So just finished this book and had to write this review before I went to sleep..yes I should definitely be asleep LOL however this book is one that is easy to forget about and one you can easily put down and not pick up again (sorry) but, also when you do pick it up and start reading and get into it you can't stop! So it was that I was pleasantly surprised by this book and honestly it would have been a four star book on content and depth alone however it hit a few snags in its chronology but for its heart it does get a honorable mention :) Also in preliminary news about my reading life, this is the second book that I am reading for a book club--yes sit-at-home-reading-alone and loving-it Nique is trying to broaden her horizons, be a little bit more social and get to know others who love to read as well..baby steps, baby steps but I hopefully will be able to express my thoughts on this book which was essentially about a town in old Georgetown DC focused primarily on an adolescent girl Johnnie Mae and her family in a neighborhood of colored families connected as family pulled together in the most heartbreaking of circumstances--the death of a young child. Left in the care of Johnnie Mae her little sister Clara met her untimely demise in the forbidden and treacherous Potomac river while Johnnie Mae cavorted and relished in her love of the water oblivious to Clara's fear and deadly fall until it was too late..oh the horror when it is discovered that Clara's body went under and now how every member of their community grieves for her and the young life lost and lost opportunities.. this book is memorable in many ways definitely for its scenes of grief and poignancy dealing with the void and absence of a loved one..A standout favorite scene for me is the one where the mother Alice and Johnnie Mae are in the kitchen cooking and the silence from Clara's absence is palpable and real and written so vividly you feel the pain through the pages..I found many scenes like that, anecdotes, side stories and inner thoughts like that very well written and insightful however I did have problems with the overall flow of the story--the flasbacks and time shifts and at times nothing happened, there was little dialogue and just a tad too much description than I like but overall I would recommend this to others and really did like it..Kudos Book Club and the infamous Oprah Book Club too..hmm dare I try more>>:)
The first thing to know about this book is that it basically has no plot -- it's more a series of loosely connected vignettes that, when taken as whole, combine to give the reader an impression of African-American life in the 1920s in a particular neighborhood in Washington, D.C. So, while the book does open with a beautifully rendered chapter in which the 12-year-old protagonist's sister drowns in the Potomac river, that tragedy doesn't lead to the kind of linear story with clear resolution many readers might expect.In that respect, the book is a bit of a failure -- but to my mind, it more than makes up for it by presenting a compelling roster of leading and supporting characters who bring alive the social history of pre-Depression black Washington. To be sure, the little girl's death hovers over the entire book, and the author does a great job of showing how the community rallies to support the family, but it's really about the community, not the tragedy itself. We get little peeks into everyday life, rituals, habits, social mores, and so forth. And of course, racism and it's economic and social consequences are woven throughout the book in a seamless manner.Ultimately, it's a very personal book -- the author lost her child to an accident, and it's hard not to read the book as part of her grieving process. Also, her parents grew up in Georgetown during the era the book describes, and the book began as a story based on their reminisces, so in that sense it honors their history. It's definitely a book worth checking out if you have a connection to Washington, D.C. or just want a good fictional glimpse of African-American social history -- just don't expect much of a story.
What do You think about River, Cross My Heart (1999)?
This novel reads like a collection of stories where we get to follow a young African American girl named Johnnie Mae as she is coming of age in Georgetown in 1925 and dealing with the accidental drowing of her younger sister Clara. While I wish the author would have given more closure on Clara's death I found the authors way of describing life as an African American in 1925 to be very captivating and emotionally compelling. I still find myself wanting to know more on how Johnnie Maes life turned out and what becomes of her long after the story ends.
—Erin Caufield
(FROM JACKET)Six-year-old Clara Bynum is dead, drowned in the Potomac River in the shadow of an apparently haunted rock outcropping known locally as the Three Sisters.In scenes alive with emotional truth, "River, Cross My Heart" weighs the effect of Clara's absence on the people she has left behind: her parents, Alice and Willie Bynum, torn between the old world of their rural North Carolina home and the new world of the city, to which they have moved in search of a better life for themselves and their children; the friends and relatives of the Bynum family in the Georgetown neighborhood they now call home; and, most especially, Clara's sister, twelve-year-old Johnnie Mae, who must come to terms with the powerful and confused emotions sparked by her sister's death as she struggles to decide and discover the kind of woman she will become.
—J
Breena Clarke wrote a story that was at first heart-stopping and gut-wrenching, although at the end of the book, it left me hanging and thinking, what happened? I wish the story had had more depth.. I may have to agree with the others, there was no exact plot in the story, it seemed lacking. But her characters, Johnnie Mae particularly, captured my heart, from the moment she realized her sister was gone and felt guilty over her death and for her family's decision to move to another place.This story talks about racial discrimination, too. As young as she was, Johnnie Mae had inquiries that blacks must ask themselves today when stood up to with such a contemptuous thing as bigotry. But that is all it was in the story, that is much as far as it goes, as far as the water from Potomac River flows. I did enjoy reading it, I learned something from Johnnie Mae's struggles as she fulfilled her life's dreams. This may be the reason Oprah once picked this book on her book club.
—Claire - The Coffeeholic Bookworm
