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 Nowhere Is a Place by Bernice L. McFadden
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Nowhere Is A Place, by Bernice McFadden, is the first novel by this author that I am unsure what to do with. Ms. McFadden is an awesome writer and her narratives are a God given blessing. Nowhere Is A Place is two stories woven into one. The first story is about Sherry and her mother, Dumpling. The second story is the history of their ancestors. It is the second story that is the most powerful, and at times left me annoyed by the interruption of the first. For this reason, I am going to give Nowhere Is A Place a rating of 3.5 stars.
The story opens up with Sherry vacationing in Santa Rey Obius, Mexico, where she meets and falls in love with Jazz Pianist, Edison Powell. Their eight-year relationship is a tumultuous one, and we soon learn that Sherry doesn’t have much luck with love. Her Bohemian life-style one could say plays a part. But more so, the unresolved issues between mother and daughter are the biggest issue. After a bad break-up with Edison, Sherry retreats to Mexico and falls in love with the young son of the local mechanic. Love opens its arms for her once again but this time it leaves a present, she is now pregnant. At this point I am convinced that the book will be about Sherry, her new man, and how she will build a better relationship with her child than her mother did with her. That fantasy was only in my mind, but I admit, the element of surprise is a good thing.
Her pregnancy does move something within her, but it is to strengthen her relationship with Dumpling. The family has an upcoming family reunion in Georgia and Sherry decides there is no better way to get to know someone than a cross-country road trip. She convinces her mother to come along and this is where the book took a sharp left. During their journey, Sherry informs Dumpling she wants to write a book about the stories she’s heard through years of their family history. Dumpling is hesitant, but eventually agrees. The story then rotates between Sherry and Dumpling’s road escapades and moments of bonding, to Dumpling reading what Sherry has written from the stories Dumpling has shared with her.
The retelling of the family history; their Indian heritage, ancestors sold into slavery, the sexual molestation that has kept Dumpling away from her hometown for decades, take on a life of its own and is more of what I love from Bernice McFadden. At times the reader spends so much time with Lou, Buena, Brother, Suce, and the other cast of characters from the past that it seems almost an intrusion when Sherry and Dumpling reappear.
At the end of the book, Sherry has accomplished what she set out to do, which was to mend fences with Dumpling so her unborn child could have a chance at a relationship with her grandmother. But she also uncovers the secret behind a vicious slap across the face when Dumpling caught her sitting on her Uncle Vonnie’s lap as a child. She never tells Dumpling that she is pregnant but our elders are wise and pregnancy is one of those things that people just seem to know.
Nowhere Is A Place was inspired by Ms. McFadden’s own desire to search her family history. True supporters of her work will, like me, find a way to love this piece with the same spirit as we have those before it, and the ones to come. Still looking forward to reading her latest release, Glorious, which I her is awesome.
Tracy L. Darity is the author of two novels, He Loves Me He Loves Me Not! and Love…Like Snow In Florida on a Hot Summer Day. For more information, please visit www.TracyLDarity.com/Bookshtm.
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