Dedra Muhammad's Blog: What I Learned From My Near Rape - Posts Tagged "the-black-experience"

Greetings, Everyone! I am so excited!!! I have a story to tell, but I have to start with what my book is about. This description is a MUST read. In October 2019, I "came out of the closet" about what Making Mary is really about, and it is MORE than this description which is the answer to one interview question. But again, you will need to start here:

Making Mary by Dedra Muhammad

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What sets Making Mary apart from any other love story regardless of time, race and gender?

Dedra Muhammad Answered:


Making Mary is outwardly guised as a breathtaking love story. The love triad serves to navigate the sensibilities of the reader—the reader is compelled to fall in love with the characters. In fact, the passion readers possess for the extraordinarily well-developed characters gives the other themes unimaginable strength. Making Mary can be called the greatest love story ever because the character depth in each actor is profound. How Stella got her Groove Back, though entertaining, pales in comparison to the ardor and profundity present in Making Mary.


This is not to subtract from the former, it is to suggest that readers are more privy to the characters’ subliminal mental processing in Making Mary. Readers are hence propelled to find solutions to their own everyday struggles since they can identify with the seemingly most vicious villains in Making Mary, or that part of self we tend to hide from others.
The Best Man can be considered a love story, yet Making Mary is more than a love story. A story of love is told, and that story happens to be the most heart-wrenching story I’ve ever read in my life. Yet to describe it as a love story alone would be misleading. Making Mary is like The Secret in the sense that there is a crystal clear connect when a reader is engaged in the story. I know right away if one has thumbed through it versus reading it.

To make it plain, I sometimes describe Making Mary as a love story to capture the attention of readers who are accustomed to a particular genre. Making Mary is thus quite palatable to those who like Zane, Eric Jerome Dickey, and Terri McMillan. Nonetheless, she can sit on any bookshelf next to the likes of the great Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison; she can cross-compare to Gone with the Wind and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and all would be in good company. Jane Eyre is a riveting love story if you will.

The history and themes are so powerful that it is considered required reading in plenty of honors literature courses. Though entertaining, Waiting to Exhale is not the type of literature I would expect my English professor would have the class discuss as a group. Terri McMillan obviously did not mean it for that purpose.
Some critics have stated that Making Mary should be considered required reading in an array of fields---and they have not made this claim because it is considered merely the most compelling love story of all times. In Gone with the Wind, the Civil War is a backdrop of an inspiring love story; in Making Mary, the Black Experience is the backdrop demonstrative of mental conditions that have spread over generations.

Additionally noteworthy by God’s Grace is Making Mary appeals to a wide audience. This “love story” has captured the hearts of incarcerated males, females with doctorates, single mothers with less than a high school education, urban fiction readers, Harvard English graduates, history buffs, and many more.

Greetings, Everyone!

I am hoping you will follow me on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

I started writing Making Mary over two decades ago in my quest to uncover aspects of my family history. In my quest, I discovered murder, rape, love triads, abuse, and scores of topics meant to remain swept under the rug. Somehow, I would need to tell the story with all its wretched edges and indiscretions--and yet give readers hope, love, humor, power, knowledge, and rich history.

The reason I love romance is because it's refreshing. I love reading about pure love, conflict, undying passion---but I shy very far away from romance novels that are graphic, overly sexual, erotic, and themed around someone's sex life. In other words, I love stories that deal with matters of the heart, not the body. I understand that sexuality and the nature between man and woman is a reality, but I have learned through the writings of many great authors like Toni Morrison how to use discretion and sophistication when dealing with these matters.

Through the use of my magical pen, I can tell a story with the same information hidden in the style and choice of words--still keeping the reader informed if they can read between the lines. In other words, some truths must be told, but these truths can be as colorful and as descriptive as how rain drops softly on one's leaking rooftop in the wee hours of the morning. Can you hear the rain? Can you feel the rain? If so, then you can understand a little about what makes Making Mary by Dedra Muhammad so captivating.

Thank you for following me!