THE NAMES OF ALL THE FLOWERS

A nonfiction writer’s account of losing a brother to the streets and, eventually, gun violence.

The daughter of a white Quaker man and his black Southern wife, Valentine grew up in 1990s Oakland, an environment saturated with “hip-hop, R&B, absolute pride in blackness and our culture, and also a crack epidemic, a war on drugs, the three-strikes laws, and pervasive violence.” She looked up to her mischievous older brother Junior for guidance, watching him “as if he [were] my mirror.” Junior began stealing in early adolescence to win the respect of bullies who taunted him, and Valentine’s parents put him in different schools to keep him safe. However, he continued to engage in petty theft and seek out the company of other troubled boys. Eventually his parents sent him to live briefly with a relative in North Carolina. Valentine observes that this was not so much to punish Junior as much as it was an act to protect a “young black boy body” from negative influences and the police. He returned not long afterward, wearing a “cool disguise” of toughness. In a bid for “cash and power,” Junior became involved in car theft and using and selling drugs, including crack. Valentine hid her rage and sadness at Junior’s transformation by earning good grades, which she used as a shield from being discovered for smoking marijuana and cutting class. At 18, Junior went to jail for kidnapping and assault. At the same time, Valentine’s home life deteriorated, and her outlook became increasingly hopeless. Just one week after her brother was released from prison, he was gunned down on the streets of Oakland. Moving and profound, this book not only offers a poignant depiction of a woman’s undying love for her departed brother. It also tells the story of a cycle of racial violence not only fed by society, but history as well.

An eloquently poignant memoir of family, trauma, and loss.