Red at the Bone

Last updated

Red at the Bone
Red at the Bone by Jaqueline Woodson.webp
2019 book jacket
Author Jacqueline Woodson
Subject Bildungsromans, African-American women and families in fiction, teenage pregnancy in fiction
GenreFiction
Set in Brooklyn and the Midwest of the United States
Publisher Riverhead Books
Publication date
2019
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint, ebook
Pages196
ISBN 9780525535270
OCLC 1099754421
813/.54
LC Class PS3573.O64524 R43 2019
Website Official website

Red at the Bone is a coming-of-age novel by Jacqueline Woodson originally published by Riverhead Books in 2019. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Premise

Red at the Bone follows two families connected by the unexpected teenage pregnancy of sixteen-year-old Melody. Melody celebrates her coming-of-age ceremony in Brooklyn, while her parents, Iris and Aubrey, who were never married and had Melody out of wedlock and as teenagers, reflect on their own pasts. Through flashbacks, Iris's struggle with motherhood an her decision to pursue college gives context to the resulting strain on her relationship with Aubrey. The story interweaves generational perspectives, revealing the impact of Melody's birth on both families and the ways their lives intertwine across time.

Characters

About the book

The story has some interesting elements as noted by reviewers. [1] [3] [4] According to Joshunda Sanders of Time , "Woodson evokes black formalism, a post-Reconstruction movement meant to highlight black dignity through dress, style and traditions performed beyond the white gaze..." [4] And, Woodson employs a minimalist writing style, believing fewer words with emotional impact best serves the story. This style results in a short novel of about 200 pages. [2] [3] [5] NPR says this book also "reads like poetry and drama..." [3] The story itself revolves around five characters of two families spanning three generations. Also, Woodson employs shifting points of view and "the narrative nimbly jumps around in time." [2] [3] [6] And the book explores class, religion, race, generational wealth, and sexuality. [2] [6] NPR says, "this book [also] manages to encompass issues of...education, ambition, racial prejudice, sexual desire and orientation, identity, mother-daughter relationships, parenthood and loss...." [3] Lastly, reviewers provide praise for the author's previous works and awards in the first part of their reviews. [2] [3] [4] [6]

Summary

One of the anchors of this story is the mother, Iris, who abandons her child. Such a troubling character is to be automatically disparaged in most cultures around the world, including America. [1] The emotional pain inflicted on the child is presumed to be incalculable. However, Woodson gives the reader the possibility that "the wound of maternal abandonment could [perhaps] be alleviated [and] healed by other kinds of love." [1]

Iris becomes pregnant in high school at the age of 15 by a boy named Aubrey, who is also still in high school. Yet, after the baby is born, Aubrey falls in love with his new born daughter named Melody and "being a parent." [1] He moves into Iris's parents' house to start their new family life. In contrast, Iris cannot quench her desire for more than her parents' house and more than Aubrey. She leaves the house, Aubrey, and her daughter for college. College was her plan before getting pregnant. She has no interest in Aubrey as father and mate. [1]

Yet, years later Iris tells her daughter Melody, "I wanted you. I wanted you growing in my body, I wanted you in my arms, I wanted you over my shoulder," [1] Hence, Iris went against her family's and others' passionate disapproval to give birth to Melody. [1] But it turns out that "Melody spends her formative years with her father Aubrey and her maternal grandmother Sabe while her mother Iris heads off to college as planned." [4]

Reception

This book has received positive reviews. According to Book Marks, a website that aggregates independent critical reviews of books from mainstream journals and outlets, there was an overwhelmingly dominant "Rave" consensus, based on assessments from 24 guys. [7]

Heller McAlpin of NPR says, "Woodson's language is beautiful throughout Red at the Bone, but it positively soars in the sections written from Iris' mother's point of view." [3] Nic Stone of The Washington Post says, "Red at the Bone is a narrative steeped in truth — and, yes, it's painful. But it's also one of healing and hope." [3] Joshunda Sanders of Time says, "Running through the novel is the realization that all stages of life have disruptions that will ripple on the surface and also below...." [4] And The New York Times says, "With its abiding interest in the miracle of everyday love, Red at the Bone is a proclamation" [1] Margaret Wilkerson Sexton of the San Francisco Chronicle says this book's "...vast emotional depth, rich historical understanding and revelatory pacing lure the reader into the tender makeup of one family's origin and promise. [8]

