“I need you to understand how ordinary it all was. . . .”
Nothing is ordinary during the summer of 1963 in Mississippi, yet Ms. Gwin tricks us into thinking so despite her this first line in her novel. Her wonderful and moving novel revolves around Florence Forrest, a young girl, who has a beautiful (if not alcoholic and tormented) mother known as the town’s cake lady, and her angry yet seemingly loving (to his daughter, that is) burial insurance salesman father, as well as her grandparents who keep their eye on Florence with the help of their black maid, Zenie Johnson, who lives on the wrong side of the tracks in Shake Rag, the black section of town.
As Florence’s mother begins to fall apart between her bootleg runs in the backcountry and Florence’s father’s abuse and unnatural hatred of blacks, this pushes Florence closer to Zenie, who is named for Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra. While Zenie treats Florence as just another task she has on her list, calling her “it” when she was being nice to her, Zenie manages to fill Florence’s head with stories of the legendary queen’s courage and cunning, which comes in handy one day in the not-so-distant future.
The more time Florence spends with Zenie in Shake Rag (especially since Florence’s mother and father seem to drop her off and pick her up later and later these days), the more Florence comes to realize how racially divided her small town really is. Her young eyes have become open to the world around her. Despite being surrounded by the Klu Klux Klan, sometimes Florence’s scarier enemy is in her own home in Millwood.
Without sharing most of the details with you, it is quite hard for me to explain how brilliantly layered this book is without giving away any of its secrets. You would be amazed at the horror trapped beneath Florence’s eating problems and black outs. Florence, as every child living in a tense and violent home, has a story that is so dark and twisty, it even impresses upon me (a survivor of horror at home myself) the depth of violence she had to face before the fifth grade. Trust me, this was a book that had me on edge of my couch and staying up until 5:30 am in the morning to finish it, because I was so utterly terrified what was going to happen to the girl next.
It is sometimes those quiet and magical novels, full of reserve and restraint, that pack the biggest emotional punches. Minrose Gwin manges to deliver one hell of a punch in The Queen of Palmyra while still leaving much unsaid in this story of race and identity. Don’t be a fool, go buy this book right now!
To buy your copy of The Queen of Palmyra, click here.
To visit Minrose Gwin’s website, go here.
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I saw your comment about this on the southern writers fanpage and I’m so glad you mentioned it – this is def. a book I plan on reading.
Joane – Oh, it really is a wonderful book.
Sounds like a great book to me.
Paula – I promise, it is!