A review by chrisiant
Third Girl from the Left by Martha Southgate

4.0

This is another I culled from the lists for "National Buy a Book by a Black Author and Give it to Somebody Not Black Month". A good chunk of it is set during the era of blaxploitation movies. I had no idea there was such a thing, or that a few movies I had heard of (but not seen) were part of that genre. Again, reading this book, I experienced references to an assumed cultural background that I don't have. The littlest mentions of things dropped as background dressing (the hair at the nape of the neck is called "the kitchen") were brand new to me, but because they were just background dressing it was easier to absorb them.

I don't pretend that reading AA fiction gives me any sort of understanding of what it means to be AA in any area in any era, but I feel a measure less ignorant about my neighbors now, and that's not nothing. Plus, the book was just generally fun to read, sad and funny and righteous with strong female characters each tied to their own setbacks but running towards something.