Awards

YearAwardCategoryResultRef
2019 Reading Women Award FictionShortlisted
2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlisted
Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlisted
BCALA Literary Awards Honor FictionLonglisted
BookTube Prize FictionQuarterfinalist
Ferro-Grumley Award LGBTQ FictionShortlisted
Lambda Literary Award Lesbian Fiction Shortlisted
NAACP Image Award Fiction Shortlisted
Ohioana Book Award FictionShortlisted

Related Research Articles

<i>The Blind Assassin</i> 2000 novel by Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin is a novel by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2000. The book is set in the fictional Ontario town of Port Ticonderoga and in Toronto. It is narrated from the present day, referring to previous events that span the twentieth century but mostly the 1930s and 1940s. It is a work of historical fiction with the major events of Canadian history forming an important backdrop, for example, the On-to-Ottawa Trek and a 1934 Communist rally at Maple Leaf Gardens. Greater verisimilitude is given by a series of newspaper articles commenting on events and on the novel's characters from a distance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">V. C. Andrews</span> American novelist (1923–1986)

Cleo Virginia Andrews, better known as V. C. Andrews or Virginia C. Andrews, was an American novelist. She was best known for her 1979 novel Flowers in the Attic, which inspired two movie adaptations and four sequels. While her novels are not classified by her publisher as Young Adult, their young protagonists have made them popular among teenagers for decades. After her death in 1986, a ghostwriter who was initially hired to complete two unfinished works has continued to publish books under her name.

<i>A Tree Grows in Brooklyn</i> (novel) 1943 semi-autobiographical novel by Betty Smith

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a 1943 semi-autobiographical novel written by Betty Smith.

<i>The End</i> (novel) 2006 childrens novel

Book the Thirteenth: The End is the thirteenth and final novel in the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The book was released on Friday, October 13, 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline Woodson</span> American writer (born 1963)

Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for children and adolescents. She is best known for Miracle's Boys, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. After serving as the Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, by the Library of Congress, for 2018 to 2019. Her novel Another Brooklyn was shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. She won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2018. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.

<i>The Suitcase Kid</i> 1992 childrens novel by Jacqueline Wilson

The Suitcase Kid is a children's novel written by Jacqueline Wilson and illustrated by Nick Sharratt. The story focuses upon a young girl, Andy, caught between her warring parents' bitter divorce, and the determination Andy has to get her parents back together. However, as the story proceeds, Andy realizes that she has to accept that her parents will not reunite and that she must move on like they did.

<i>The Diamond Girls</i> 2004 novel by Jacqueline Wilson

The Diamond Girls is a 2004 children's novel by Jacqueline Wilson. The protagonist and narrator is Dixie Diamond, the youngest in a family of four sisters, who all have different fathers. Their mother Sue, pregnant with her fifth child, which she believes to be a boy, decides to move them from their domicile on a council estate to a larger council house on the "Planet Estate." All her children are unhappy about this, especially the oldest, Martine, whose boyfriend Tony lives next door. As an avid believer in astrology, tarot cards, and destiny, Sue believes she knows her baby is going to be a boy, and that, regardless of her daughters' opinions, moving will be the best thing for the family.

<i>Feathers</i> (novel) Novel by Jacqueline Woodson

Feathers is a children's historical novel by Jacqueline Woodson that was first published in 2007. The story is about a sixth-grade girl named Frannie growing up in the '70s. One day an unexpected new student causes much chaos to the class because he is the only white boy in the whole school. Feathers grapples with concepts such as religion, race, hope, and understanding. The book examines what it was like to grow up right after segregation had been outlawed, how all people are equal, and that hope is everywhere. The book was a Newbery Honor winner in 2008.

