In the Country of Women
4.0/ 5
1 ratings
About This Book
"In inland Southern California, near the desert and the Mexican border, Susan Straight, a self-proclaimed book nerd, and Dwayne Sims, an African American basketball player, started dating in high school. After college, they married and drove to Amherst, Massachusetts, where Straight met her teacher and mentor, James Baldwin, who encouraged her to write. Once back in Riverside, at driveway barbecues and fish fries with the large, close-knit Sims family, Straight--and eventually her three daughters--heard for decades the stories of Dwayne's female ancestors. Some women escaped violence in post-slavery Tennessee, some escaped murder in Jim Crow Mississippi, and some fled abusive men. Straight's mother-in-law, Alberta Sims, is the descendant at the heart of this memoir. Susan's family, too, reflects the hardship and resilience of women pushing onward--from Switzerland, Canada, and the Colorado Rockies to California. A Pakistani word, biraderi, is one Straight uses to define a complex system of kinship and clan--those who become your family. An entire community helped raise her daughters. Of her three girls, now grown and working in museums and the entertainment industry, Straight writes, "The daughters of our ancestors carry in their blood at least three continents. We are not about borders. We are about love and survival." In the Country of Women is a valuable social history and a personal narrative that reads like a love song to America and indomitable women." -- from Jacket. Straight, a self-proclaimed book nerd, and Dwayne Sims, an African American basketball player, started dating in high school. After college they married. In Amherst, Massachusetts, Straight met her teacher and mentor, James Baldwin, who encouraged her to write. Both the Straight and the Sims families were filled with stories of the hardship and resilience of women pushing onward; their three daughters "carry in their blood at least three continents." Straight's memoir is both a valuable social history and a personal narrative that reads like a love song to America and indomitable women. -- adapted from jacket
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Sign InWomen, united states, biographyWomen, united states, social conditionsNew York Times reviewedMotherhoodUnited states, history, 20th centuryEmigration and immigrationWest (u.s.), historyPersonal memoirsFamilyAmerican AuthorsBiographyWomen authors
The Swinging Light
Book Details
First Published
2019
Pages
384 pages
Rating
4.0 / 5
Ratings
1
Editions
4
Publisher
Cengage Gale
Language
ENG
Status
Published
The People Behind The Book
Authors
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