Book #84 |
Book: The Upper Room | Author: Mary Monroe | |
| Source: Library loan Format: e-book |
Pages: 384 | Duration: 09/12/25 – 09/14/25 (3 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★★☆ | Genres: fiction, African American, drama, urban, family | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Dysfunctional family of mythical proportions slogs its way through life. 🖌6-word review: Absolute train-wreck-esque — outrageous, confounding, and terrifying. |
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| 💭A favorite quote: “See—Fast Black told me to carry her to the bedroom on account of she had a notion between her legs that was hot as a stole car!” | |||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: vaingloriously, chifforobe, joogin | |||
| Description:* Maureen, a young black girl torn between her mother, the notorious Mama Ruby, whose healing powers and reputation cause people to fear her, and the harsh realities of life, comes of age, in a powerful, evocative tale set in a migrant labor camp in the bayous of the Florida Everglades.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: I can’t think of another book with as much destruction — both physical and emotional — with regards to both the characters and the situations they bring about. Most of the characters are unlikeable and unlovable, and it’s hard to pinpoint why I didn’t abandon this book on that alone — I guess it was like the proverbial train wreck. The narrative voice of the story is almost exclusively AAVE. | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
