The View from Here

Jackson, Brian Keith

ISBN 10: 0747219508 / ISBN 13: 9780747219507

Published by London: Hodder Headline, 1997

About this Item

First UK edition of this first novel by the African American writer. Very good indeed in similar dust wrapper.

Seller Inventory # 2070932

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The View from Here
• Publisher: London: Hodder Headline
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0747219508
• ISBN 13: 9780747219507
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Black studies, Caribbean, African & African-Ame...

About this title

Synopsis

In the tradition of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, this heartwrenching novel of black family life in the rural South surges with raw emotional power and deeply felt truth. Against a backdrop of casual prejudice and commonplace poverty, a gentle, hardworking wife and mother faces a challenge that could destroy the family she's fought so hard to keep together.

Review

Right from the get-go Brian Keith Jackson's debut novel, The View from Here has an unusual kick to it: the book is narrated by the protagonist's as yet unborn child. The heroine of this touching tale is Anna Anderson Thomas, an African American wife and mother trying to keep her family together in the face of casual prejudice and economic hardship. The mother of five boys, she discovers number six is on the way around the same time her husband, JT, loses his job at the lumber mill. JT insists they can't afford this new baby and decides to give it to his sister to raise. In the ensuing months, Anna's only comfort comes in occasional letters from her childhood friend, Ida Mae, and the responses she composes in her head but never sends.

Jackson's book captures perfectly both the love and the rage of this family under pressure. As Anna navigates the choppy waters of family ties, old obligations, and new responsibilities, the passionate prose and unusual narrative perspective brings immediacy to her passage.