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Memphis Blues
A Powerful Connection
It was not the life she had planned. Nadine Mitchell was looking forward to getting her first real job, then starting a business. But when she finds herself pregnant before she even finishes high school, the young man's mother forces them into wedlock.
Carrie Boyd also saw her plans for a better life derailed after a fling leaves her pregnant with twins.
At the center of their angst is Cyrus, a man not yet ready to be a father....with his wife...or his girlfriend. Still, Cyrus manages to keep the two lives separate, while coveting the life he really wants.
What's done in the dark
Secrets don't stay buried for long. Years later, when the three of them accidentally meet at a protest rally, everything changes. The fireworks that ensue suddenly alter the dynamic of these relationships forever.
Set in the powerful backdrop of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, Memphis Blues will test the loyalty and strength of three people whose dreams were deferred. Will the women and the handsome doctor who controls them find their true callings? If so, at what price?
It was not the life she had planned. Nadine Mitchell was looking forward to getting her first real job, then starting a business. But when she finds herself pregnant before she even finishes high school, the young man's mother forces them into wedlock.
Carrie Boyd also saw her plans for a better life derailed after a fling leaves her pregnant with twins.
At the center of their angst is Cyrus, a man not yet ready to be a father....with his wife...or his girlfriend. Still, Cyrus manages to keep the two lives separate, while coveting the life he really wants.
What's done in the dark
Secrets don't stay buried for long. Years later, when the three of them accidentally meet at a protest rally, everything changes. The fireworks that ensue suddenly alter the dynamic of these relationships forever.
Set in the powerful backdrop of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, Memphis Blues will test the loyalty and strength of three people whose dreams were deferred. Will the women and the handsome doctor who controls them find their true callings? If so, at what price?
394 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 28, 2017
3 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Cheryl Mattox Berry
3 books3 followersI was born and raised in Memphis, Tenn. After I finished grad school at Northwestern University, I decided that I wanted to live in a more diverse city.
My former career as a journalist and my husband's job as a sportscaster have taken us to Charlotte, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Miami.
After my reporting days were over, I taught journalism at several colleges, including my alma mater, the University of Miami, Roosevelt University and Florida International University.
We've been in South Florida for more than 20 years. Both children are grown and live out of state.
I enjoy going to the beach, exercising, music, theater, reading, writing and travel. My daughter and I like to go on adventure trips. The last one was zip lining in the Shenandoah River State Park in Virginia. What a rush, flying over the trees with water rushing below.
I started writing books because I had all these thoughts, stories, characters and scenes running around in my head, and I wanted to do something with them. Tell a story.
Creative writing is much harder than writing for a newspaper or TV. The fun part is that you get to make up stuff. Wild and crazy things. And then you put it out there for readers to love or hate.
My former career as a journalist and my husband's job as a sportscaster have taken us to Charlotte, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Miami.
After my reporting days were over, I taught journalism at several colleges, including my alma mater, the University of Miami, Roosevelt University and Florida International University.
We've been in South Florida for more than 20 years. Both children are grown and live out of state.
I enjoy going to the beach, exercising, music, theater, reading, writing and travel. My daughter and I like to go on adventure trips. The last one was zip lining in the Shenandoah River State Park in Virginia. What a rush, flying over the trees with water rushing below.
I started writing books because I had all these thoughts, stories, characters and scenes running around in my head, and I wanted to do something with them. Tell a story.
Creative writing is much harder than writing for a newspaper or TV. The fun part is that you get to make up stuff. Wild and crazy things. And then you put it out there for readers to love or hate.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 11, 2018
I received a MOBI.file for this book from the author and the following is my honest opinion.
It’s unfortunate, but if you only read this book for its surface context you’ll only come away with your stereotypical view of life in the inner-city. A lifestyle in which minor teenage girls are willing to have relationships with grown men, so they can brag to their girlfriends of their prowess with the opposite sex. An inner-city lifestyle where teenage girls don’t even bat an eye at the possibility of getting pregnant; and where men, by the scores, don’t mind about being unfaithful to their wives. For if you do, you’ll miss the humanistic quality the story has to offer.
Stepping into the shoes of each of the protagonist in this story I found myself becoming pregnant by the same overly sex-oriented black male antagonist, Cyrus.
Being in Carrie Boyd’s shoes, she did something she should have known better not to do at her young age of being a teen, which is having a fling with an older married man. This moment of indiscretion wound up causing her to lose a possible ticket out of the poverty she’d been born into to a better life. And to make matters worse than they could be, she didn’t give birth to a single child, it had been twins. But luckily this married guy is trying his best to give her some support for having put her in the situation she’s in.
While being in Nadine Mitchell’s shoes, I saw that even though her plans, for getting a real job and hoping to eventually starting a business of her own after graduating high school, got wrecked my becoming pregnant; there was a saving grace, the guy’s righteous mother coerces him to do the right thing and marry her.
The antagonist, Cyrus, has his own issues in Memphis during the 1960’s when this story takes place; although he’s worked himself up and became a doctor, he has to endure his white colleague’s denial that he’s one of them. And while desperately wanting their acceptance, he somehow manages to keep his lives with these two women separate.
