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A review by arielzeit
Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia
4.0
I didn't love the finale to this trilogy as much as I loved the first two, One Crazy Summer and P.S. Be Eleven, but it was still pretty wonderful, and interesting to read in the context of the recent Brown Girl Dreaming and Stella By Starlight, which also cover the civil rights period as it unfolded down South from the perspective of middle grade children.
One Crazy Summer introduced us to the Gaither sisters--tough, responsible Delphine (the narrator), mouthy Vonetta and outspoken little Fern--as they met Cecile, their long-lost mother, a poet in Oakland who sent them to Black Panther summer camp. P.S. Be Eleven followed the Gaithers back to Brooklyn, where their Pa marries a new wife, Marva, who is an outspoken feminist, much to the horror of their grandmother, Big Ma, who has been raising them. Now in Gone Crazy in Alabama, the girls travel to Alabama to visit Big Ma, and HER mother, Ma Charles, spend time with their handsome cousin Jimmy Trotter, and learn about their family stories from Ma Charles and her half-sisterJimmy's great-grandmother, "Great Miss Trotter" or "Aunt Miss Trotter," depending on who's talking to her. The girls get caught up in the feud between Ma Charles and her half sister, who swap stories about their father who was part-Indian had two families. They watch the Apollo 11 moon landing, and witness the Klan riding. When Vonetta disappears in a tornado after a fight with Delphine, all the disparate pieces of the Gaither girls' life come together in a crazy jumble.
So what was my hesitation about the book? I did enjoy the family storytelling, which was a new element. The characters continue to be arresting, exciting, and true to life, true to the period. Rita Williams Garcia has a gift for being serious and funny at the same time, and it's still much in evidence here. But somehow the ending seems a bit pat, with irreconcilable differences magically somewhat reconciled, and characters like Cecile behaving more conventionally than one would expect. Maybe my expectations were just so high from the first two, it was hard to accept this one on its own terms.
One Crazy Summer introduced us to the Gaither sisters--tough, responsible Delphine (the narrator), mouthy Vonetta and outspoken little Fern--as they met Cecile, their long-lost mother, a poet in Oakland who sent them to Black Panther summer camp. P.S. Be Eleven followed the Gaithers back to Brooklyn, where their Pa marries a new wife, Marva, who is an outspoken feminist, much to the horror of their grandmother, Big Ma, who has been raising them. Now in Gone Crazy in Alabama, the girls travel to Alabama to visit Big Ma, and HER mother, Ma Charles, spend time with their handsome cousin Jimmy Trotter, and learn about their family stories from Ma Charles and her half-sisterJimmy's great-grandmother, "Great Miss Trotter" or "Aunt Miss Trotter," depending on who's talking to her. The girls get caught up in the feud between Ma Charles and her half sister, who swap stories about their father who was part-Indian had two families. They watch the Apollo 11 moon landing, and witness the Klan riding. When Vonetta disappears in a tornado after a fight with Delphine, all the disparate pieces of the Gaither girls' life come together in a crazy jumble.
So what was my hesitation about the book? I did enjoy the family storytelling, which was a new element. The characters continue to be arresting, exciting, and true to life, true to the period. Rita Williams Garcia has a gift for being serious and funny at the same time, and it's still much in evidence here. But somehow the ending seems a bit pat, with irreconcilable differences magically somewhat reconciled, and characters like Cecile behaving more conventionally than one would expect. Maybe my expectations were just so high from the first two, it was hard to accept this one on its own terms.