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A review by lk222
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
4.0
Libertie is a passionately intimate book about finding oneself and one’s independence as a black woman in Reconstructionist Era Brooklyn. Libertie is the daughter of Dr. Sampson, a single mother inspired by the real life Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Steward, a Weeksville, Brooklyn resident and the first black woman to become a medical doctor in New York State. Greenidge meticulously recreates life in Weeksville, one of the first free black communities in the US, including such details as large scale as the arrival of New York Draft Riot survivors and as minute as mentions of the monthly newspaper, of which only one copy remains today. Through Greenidge’s historical fiction runs a thread of magical realism, drawn from the Haitian Vodoun religion in which men and women can be captured by spirits and brought back from death. The intertwining of Brooklyn history and Vodou beliefs produces a singularly enchanting story.
Our protagonist, Libertie grows up watching her mother tend to the bodies of others, be they sick New Yorkers or enslaved runaways escaped to the north inside coffin decoys. She is to become her mother’s medical partner when she grows up, but the white women who begin arriving at the light-skinned Dr. Sampson’s practice won’t let Libertie touch them with her dark hands. Away at college she finds distractions in women and their music and realizes her mother’s dreams might not be the same as her own. Rather than facing her mother’s outrage and shame, sure to be of mythic proportions, Libertie makes a life-changing escape to Haiti, but will it be a change for the better?
Greenidge is a masterful writer. I found this story quietly captivating, but don’t misunderstand me when I say “quietly.” There’s nothing dull about this book. It digs into profound truths about oneself, about the complexities of love, and about society. The intimacy of Greenidge’s style reminds me of Golden Age paintings by the Dutch masters, filled with distinctly detailed images of domestic life and professional trade, glimpsed through open doors leading on to other doors. I’m deeply interested in Weeksville, so I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to step into its past, particularly a version of the past that is enchanted by Erzulie, the Vodoun goddess of love.
Our protagonist, Libertie grows up watching her mother tend to the bodies of others, be they sick New Yorkers or enslaved runaways escaped to the north inside coffin decoys. She is to become her mother’s medical partner when she grows up, but the white women who begin arriving at the light-skinned Dr. Sampson’s practice won’t let Libertie touch them with her dark hands. Away at college she finds distractions in women and their music and realizes her mother’s dreams might not be the same as her own. Rather than facing her mother’s outrage and shame, sure to be of mythic proportions, Libertie makes a life-changing escape to Haiti, but will it be a change for the better?
Greenidge is a masterful writer. I found this story quietly captivating, but don’t misunderstand me when I say “quietly.” There’s nothing dull about this book. It digs into profound truths about oneself, about the complexities of love, and about society. The intimacy of Greenidge’s style reminds me of Golden Age paintings by the Dutch masters, filled with distinctly detailed images of domestic life and professional trade, glimpsed through open doors leading on to other doors. I’m deeply interested in Weeksville, so I’m thrilled to have had the opportunity to step into its past, particularly a version of the past that is enchanted by Erzulie, the Vodoun goddess of love.