A review by rdebner
Jam on the Vine by LaShonda Katrice Barnett

5.0

Taking place in the very end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, this novel follows Ivoe Williams and her family from Texas to Missouri, as Ivoe struggles to find her place in the world, as a black woman, as a journalist, and as a race woman. It is also a timely book, as Ivoe reflects on and calls out the disappearing of black men in this country -- disappeared by incarceration and death. It is also a story of the women in Ivoe's life: her mother, Lemon, who time and time again holds her family together with ingenuity; her sister, Irabelle, who stands up for her right to be a musician - but then may throw it away; her aunt, May-Belle, a healer; Berdis, trained as a classical musician; and Ona, her mentor, friend, and later her lover.