From AwardAnnals
| Book: | The Good Negress |
|---|
| Author: | A.J. Verdelle |
|---|
| Honors: |
|
|---|
| Genres: | |
|---|
| Publisher: | Algonquin Books |
|---|
It is 1963, and young Denise Palms, reared in rural Virginia by her grandmother, has just rejoined her mother, new stepfather, and two older brothers in Detroit. Denise is an ordinary, intelligent negro girl in a not unusual negro family, which means that she is expected to cook and clean house, go to school, and take care of her mother’s baby when it comes. In this groundbreaking debut, A. J. Verdelle tells the story of Denise’s family—a story filtered through the perspective of Denise’s vibrant, maturing intelligence. Studies with an uncompromising new teacher, Miss Gloria Pearson, have encouraged Denise to “reach beyond her station,” and Denise begins to dread the arrival of her mother’s baby, knowing that her new responsibilities at home will mean the end of her after-school lessons in diction and grammar. Miss Pearson insists that she must educate herself—that she must learn “to speak the King’s English”—if she ever wants to be heard. If her mother succeeds in keeping her homebound, Miss Pearson warns, Denise will remain the “good little negress” the world wants her to be.
This book also published under the title This Rain Coming.
Reviews
Amazon.com
In a luminous debut novel that Toni Morrison declared “truly extraordinary,” A.J. Verdelle tells the story of young Denise Palms, transplanted from her grandmother’s rural Virginia home to the chaos of big-city Detroit in 1963 to help care for the baby her mother and stepfather are expecting. PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist.
