Memphis

TWs: Assault, Domestic Violence, Prison, Racial violence

Memphis is a multigenerational story about the North women in Memphis, Tennessee. It chronicles history from the perspective of black women and girls in the South existing in American culture over the span of 70 years. 

The story touches on a lot of heavy topics like trauma, racial, sexual, and domestic violence, gang culture, and difficult family dynamics all from the perspectives of the North women. 

Something that stood out to me was the importance of entrepreneurship and beauty culture in this book. One of the main characters opens a beauty shop to sustain her family, and her mother and grandmother were seamstresses. The author balances out the tough stuff with stories about soul mates, sisterly bonds, magic, and using your talent to chase your dreams. As much as this book is about pain and suffering, it’s also about love, hope, healing, womanhood, and breaking generational curses. 
A pro and con to this story is the large character list over the duration of a long timeline. It was a lot of stories to take in and follow along with, as the characters’ stories are told in different years and have unique perspectives on particular situations. 

If you have the capacity for a heavy read dipped in historical fiction, Memphis is for you.