A review by justagirlwithabook
Corregidora by Gayl Jones

slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Corregidora was originally published in 1975, but the issues that Gayl Jones presents are timeless. The story follows a blues singer, Ursa, who struggles with her maternal history but also with her relationships in the present. Her last name, Corregidora, is her family’s legacy, as her mother and grandmother were both fathered by a man by this name who was a Portuguese slave master. Issues of abuse (domestic and otherwise), slavery and ownership, sexuality, and womanhood all cycle throughout the past and the present as the reader experiences Ursa’s struggle to work through both her mother’s and grandmother’s experiences but also her own current reality. This was not an “easy read” but it is an honest and important one.