FOR LAMB

Multiple narrators detail the danger and despair of growing up Black in Jim Crow Mississippi.

Lamb Clark is a high schooler who, for the most part, embodies the gentle spirit her name implies even though she holds on to the hope that she’ll be able to stand up for herself one day. Her older brother, Simeon, has a contentious relationship with their mother, Marion, a talented seamstress who is a little “rough around the edges” and wholly dedicated to her children. These three along with Marion’s secret lover, Myrtle; her husband, Chester; and younger brother, Chime, guide readers through a book that looks directly at the indescribable horrors of lynching. Although the book is mostly set in 1940 Jackson, Mississippi, after Lamb befriends Marny, the White daughter of her racist optometrist, she feels hope that their friendship might bridge the gap created by hatred. Unfortunately, a tremendous tragedy shows Lamb that her optimism is irreparably misplaced. Vignettes from each character provide insights into their personal knowledge of insidious racism, with incidents of lynching linking generations within this family. The voices of the characters complement each other, and the movement through narrators creates space for the readers to breathe so that the tension that fills the book from the very first page doesn’t completely overwhelm.

An important and resolute depiction of the inhumanity of a still potent problem.