<i>Miracles Boys</i> (novel) 2000 young adult novel by Jacqueline Woodson

Miracle’s Boys is a young adult novel by Jacqueline Woodson featuring three young brothers of African-American and Puerto Rican descent growing up without parents in Harlem. It won the Coretta Scott King Award in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Jill Robinson</span> Canadian writer, editor and teacher (born 1955)

Jacqueline Jill Robinson is a Canadian writer and editor. She is the author of a novel and four collections of short stories. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and literary journals including Geist, the Antigonish Review, Event, Prairie Fire and the Windsor Review. Her novel, More In Anger, published in 2012, tells the stories of three generations of mothers and daughters who bear the emotional scars of loveless marriages, corrosive anger and misogyny.

<i>Show Way</i> Book by Jacqueline Woodson

Show Way is a 2005 children's picture book by American author Jacqueline Woodson with illustrations by Hudson Talbott. The book was made into a film in 2012 by Weston Woods Studios, Inc., narrated by the author. It recounts the stories of seven generations of African-Americans and is based on the author's own family history. Show Way was a John Newbery Medal Honor Book in 2006 and was featured in Reading Rainbow that same year in the series finale.

<i>Brown Girl Dreaming</i> 2014 book by Jacqueline Woodson

Brown Girl Dreaming is a 2014 adolescent verse memoir written by Jacqueline Woodson. It tells the story of the author’s early childhood life growing up as an African American girl in the 1960’s and depicts the events that led her to become a writer. The book has been considered one of the exemplary pieces of modern children’s literature by critics who have analyzed the book and has gained positive reception. It has won multiple awards, including a Newbery Honor.

<i>The Pure Gold Baby</i> Margaret Drabble novel

The Pure Gold Baby is British novelist Margaret Drabble's 18th novel, first published in 2013. The novel was her first novel to be published in seven years, following The Sea Lady. In 2009, Drabble had pledged not to write fiction again, for fear of "repeating herself."

<i>Another Brooklyn</i> 2016 novel by Jacqueline Woodson

Another Brooklyn is a 2016 novel by Jacqueline Woodson. The book was written as an adult book, unlike many of the author's previous books and titles. NPR wrote that the book was "full of dreams and danger". It was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction in 2016.

<i>Kim Ji-young, Born 1982</i> 2016 novel by Cho Nam-joo

Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 is a novel by Cho Nam-Joo. A former scriptwriter for TV programs, Cho took two months to write the story as according to her, the title character "Kim Ji-young's life isn't much different from the one I have lived. That's why I was able to write so quickly without much preparation." Published by Minumsa in October 2016, it has sold more than 1 million copies as of 27 November 2018, becoming the first million-selling Korean novel since Shin Kyung-sook's Please Look After Mom in 2009.

Claire Hartfield is an American writer of history-inspired novels, best known for her Coretta Scott King Award-winning non-fiction novel A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919.

<i>Lost Children Archive</i> 2019 novel by Valeria Luiselli

Lost Children Archive is a 2019 novel by writer Valeria Luiselli. Luiselli was in part inspired by the ongoing American policy of separating children from their parents at the Mexico–United States border. The novel is the first book Luiselli wrote in English.

Carol Rose GoldenEagle is a writer and broadcaster, from Saskatchewan.

<i>What Storm, What Thunder</i> 2021 book about an earthquake in Haiti

What Storm, What Thunder is a novel written by professor and award-winning author Myriam J.A. Chancy. Chancy, an American, Canadian, and Haitian writer had this novel published on September 14, 2021, by Tin House Books. It was later nominated for one of the best books of 2021 by The Washington Post. Margaret Atwood characterized it as “stunning” and Edwidge Danticat called it “sublime.” Although a work of fiction, What Storm, What Thunder is based on Chancy's listening to the devastating testimonies of many Haitians whose life was forever changed by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010.

Bridgett M. Davis is an American writer, teacher and independent filmmaker. Her memoir The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers, was a New York Times Editors' Choice and was named a Best Book of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews. She is Professor of Journalism and the Writing Professions at Baruch College, City University of New York, where she teaches Creative, Film and Narrative Writing.

References