Solemn: A Novel

by Kalisha Buckhanon

Solemn Redvine is a precocious Mississippi girl who senses a nearby baby may be her the outcome of her father's mistakes with a married woman who lives in their trailer park. After Solemn witnesses a man throw the baby down a community well, she struggles to understand the event, leaving her forever changed.As Solemn finds refuge in fantasies of stardom as well as friendships with her brother's wife and a nearby girl, the ill-fated baby's doomed mother disappears without a trace. Solemn remains trapped by connections to the missing other woman and an honest cop who suspects more to the story than others on the small local police force want to see. When her father's next mistake - a robbery - lands Solemn in a group home for troubled girls, she meets a Chicago delinquent who wants to escape. There, Solemn must face the truth of who she really is and what she is really made of.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

305 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 3, 2016

About the author

Kalisha is the author of the novels UPSTATE, CONCEPTION, SOLEMN and SPEAKING OF SUMMER: a book pick of Essence, O Magazine, TIME, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmo, Buzzfeed, Lit Hub and more. Her stories and essays are published in Fiction, CrimeReads, Fiction International, Oxford American, Black Renaissance Noire, Michigan Quarterly Review, pluck! and more. She is also seen on ID, BET and TV-One true crime shows as an expert. Her work is honored by the American Library Association, National Book Foundation, Audie Awards, Hurston-Wright Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, Friends of American Writers and more. She has English degrees from University of Chicago and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City.

Reviews

[Monica **can't read fast enough**]

This book is killing my wonderful book high that I was riding after finishing The Obelisk Gate, so I am going to abandon it for the time being. I'm getting frustrated with the dialogue and 'feel' of the book. Although the book is set in the late 1990's, the main characters and community come through as if they are living sometime before the Civil Rights era. The way language is used, the casual mention that no one in the community votes, the community is a trailer park where the people have been 'tricked' into being tenants (there are even outhouses that were communally dug), every man introduced so far is unlikable, and finally the fact that a baby goes missing and the police want to wait at least 24 hours to investigate have all contributed to me needing to walk away from this one. All of this may have been fine if the writing had caught me up, but unfortunately that isn't the case so far.

This may be a case of me not being in the right frame of mind to take in and appreciate this story. I may someday come back to this one; especially since this was, admittedly, mostly a cover buy and I bought the hardback edition. I hate the idea of having paid for a hardback and can't even finish it-that hurts my cheapskate soul. No rating on this one.

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[J Beckett · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a word... AMAZING!!!

Kalisha Buckhanon is a talent who reminds us why we love books.

[(Lonestarlibrarian) Keddy Ann Outlaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first I was bowled over by the author's gift for words, but as the book went on, I grew more and more dissatisfied and confused by the sketchy plot. I suppose the main character, Solemn, came of age before my eyes, but it felt like quite the slog to stay with her. I closed the book not knowing if she was mentally ill, superbly imaginative, psychic or addle-brained. The author's use of italicized reveries only added to this problem. Often it was unclear whose reveries they were.

We read about Solemn's many fugue states but are ultimately unclear what's up with her. Yes, as a young girl Solemn witnessed a terrible act of murder. Also she figures out that her father was carrying on with a distressed woman down the road in their small town Mississippi trailer park. She dreams of getting the heck out of there. Her father passes for respectable but is actually a no-good thief and ultimately Solemn pays the price for his crimes. I did enjoy reading about the occasional interventions of a good-minded African American cop. He tried to help Solemn, but I'm not sure anyone could. She remains steeped in the muck, perpetually misguided....

At first I saw some folksy similarities between Ms. Buckanon and J. California Cooper, an African American author I very much admire. As my dissatisfactions with the plot grew, that impression fell away. Also I was reminded of the film, "Precious" based on the book by Sapphire. I wish I could have given Solmen: a Novel a better review, but there you have it.

[Beverlee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solemn is a story of what-ifs and what could happen. Solemn is the daughter of Bev & Earl, sister of Landon. This is somewhat of a distinction in Bledsoe, MS for it's framed as town ensconced in poverty & "broken" homes. Solemn's life is far from idyllic. She's a witness to a horrific act & that's the beginning of the end.
In this book, the author uses a lot of imagery & Solemn has an active imagination. I think Ms. Buckhanon's writing technique is strong. Personally, I think the story was left unfinished, which is how life works often. The reader can only imagine what happens to Solemn & Majority after they reach their destination, if Bev & Red's relationship will ever be repaired, if the mystery surrounding Pearletta's death is solved.
In a not so obvious way, Ms. Buckhanon touched on issues of importance; specifically the effects of poverty on families, how black people are treated by the police, how people relate to each other.
This book is different from any I've read & it was a challenge to finish. Since I like to be challenged, that isn't a bad thing. I had hopes of Solemn finding peace, but it's not going to happen in a way I imagined, such as a neat ending. Instead, I'll think that Solemn gets out of the truck & makes a life for herself in a positive manner.

