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A review by thatotherjlo
Moonrise Over New Jessup by Jamila Minnicks
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
If you've read any of my other reviews, you know I'm a sucker for a well-constructed, tight-knit, loving community (my family is large and from a small town, so I guess there's something I can connect to there...). This book really delivers! Minnicks' storytelling reflects the very real, historical and contemporary tensions felt by Black Americans over how to build community and a future when faced with a society intent on treading upon them.
The protagonist, Alice, is a young Black woman escaping violence and a sense of abandonment in her home town in Alabama, who accidentally stumbles upon New Jessup, a Black township in the middle of the Jim Crow South. Over the course of the novel, Alice gets to know, then grow into life in a place with no white people and, by extension, no segregation. Her being new to town serves as an excellent tool for Minnicks to introduce the community as well as to highlight the many ways in which this experience is radically different from the rest of the so-called New South without it feeling too much like a lecture/history lesson. Alice's being from outside New Jessup also gives her excellent insights and perspective as, as she settles into life in the town, she increasingly finds herself surrounded by discussions about the future of New Jessup.
I love Minnicks' writing, especially the attention she pays to character growth and to the relationships between characters. There is, of course, the relationship between Alice and Raymond, but I think I was especially moved by the care with which Minnicks wrote the relationship between Alice and other women, including Alice's sister (Rosie) and her employer in New Jessup, Ms. Vivian. There's one scene during which Ms. Vivian is sorting pearls for Alice's wedding dress, which reminds Alice of sorting field peas with her mother and Rosie as children (something I have done with my own mother and grandmother more times than I can count!) that was perhaps the purest expression of familial love I have read in a very long time. Similarly, Alice's expressing of how she has changed and thrived since arriving in New Jessup through the motif of gardens and flowers took my breath away.
Lastly, as a history teacher, I have to mention the depth of research into Black thought, activism, and community building this novel displays. For one, the debates taking place throughout the novel (those wishing to keep New Jessup segregated to protect their community and those advocating integration, those wishing to stay and never leave New Jessup and those who want to go elsewhere, etc) and the characters themselves echo the major debates and figures of the Black community throughout the twentieth century. By focusing on Alice's experiences, however, Minnicks brings to the fore the often-overlooked experiences and roles of the Black women at the margins of the civil rights movement.
I was so sad to finish this book, I almost want to read it all again already. Run, don't walk, to get yourself a copy.
The protagonist, Alice, is a young Black woman escaping violence and a sense of abandonment in her home town in Alabama, who accidentally stumbles upon New Jessup, a Black township in the middle of the Jim Crow South. Over the course of the novel, Alice gets to know, then grow into life in a place with no white people and, by extension, no segregation. Her being new to town serves as an excellent tool for Minnicks to introduce the community as well as to highlight the many ways in which this experience is radically different from the rest of the so-called New South without it feeling too much like a lecture/history lesson. Alice's being from outside New Jessup also gives her excellent insights and perspective as, as she settles into life in the town, she increasingly finds herself surrounded by discussions about the future of New Jessup.
I love Minnicks' writing, especially the attention she pays to character growth and to the relationships between characters. There is, of course, the relationship between Alice and Raymond, but I think I was especially moved by the care with which Minnicks wrote the relationship between Alice and other women, including Alice's sister (Rosie) and her employer in New Jessup, Ms. Vivian. There's one scene during which Ms. Vivian is sorting pearls for Alice's wedding dress, which reminds Alice of sorting field peas with her mother and Rosie as children (something I have done with my own mother and grandmother more times than I can count!) that was perhaps the purest expression of familial love I have read in a very long time. Similarly, Alice's expressing of how she has changed and thrived since arriving in New Jessup through the motif of gardens and flowers took my breath away.
Lastly, as a history teacher, I have to mention the depth of research into Black thought, activism, and community building this novel displays. For one, the debates taking place throughout the novel (those wishing to keep New Jessup segregated to protect their community and those advocating integration, those wishing to stay and never leave New Jessup and those who want to go elsewhere, etc) and the characters themselves echo the major debates and figures of the Black community throughout the twentieth century. By focusing on Alice's experiences, however, Minnicks brings to the fore the often-overlooked experiences and roles of the Black women at the margins of the civil rights movement.
I was so sad to finish this book, I almost want to read it all again already. Run, don't walk, to get yourself a copy.