Scan barcode
A review by richardrbecker
The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips
4.0
Set in Parkerfield, Georgia, during the civil rights movement of the 1950s, The Darkest Child is an unapologetic and grimly wrought story of poverty, domestic violence, child abuse, and the complicated trappings of racism. There are no heroes here.
The story is told by 13-year-old Tangy Mae Quinn, the darkest child of ten children, all of whom have different fathers. Their mother, Rozelle, is a beautiful and charming light-skinned who uses a violent hold over her children to exploit them and force them to work in domestic service, in the fields, as shoplifters, or at a local whorehouse. While the money she collects is used to provide life's essentials for her children, she also maintains a lavish wardrobe and, at one point, trades one of her daughters away for a car.
The only explanation for Rozelle's cruelty is the twisted belief that the hardships she thrust upon her children are somehow better than being abandoned as she was as a child. Having never learned how to raise children properly, she considers it proper to pass on her dark and damaged legacy.
Despite her dark skin, which her mother insists will prevent any man from marrying her, Tangy Mae is an excellent student and the only of her siblings that has a chance to graduate high school. At odds with this dream is her mother, who sees more immediate value in putting her daughter to work cleaning houses and working at the whorehouse than being one of only a few children to be among the first to attend a desegregated school.
There are many times throughout the novel that the story feels overbearing, but somehow Tangy Mae manages to make it bearable with her unrelenting intelligence, empathy, and propensity for hope. The only question that remains is whether Tangy Mae will be able to weather the pressures of a mother, family, and the outside world before her mother goes too far in bending all of her children to her will.
Excellently written, Delores Phillips does an excellent job capturing a narrative that doesn't pick racial sides, but people sides. Specifically, she picks Tangy Mae's side, and most readers will too.
The story is told by 13-year-old Tangy Mae Quinn, the darkest child of ten children, all of whom have different fathers. Their mother, Rozelle, is a beautiful and charming light-skinned who uses a violent hold over her children to exploit them and force them to work in domestic service, in the fields, as shoplifters, or at a local whorehouse. While the money she collects is used to provide life's essentials for her children, she also maintains a lavish wardrobe and, at one point, trades one of her daughters away for a car.
The only explanation for Rozelle's cruelty is the twisted belief that the hardships she thrust upon her children are somehow better than being abandoned as she was as a child. Having never learned how to raise children properly, she considers it proper to pass on her dark and damaged legacy.
Despite her dark skin, which her mother insists will prevent any man from marrying her, Tangy Mae is an excellent student and the only of her siblings that has a chance to graduate high school. At odds with this dream is her mother, who sees more immediate value in putting her daughter to work cleaning houses and working at the whorehouse than being one of only a few children to be among the first to attend a desegregated school.
There are many times throughout the novel that the story feels overbearing, but somehow Tangy Mae manages to make it bearable with her unrelenting intelligence, empathy, and propensity for hope. The only question that remains is whether Tangy Mae will be able to weather the pressures of a mother, family, and the outside world before her mother goes too far in bending all of her children to her will.
Excellently written, Delores Phillips does an excellent job capturing a narrative that doesn't pick racial sides, but people sides. Specifically, she picks Tangy Mae's side, and most readers will too.