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lynecia's review against another edition
4.0
Beautifully written. Moving, intelligent and soulful. A portrait of the relationship between mothers and daughters, race, class, family and learning to love oneself.
popularsong's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
honestly i thought the opening and the POV jump were odd and i wasn't really feeling angela's chapters, but i am sooo glad i stuck around. the way it all builds up to these three women's stories and how it all ties together is so beautiful. the ending made me cry. i really wish i could understand even more, i want to watch every movie mentioned in this, i think dreamland deserves to exist, like this is a book to turn into a movie if there was one
readincolour's review
5.0
It really doesn't get any better than Martha Southgate. I loved The Fall of Rome & can't even come up with a word to describe how much more I love Third Girl from the Left!
zellm's review
5.0
Fantastic book about intergenerational trauma, the changing racial landscape of the 20th century, blaxploitation films, family, love, and queerness. I adored Angela, and loved the story told through the three generations of women. Beautifully written and still relevant 17 years later.
misajane79's review
4.0
A surprisingly great book--I picked up at the bargain section of Half-Price books. I was intrigued by the description--all about a woman who was an extra in some of the blaxplotation films of the 70s, her mother who was involved in the Tulsa Race Riot and her daughter who became a filmmaker. Hard to put down and a great story about the power of family and the movies.
djjazzijeff's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
liralen's review against another edition
4.0
I read this for a book club -- it's probably not something that I would have picked up on my own, to be honest, but I'm glad it was a book club selection.
It had mixed reviews in book club -- not enough difference in voice, not enough connection between reader and narrator -- but I loved the character arc that spanned not one character, but three. Mildred has dreams but no real hope of realising them; to achieve her dreams, Angela must turn her back on everything she knows; Tamara, although she still has the odds stacked against her, has hopes of realising her dreams and taking her career further than her mother or her grandmother.
The writing runs the gamut from forced to evocative, but overall the book felt like a slice out of a life, or rather a set of lives, that I'll never be able to fully understand.
Lastly -- I can only thank the author for this gem:
Angela frowned. "What's a dyke?"
Sheila stretched. "A dyke is a big, mannish woman who hates men and only sleeps with other big, mannish women. Not like us. We just do it for fun." She looked at Angela intently. "Wanna do it again?"
-page 44
It had mixed reviews in book club -- not enough difference in voice, not enough connection between reader and narrator -- but I loved the character arc that spanned not one character, but three. Mildred has dreams but no real hope of realising them; to achieve her dreams, Angela must turn her back on everything she knows; Tamara, although she still has the odds stacked against her, has hopes of realising her dreams and taking her career further than her mother or her grandmother.
The writing runs the gamut from forced to evocative, but overall the book felt like a slice out of a life, or rather a set of lives, that I'll never be able to fully understand.
Lastly -- I can only thank the author for this gem:
Angela frowned. "What's a dyke?"
Sheila stretched. "A dyke is a big, mannish woman who hates men and only sleeps with other big, mannish women. Not like us. We just do it for fun." She looked at Angela intently. "Wanna do it again?"
-page 44
doc_erinnicole's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. It crossed three generations and speaks directly to the complicated experiences between mothers and their daughters. Also, movies and filmmaking are at the center of if all, which is something I can get behind. The writing wasn't particularly outstanding or poetic but the narrative was well done.
elibriggs's review
4.0
great exploration of generational issues with women in an african american family
chrisiant's review
4.0
This is another I culled from the lists for "National Buy a Book by a Black Author and Give it to Somebody Not Black Month". A good chunk of it is set during the era of blaxploitation movies. I had no idea there was such a thing, or that a few movies I had heard of (but not seen) were part of that genre. Again, reading this book, I experienced references to an assumed cultural background that I don't have. The littlest mentions of things dropped as background dressing (the hair at the nape of the neck is called "the kitchen") were brand new to me, but because they were just background dressing it was easier to absorb them.
I don't pretend that reading AA fiction gives me any sort of understanding of what it means to be AA in any area in any era, but I feel a measure less ignorant about my neighbors now, and that's not nothing. Plus, the book was just generally fun to read, sad and funny and righteous with strong female characters each tied to their own setbacks but running towards something.
I don't pretend that reading AA fiction gives me any sort of understanding of what it means to be AA in any area in any era, but I feel a measure less ignorant about my neighbors now, and that's not nothing. Plus, the book was just generally fun to read, sad and funny and righteous with strong female characters each tied to their own setbacks but running towards something.