This book by Toya Wolfe is a beautifully written coming-of-age story set in a neighborhood of Chicago where kids are forced to grow up too fast.
The book is written in first person limited from the perspective of the main character, Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens, a girl who lives in one of the high rises in Bronzeville, a predominantly black neighborhood on the south side of Chicago with low-cost housing. It’s full of gangs and violence, and for the residents of Bronzeville, even those as young as Fe Fe and her friends, dodging bullets has become second nature.
But, as with any neighborhood, the people who make up its community are not just one thing. Although Fe Fe’s dad isn’t around, her mom is a good mom who looks out for Fe Fe and her brother and makes sure there’s always good, homemade food on the table.
Her brother eventually gets pulled into gang life, something that’s almost impossible to avoid when you’re surrounded by it and the police treat you like you’re a gangster no matter what you do.
One of Fe Fe’s friends, Stacia, is also getting pulled into gang life around this time. Fe Fe blames herself for inviting Tonya into their friend group as the beginning of the end of her friendship with Stacia, but from what I could see, that relationship was already on the rocks. Stacia’s older sisters were part of a gang, and as she reached puberty, she was getting drawn into that life, while Fe Fe tried to stay away from it.
Their other friend, Precious, is the only one who has two parents around to take care of her. Her father is a prominent Elder in their local church, and while Fe Fe’s mom and grandma have never taken her to church, when she stays with Precious, they take her to church and Fe Fe finds peace there, something she needs more than ever as the world around her gets increasingly chaotic.
Fe Fe and her friends have seen Tonya around their building, but never interacted with her. On an impulse, Fe Fe invites Tonya to join them one day. Stacia hates this idea, although it’s never clear why. As she gets more active with her gang, she and her sisters start going after Tonya because Tonya was “going with” a gang member who was also going with a member of Stacia’s gang.
I put “going with” in quotes because Tonya is 11 and the dude is 17. She wants no part of this, but she doesn’t have a choice. Like Fe Fe, Tonya’s father is long gone. Unlike Fe Fe, her mother is an addict who will do anything for her next fix, including prostitute her daughter.
Fe Fe finds out about all this in bits and pieces over the course of a few months. The book is called Last Summer on State Street, but it covers more than just the summer. It includes the early fall when they go back to school and Fe Fe talks about their teacher, whom they all love. She understands the world they’re coming from, but she doesn’t accept that as an excuse for them to do less than their best. At one point, Fe Fe says she set the bar for them for what a teacher should be.
The book is called Last Summer on State Street because Bronzeville is getting gentrified, which means they all have to leave and find somewhere else to live. It’s not until Fe Fe talks to her grandma that she realizes this is far from the first time this has happened, and it probably won’t be the last. Her grandma says she used to live in what is now a predominantly white, upscale neighborhood of Chicago. When the white people decided they wanted to live there, Fe Fe’s grandma and all her neighbors had to move to what is now Bronzeville. A generation later, the cycle repeats itself.
But the title has multiple meanings. In a lot of ways, it’s also the last summer of their childhood as things happen to them and they make decisions that set their lives on the courses they’ll ultimately end up following into adulthood.
It’s also the summer of 1999, making it the last summer of the 20th century.
This book is a tough read, and it’s full of trigger warnings, but it’s really well written and I’m so glad I read it.