I’ve been seeing Jacqueline Woodson’s book on everyone’s “Best Books of the Year So Far” lists so of course I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
It’s as good as everyone says it is.
It’s Woodson’s memoir of her childhood. It’s all written in verse, and although I’m not a big fan of verse, I really enjoyed this book. I’m not sure if that says something about Woodson’s writing or my growth as a reader. Possibly both.
All language has a rhythm to it, even prose if we know how to look for it. Personally, I tend not to notice it (at least not consciously), but verse forces you to pay attention to its rhythm.
Brown Girl Dreaming is written in free form verse, but there’s definitely a rhythm to it, and once I opened myself up to that rhythm, let it pick me up and carry me floating across the page, it vastly improved the quality of my reading experience.
Woodson’s rhythm was only part of the magic of her writing. With just a few words, she managed to draw vivid pictures of the South, Brooklyn, and the vastly different people and cultures that were a part of her life growing up. The language she used included beautiful imagery and sometimes repetition, which is much more effective in verse than in prose.
Woodson had the good fortune (or misfortune, depending on how you look at it) to grow up during the Civil Rights Movement. As a young black girl, she was a part of this movement, even if she wasn’t actively marching or able to fully understand what was happening. When she was born in Ohio in 1963 she could go almost anywhere she wanted. Then her mother decided to leave Jackie’s father, taking Jackie and her older brother and sister with her to South Carolina, where they had to ride in the back of the bus and couldn’t go to certain stores or restaurants.
In South Carolina, all the talk was of the opportunities in New York City, so Jackie’s mom moved them all to Brooklyn, where they weren’t allowed to wander off to the white part of town.
I want to say a lot of things about Woodson’s writing, but because I don’t read a lot of poetry, I don’t feel very qualified to write about it. I can say that Woodson is a master at using just a few words to bring a whole world to life: the country, the city, family, friends, school, the music she grew up listening to, the changing fashions. She never left any doubt as to where or when she was talking about. Many accomplished writers have used tens or hundreds of thousands of words and failed to convey what Woodson conveyed in just a few hundred words.
What did you guys read this week? Anything outside your comfort zone? I want to hear all about it!
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