As expected, fate comes by to throw the proverbial monkey wrench in situations like these; for at a civil rights demonstration these three individuals meet fortuitously and what happens afterwards wind up forever changing the subtleties of their relationships, as it will cause them to examine their forte and devotion to the dreams they once had.
Having written articles for a community newspaper for several years, I couldn’t help but detect a slight journalistic style to Ms. Berry’s writing, a style which added a little authenticity to the story itself. For having written this somewhat thought-provoking story of the 1960’s for her readers, I’ve given Ms. Berry 5 STARS for her efforts here.
It’s unfortunate, but if you only read this book for its surface context you’ll only come away with your stereotypical view of life in the inner-city. A lifestyle in which minor teenage girls are willing to have relationships with grown men, so they can brag to their girlfriends of their prowess with the opposite sex. An inner-city lifestyle where teenage girls don’t even bat an eye at the possibility of getting pregnant; and where men, by the scores, don’t mind about being unfaithful to their wives. For if you do, you’ll miss the humanistic quality the story has to offer.
Stepping into the shoes of each of the protagonist in this story I found myself becoming pregnant by the same overly sex-oriented black male antagonist, Cyrus.
Being in Carrie Boyd’s shoes, she did something she should have known better not to do at her young age of being a teen, which is having a fling with an older married man. This moment of indiscretion wound up causing her to lose a possible ticket out of the poverty she’d been born into to a better life. And to make matters worse than they could be, she didn’t give birth to a single child, it had been twins. But luckily this married guy is trying his best to give her some support for having put her in the situation she’s in.
While being in Nadine Mitchell’s shoes, I saw that even though her plans, for getting a real job and hoping to eventually starting a business of her own after graduating high school, got wrecked my becoming pregnant; there was a saving grace, the guy’s righteous mother coerces him to do the right thing and marry her.
The antagonist, Cyrus, has his own issues in Memphis during the 1960’s when this story takes place; although he’s worked himself up and became a doctor, he has to endure his white colleague’s denial that he’s one of them. And while desperately wanting their acceptance, he somehow manages to keep his lives with these two women separate.
As expected, fate comes by to throw the proverbial monkey wrench in situations like these; for at a civil rights demonstration these three individuals meet fortuitously and what happens afterwards wind up forever changing the subtleties of their relationships, as it will cause them to examine their forte and devotion to the dreams they once had.
Having written articles for a community newspaper for several years, I couldn’t help but detect a slight journalistic style to Ms. Berry’s writing, a style which added a little authenticity to the story itself. For having written this somewhat thought-provoking story of the 1960’s for her readers, I’ve given Ms. Berry 5 STARS for her efforts here.
February 24, 2018
In the Memphis of the 1960s, two young black women, both impregnated by the same man, struggle to become independent. One must grapple with poverty; the other, while well-off, is little more than a slave (and punching bag) in the home of her doctor husband.
Set against a backdrop of Southern culture and the civil rights movement, this compelling story moves quickly and keeps the reader hooked. I felt like a fly on the wall, looking into two different worlds. I was rooting for both women, Carrie and Nadine, who struggle for independence. The main antagonist, Nadine’s husband, Cyrus, is a self-serving jerk but author Cheryl Mattox Berry writes him as multidimensional. He’s an adulterer who also loves his daughters, suffers the negation of racism, and longs to be treated the same as his white professional colleagues.
This novel reminded me of Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. It’s a coming-of-age story against the backdrop of the civil-rights-era South. Written by a career journalist, this is a fine debut novel, and I hope to see more from Berry in the future.
Set against a backdrop of Southern culture and the civil rights movement, this compelling story moves quickly and keeps the reader hooked. I felt like a fly on the wall, looking into two different worlds. I was rooting for both women, Carrie and Nadine, who struggle for independence. The main antagonist, Nadine’s husband, Cyrus, is a self-serving jerk but author Cheryl Mattox Berry writes him as multidimensional. He’s an adulterer who also loves his daughters, suffers the negation of racism, and longs to be treated the same as his white professional colleagues.
This novel reminded me of Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. It’s a coming-of-age story against the backdrop of the civil-rights-era South. Written by a career journalist, this is a fine debut novel, and I hope to see more from Berry in the future.
June 18, 2020
Paper TURNER!
I’m in a book club and this is the book of the month. And I wasn’t sure of it at first but I gave it a chance... OMG! It is SOOOO good. I really really enjoyed this book. It is an easy read and the pages just fly by. You find yourself thrown back into the 1960s and if you’re like me with a vivid imagination it was so easy to envision the characters. Lots of life lessons learned in this book. Age old life lessons and a few new ones as well. The author is amazing. I just loved this book. I can’t stop saying it! Maybe now I’ll study what I need to study since I finished this amazing book lol.
I’m in a book club and this is the book of the month. And I wasn’t sure of it at first but I gave it a chance... OMG! It is SOOOO good. I really really enjoyed this book. It is an easy read and the pages just fly by. You find yourself thrown back into the 1960s and if you’re like me with a vivid imagination it was so easy to envision the characters. Lots of life lessons learned in this book. Age old life lessons and a few new ones as well. The author is amazing. I just loved this book. I can’t stop saying it! Maybe now I’ll study what I need to study since I finished this amazing book lol.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews