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daisytee's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is an emotional read set it the Deep South. During the 1950 - 1960 time period. Started out very strong slows in the middle to the point I considered it a DNF, but then there is a catastrophic event and the story took off from there. Anna Jean Mayhew also has another very good book, same time period and similar setting but much better than this one called. The Dry Grass Of August highly recommend that one.
Content Warnings
This book is very sad in the fact there is so much racism happening during this time. It prevents a love story from being able to become something beautiful and a child from knowing one of their parents.
pnelson384's review against another edition
3.0
This book is the Community Read choice for my local library this spring, and it was very interesting. It tells the story of what happened to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Charlotte, NC in the 1960s from a few different viewpoints. The primariliy black neighborhood was torn down and the residents displaced by the city as the city expanded. The story follows a single mother, a local pastor and a wife of one of the city planners through the period of time where all the changes were happening. I learned a lot about what happened, and have a better understanding of the city I call home right now.
rachaelsreadingnook's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
thelexingtonbookie's review against another edition
4.0
My IRL friend Amber from The Pedestrian Equestrian mentioned this book to me a few months ago, and I lucked out on finding the audiobook via Hoopla. Narrated by Allyson Johnson, whose voice gave life to main character Loraylee (Low-Ray-Lee), the audio easily captured my imagination.
In alternating past and present narratives, Loraylee Hawkins shares about her life in small town Brooklyn, NC in the 1960's. She reminisces on her past growing up in the "separate but equal" segregated town, where she fell in love with a white man named Albert and raised his child, and the tribulations that followed the relationship. Then she moves back into the present, in which the gentrification is about to commence on Brooklyn because the current area was "dilapidated and dangerous."
Woven into Loraylee's tale is Pastor Polk, whose church is being relocated to a more "suitable" destination outside the town limits. This historical church is home to over 150 year old graves, yet these resting grounds must be moved too. Uncertain about what this will mean for the families of his congregation, yet forced to be a silent observer of the demolition of his town, Pastor Polk can only hope to preserve the source of community for the parishioners.
This historical fiction novel gives the reader the ability to see through the eyes of those who lost their homes and community as it was pulled out from under them. The novel touches on the sensitive but current issues of racism and white privilege by looking to the past and the actions that caused the cracks in America's foundation. In the novel, Mayhew describes what it was like to be forced out of home, or to watch others be forced out, because of the crooked systems that controlled (and still do) everything. The Jim Crow laws may have overturned, but predominately white government officials and their underling supporters resisted the change- and in doing so, made decisions based on their personal interests, not the best interest of those involved.
This is why, when I googled "Brooklyn, North Carolina", there is very little on it's historical connection to the gentrification of the now Glenwood district of Raleigh, NC. I did manage to find this excellent article that pulls the skeletons out of Glenwood's closet, and applaud both it's author and Mayhew to sharing the truth about it's past.
Though the subject of the novel is bleak, the information given and feelings evoked by Mayhew's characters makes it a must-read. I personally enjoyed Loraylee's character development and her keen observations, and was intrigued by her life. I'll be recommending this one to my bookish, progressive friends who can truly appreciate Mayhew's sentiments, and sincerely thank Amber for the OG recommendation.
In alternating past and present narratives, Loraylee Hawkins shares about her life in small town Brooklyn, NC in the 1960's. She reminisces on her past growing up in the "separate but equal" segregated town, where she fell in love with a white man named Albert and raised his child, and the tribulations that followed the relationship. Then she moves back into the present, in which the gentrification is about to commence on Brooklyn because the current area was "dilapidated and dangerous."
Woven into Loraylee's tale is Pastor Polk, whose church is being relocated to a more "suitable" destination outside the town limits. This historical church is home to over 150 year old graves, yet these resting grounds must be moved too. Uncertain about what this will mean for the families of his congregation, yet forced to be a silent observer of the demolition of his town, Pastor Polk can only hope to preserve the source of community for the parishioners.
This historical fiction novel gives the reader the ability to see through the eyes of those who lost their homes and community as it was pulled out from under them. The novel touches on the sensitive but current issues of racism and white privilege by looking to the past and the actions that caused the cracks in America's foundation. In the novel, Mayhew describes what it was like to be forced out of home, or to watch others be forced out, because of the crooked systems that controlled (and still do) everything. The Jim Crow laws may have overturned, but predominately white government officials and their underling supporters resisted the change- and in doing so, made decisions based on their personal interests, not the best interest of those involved.
This is why, when I googled "Brooklyn, North Carolina", there is very little on it's historical connection to the gentrification of the now Glenwood district of Raleigh, NC. I did manage to find this excellent article that pulls the skeletons out of Glenwood's closet, and applaud both it's author and Mayhew to sharing the truth about it's past.
Though the subject of the novel is bleak, the information given and feelings evoked by Mayhew's characters makes it a must-read. I personally enjoyed Loraylee's character development and her keen observations, and was intrigued by her life. I'll be recommending this one to my bookish, progressive friends who can truly appreciate Mayhew's sentiments, and sincerely thank Amber for the OG recommendation.
randis724's review against another edition
4.0
This was a quick read that offered some insight into a local story that I have heard of for years. The characters were likable and it gives the reader lots to think about.
tiffany_o's review against another edition
3.0
It took me a while to figure out that there were 3 perspectives in this book. I enjoyed that the setting was Charlotte, and that it depicted a fictional history about the Brooklyn neighborhood and urban renewal. It was a solid book, but slow at times.
moriahtsharpe's review against another edition
5.0
As a native Charlottean, I enjoyed reading about an aspect of local history that I did not learn about in school. Tomorrow's Bread explores the impact of urban renewal on the residents of Brooklyn, a Black neighborhood located in what is now Second Ward. I was fascinated by the descriptions of places like Memorial Stadium, McDowell Street, and Trade and Tryon, places with which I am familiar but that looked very different during the 1960s than they do today. Mayhew uses three characters to trace the unrelenting march of urban renewal through Brooklyn: Loraylee (a young Black mother living with her family in Brooklyn), Eben (the pastor of a Brooklyn church marked for demolition), and Persy (the wife of the white urban planner leading the urban renewal project). I found the story compelling and enjoyed getting to know the wide cast of characters, especially getting to see how the narrators' lives overlapped in various ways (there are explicit ways all three narrators enter each others' lives, and there are more subtle ways, like ). I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Black history and the history of Charlotte.
Spoiler
Loraylee's family using Alexander as a name handed down by their ancestors and Persy also having Alexander ancestry, suggesting a link between the Black and white Alexanderssvwvs's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0