Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by xanthe
The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers by Bridgett M. Davis
5.0
I snapped up this one off the new books shelf at my local library for a lot of reasons, mainly because it was a memoir about a girl growing up in Detroit and her relationship with her mother, both of which hit my YES buttons, but also because I thought I’d FINALLY understand what “The Numbers” actually meant after hearing it mentioned in various tantalizing historical contexts. (I keep going to conferences about local Michigan history, because I am a nerd, and hearing speakers mention in passing ‘the numbers’ or reading a reference in a historical novel and getting from the context that it was some sort of form of gambling that seemed pretty exclusive to the black community, but much more personal than the state lottery that we have today. And now after reading this book, I get it, even if I don’t actually understand how the actual number selection works.) Plus, I grew up in the Detroit area (in a lily-white suburb) which means that I’m thrilled by all the recent books that are now coming out about the city and its people, including this one.
The author writes in delicious detail about what it was like to be a little black girl in Detroit with so many great details about her life and her memories, but mainly she writes about her relationship with her complicated mother, who was *gasp* running a major ring of the gambling organization called the Numbers, something she did successfully for decades despite the inherently precarious nature of the business, including the payouts and the complicated personal and financial dynamics of how it worked. In the pages of her memoir, Bridgett Davis writes without sugarcoating about her family and her childhood as Detroit transformed, but mostly about her love for her mother, Fannie Davis, who comes across as complicated and loving, a force of nature who kept her kids in fashionable clothes and told them to be proud of themselves, all the while keeping her illegal business running smoothly and secretly. This book was engrossing and moving – I actually teared up at the end – and I gushed about it to several people as a great book club selection just as soon as I finished it.
The author writes in delicious detail about what it was like to be a little black girl in Detroit with so many great details about her life and her memories, but mainly she writes about her relationship with her complicated mother, who was *gasp* running a major ring of the gambling organization called the Numbers, something she did successfully for decades despite the inherently precarious nature of the business, including the payouts and the complicated personal and financial dynamics of how it worked. In the pages of her memoir, Bridgett Davis writes without sugarcoating about her family and her childhood as Detroit transformed, but mostly about her love for her mother, Fannie Davis, who comes across as complicated and loving, a force of nature who kept her kids in fashionable clothes and told them to be proud of themselves, all the while keeping her illegal business running smoothly and secretly. This book was engrossing and moving – I actually teared up at the end – and I gushed about it to several people as a great book club selection just as soon as I finished it.