|
|
MOMMA’S PURLE By Bridget Davis
ISBN 096688650X
Black and White Enterprises / 2002
Fiction / African American Fiction
Tel: 1800-501-4798, E-mail: bridgetdavisonline.com
Synopsis:
When we first meet Sarah James, she is recovering from a suicide attempt
precipitated by an overwhelming sense of despair. Sarah is the single mother
of five daughters, and the prospect of raising them on welfare in Harlem
seems impossible. Yet when she returns to her family, she is full of
resolve, and her oldest daughter Marcy’s justified anger galvanizes her in a
way no amount of therapy could. The James girls are memorable sisters, the
scholar Madison, Purle, who is lost in her romance with street-smart Tyrone,
musical Olivia and quiet Kim. Momma’s Purle is however, in many ways,
Marcey’s story. After finding her mother unconscious in a pool of blood, she
became the responsible sister and much of the touching narrative is told in
her natural and unaffected voice. The family is uncommonly close, as they
draw a protective web around each other to cushion them from the
drug-infested neighborhood in which they live. Their years of vigilance and
hard work seem to be paying off when a terrible event occurs. When a night
intruder is holding Sarah at gunpoint, Purle shoots him with an illegal
handgun she had been keeping for Tyrone. As the family finds the resources
and courage to see Purle through her incarceration and trial, they are
reunited with Sarah’s long lost sister.
Bridget Davis does an effective job in evoking the warmth and affection
shared by these likable and interesting characters. Set in the post-Vietnam
Era, Momma’s Purle is infused with a fine sense of period and the
colorful details of life in Harlem. It is indeed a triumphant story of a
decent family’s tormented inner life and struggle, as its various members
wrestle with the nihilism and despair that permeates the violent mental and
physical environment of the inner city. It shows how love and the
determination to overcome any obstacles to our rightful goals, are their own
rewards and often result in the concrete attainment of success in spite of
the positive hostility and indifference of the surrounding society. |
|