[Lynne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first time I've rated a book with only 1 star; it's also the first time I've finished a book that I disliked. To give you an idea of how I felt, I was glad when I finally finished the book today and could return it to the library. I continued reading this book because the author did have some good plot ideas and I was hoping these would be enough of those to eventually rope me into the storyline. The problem was with the author's writing style. Between writing the story using the African American vernacular and having a main character who was a bit "unhinged", the whole story was confusing. I never did quite figure out all of the sections written in italics which showed someone's inner thoughts, but switched among the characters so the reader was never quite sure who was doing the thinking at any given time. When I finally reached the ending of the story, it was less than satisfying. The book had an "open ending" that didn't seem to portend a good eventual outcome for the main character.

[Emily]

Decided to abandon this one, which is too bad because it has some really lovely writing in places and I see rave reviews for her other books. But I guess there's a reason this one is much lower rated, it was going slow and rambling all over the place and I kept putting it down and not picking it up again.

[Erica Ethington · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be fair I only read half of it before I quit. Maybe it’s that I’m not southern enough, but I couldn’t figure out half of what was being said and eventually got so frustrated I gave it up.

[University of Chicago Magazine]

Kalisha Buckhanon, AB’99, AM’07
Author

From our pages (Spring/16): "In the final novel in Kalisha Buckhanon’s trilogy on black American life, Solemn Redvine senses that a baby in her rural Mississippi trailer park may be her half sibling. After seeing the baby dropped down a community well, Solemn is thrown into chaos that only deepens when the baby’s mother disappears, a crime the local police force is reluctant to investigate. In this lyrical, haunting coming-of-age story, Solemn struggles to find identity and a way forward in the face of poverty and disenfranchisement."

[Florence Primrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solemn Redvine, a young girl, sensed the baby in a nearby trailer may be a half-sibling. But then she sees a man throw the baby down a well. Solemn keeps her screts to herself. Later after her father is a traveling salesman who takes his daughter she assists him in stealing large amounts from an empty wealthy home they come upon.

Solemn is silent and disturbed and the policeman realizes she has not done these things on her own. But she goes to the juvenile home for three years.

This was an interesting story about a black family in Missiddippi.

[retronerd Steinkuehler · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you like tales from the back hills with language to match then this is for you. Coming of age in a mixed-race, poor society and growing up fast. Done well, but a wasted effort.

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't have high expectations with this book. It was SO GOOD THOUGH.

[Opal · Rating 3 out of 5]

~copy kindly sent to me by the author for review purposes via goodreads~

Probably 2.5 stars.
I had much more of a problem with the pacing than I did with the plot. This was often hard to keep up with, it would change subject quite abruptly to the extent where I thought a character was dead for about 50 pages but it turns out they weren't? Also wasn't sure what decade it was set in for a little while either. I was left with more questions than answers, so many mysteries that weren't solved or were only partially explained. I feel like this would have worked better with either fewer plot threads or a much longer page count.
I really liked the characters we did get to know, though. Solemn was great and I'd happily read more of her story, along with Bolden and Akila.
A small niggle is also that there were a lot of typos in this, idk what the editors / proofreaders were doing.

[Susan Reeves deMasi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basic plot OK; heavy use of dialect and random characters' inner monologues made the whole book too confusing overall.

[Veronica Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly an awesome novel for this years' Reading Challenge & to be honest I wasn't so sure it would be on my list at first but so glad I gave it another chance.

[Jonesy952 · Rating 1 out of 5]

They try to write in vernacular, but it’s not really the vernacular. Hard to follow and so many missing commas and sentences that end in prepositions that I cannot figure out what the sentence says.

[Carolyn Hanson]

Read 100 pages. It was okay, but not captivating enough to keep going when the new Richard Russo novel came in at the library

[Beverly]

Solemn Redvine’s tenuous childhood living in a trailer park in rural Mississippi is bounded by the natural innocence all children should be entitled to and harsh realities of the lifestyle she was born into. Often troubled by seeing actions and overhearing conversations by adults, Solemn needs to process this information against her own dreams and expectations. This is the third novel I have read by Buckhanon and once again she writes with emotion, empathy, and dignity for her young characters coming-of-age where obstacles and hardships are the norm. Unfortunately, in this book, too often the storyline felt like it was standing still or was stalled and took me out of my reading rhythm. But in many ways I could see how this stalling could be associated with how life was for Solemn and the other character. I did enjoy the atmospheric hazy feel to the story which seems to match the character’s expectations of their lives.

[Christina]

A lyrical book in the language of the Mississippi bottom tells the story of a quirky black girl - curious, observant, and non conforming. As a girl she's astute to her father's affair with a Miss Pearl Hassle. She then is the only eye witness to the murder of her half sister who is dropped in the well by Miss Hassle's violent husband. ...for more visit: http://www.hypelit.com/#!Solemn-by-Ka...