All I Need to Get By by Sophfronia Scott

by Sophfronia Scott

Crita has come a long way from her small-town Ohio roots. A successful tax accountant living in Manhattan, she finally has the independent life that she dreamed of as a girl. However, with one fateful phone call, Crita's life is turned upside down. Suddenly back home, living under her parent's roof, Crita must confront two powerful men from her childhood--Link, her destructive brother with whom she shares a dark secret, and Tree, her first love.Facing memories that she would rather forget, Crita struggles to reconcile a tumultuous past with a calmer, quieter present. Needing help along the way, she may even learn to lean on Tree, the only man who could ever give her "what she needs to get by." In this riveting debut novel, All I Need to Get By , Sophfronia Scott speaks for anyone that knows just how hard it is to go back home again.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

About the author

Sophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has received a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts. Her book The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton won the 2021 Thomas Merton “Louie” Award from the International Thomas Merton Society. She holds a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Sophfronia began her career as an award-winning magazine journalist for Time, where she co-authored the groundbreaking cover story “Twentysomething,” the first study identifying the demographic group known as Generation X, and People. When her first novel, All I Need to Get By, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2004 Sophfronia was nominated for best new author at the African American Literary Awards and hailed by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as “potentially one of the best writers of her generation.”

Her latest book is Wild, Beautiful, and Free, a historical novel set during the Civil War. Sophfronia’s other books include Unforgivable Love, Love’s Long Line, Doing Business By the Book, and This Child of Faith: Raising a Spiritual Child in a Secular World, co-written with her son Tain. Her essays, short stories, and articles have appeared in numerous publications including Yankee Magazine, The Christian Century, North American Review, NewYorkTimes.com, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Her essays “Hope On Any Given Day,” “The Legs On Which I Move,” and “Why I Didn’t Go to the Firehouse” are listed among the Notables in the Best American Essays series.

Sophfronia has taught at Regis University’s Mile High MFA and Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction. She is currently the director of Alma College’s MFA in Creative Writing, a low-residency graduate program based in Alma, Michigan. Sophfronia lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

Reviews

[Mathieu Cailler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at love and general consanguinity. As thought-provoking as it is beautiful.

[Myesha-Tiara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite Quote: "...a little girl, a toddler, brushes against me...I look at the spot on my arm where she had been and I feel her heat dissipate into the air. I didn't know I had grown so cold."~Crita

Dealing with a sibling who was once a star athlete turn to drugs has got to be a hard pill to swallow and Crita has been dealt it. Along with a sick father, she doesn't know if she is coming or going but her life is at a stand still.

Reading this book brings back memories of a older generation and generational curses that I'm myself working to break. It truly hits home with the flashbacks about her childhood and her parents childhood and is written so beautifully I feel like I'm there and her grandmother's story was unbelievable and like watching a movie!

Crita's relationships with her siblings are so complex yet those of use with siblings can identify with at least one of her annoyances she gets with hers' and there are quite a few especially with Ella. However her relationship with her brother, Linc, is far more complex even than that. It is as if he has a tie to her stronger than just siblings but soul mates. She feels as if she needs to go through every aspect of life with him from childhood until adulthood but she can't do everything for him and I feel that's her biggest conflict in this book. Her lack of awareness to how much damage her brother leaves in his wake is so triggering and disappointing to see but it is some black women's reality. Definitely worth the read and as a first novel it is groundbreaking.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I put aside homework to finish this novel, and read several hundred pages in one sitting. This was a truly wonderful book about the love a family has for one another, and the lessons families teach us about forgiveness and understanding.

[David Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful story, told with authenticity. I look forward to her second book.

[Fenesha Hubbard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account of a woman's journey as she learns how to love with boundaries. Note: read with tissue!

[Jasonlylescampbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was a deep exploration of what addiction does to someone who loves the person who falls into it. It also explores family and love in a family. It was powerful and painful.

[Aninka Martek · Rating 4 out of 5]

My biggest hiccup was that I approached the novel expecting a romance but it turned out to be a different sort of love story, that of a sister's love for her addict brother. There is just no getting around that addiction makes for a hard story, however this is one that seeps in and stays with you. Each character is drawn with incredible depth and respect. The family in the book is a beautiful mosaic in movement. The witnessing of drug addiction is given its unglorified traumatic weight and justice is paid to the entanglements it causes as different family members approach helping in conflicting ways. Most of all I appreciated how differently intelligent each character was shown to be. They each had their "take me as I am" moment when the reader says, "YES."

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every family has someone who is the "caretaker," who keeps everything together. Crita is that person in her family, who stays strong and focused for the family she loves so fiercely, even at the expense of herself. I know why Crita loved her family -- they are all characters worth loving.