrical portraits, listeners grow to understand how the family stories of slavery, brutality, and survival finally empower Sherry to share the secret she has withheld from her mother. K.A.T. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169666250 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 05/18/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,044,987 |
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