HOW WE HEALED

A historical novel inspired by tales of the Great Migration.

This fictionalized account of hardship, escape, and closure is based on the stories told by  Loucindia, the great-grandmother of coauthors Melody Fowler and Arric Fowler. Drunetta grows up in an unnamed Southern town; she describes her people as a combination of “down home farm stock and uptown education.” She lost her first and only love, Xavier, because her parents felt she was too young at 16 to be dating. At the age of 21, Drunetta later married Abraham Brown in 1935 and started a family. Abraham, however, was unreliable; he drank at the local, illegal bar and ran around with other women. When Drunetta discovered these affairs in 1957, she helped the police arrest Abraham for a violent act he committed, and she took a train to New York City with her youngest three children; two others were already grown. Up north, she struggled to raise her family and came to rely on two very different friends: church lady Sister Rose and bar singer Miss Rayceen. The women, whose backstories readers learn, became emotionally and legally bound to Drunetta and her family, which grew as her brothers joined her in the city. Much of the story is from Drunetta’s perspective; readers will find it enjoyable to see the world through her eyes, and she’s surrounded by compelling characters as she experiences intriguing plot developments. However, Drunetta’s narrative voice is almost identical to those of some of the other narrators, which include three of her daughters. Most of the narration is set in the late 1950s and early ’60s, but the various stories encompass events further in the past; in addition, the story checks in briefly with the Browns in 1971, 1981, 1986, 2009, and 2011. At the end of her life, Drunetta makes an intriguing admission that she says provided her with the healing experience she needed—one that’s referenced in the book’s title.

An often vivid family saga, centered on a satisfyingly complex matriarch.