Urban Life Experience Book Discussion Series

On Saturday Dec. 1 we had our last book discussion for this year and it was probably one of the most intense discussions we've had so far. There were eight of us, three of which it was their first time attending. I mentioned the book Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward in the last post and I honestly considered it to be a much "deeper" book than An American Marriage , but I have to admit after hearing what seven other people had to say, I see more in  An American Marriage as I had previously. Shelara pointed out for us the three paternal relationships that add nuance to the story: Roy and Big Roy Roy and Walter Andre and Carlos Shelara: "Walter is a fun house version of Big Roy" After being released, Roy writes a letter to his biological father Walter asking him for advice. This is the first time Roy acknowledges Walter as a father. Up until then Roy only respected Big Roy, the father who had married his mother and adopted him, gave him his name an...

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones has been getting great reviews all year long. There’s even a rumor that it’s going to be made into a movie! The author indicated that she wanted to write a book underscoring the problems of an unfair justice system and mass incarceration, but she wanted to do it from the point of view of a story. The story she created describes what happens in the marriage of Celestial and Roy, when Roy is unjustly convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison.   Celestial and Roy are well-educated and modernly upwardly mobile.   Although the couple’s home is in Atlanta, they have traveled to a small town in Louisiana to visit Roy’s parents. It’s here, at the one-star hotel (the only hotel in town,) where their troubles begin.   It just so happens that a prison in Louisiana is featured last book we discussed, Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward. In Sing Unburied Sing the prison is the infamous Parchman Prison Farm. The characters are rural a...