Crossing Blood

Deep South Books

by Nanci Kincaid

Kincaid's fictional meditation on race relations in the Jim Crow South takes voice through its protagonist, a white teenage girl growing up in segregated Tallahassee. Lucy Conyers lives with her brothers, mother, and stepfather in Tallahassee, in the last house in the white part of town, just before the pavement ends and the road turns to dirt. On the other side of a patch of woods are Melvina Williams, the Conyers' maid, her drunken husband Old Alfonso, and a yard full of kids, mostly boys--including Lucy's obsession, the wild and handsome Skippy. This is the early 1960s and the battle over integration is brewing even in Lucy's own home. Her stepfather clings to segregationist ways, while her independent-minded mother believes in the cause of civil rights. Lucy  understands that there are unspoken lines she is not to cross, but her curiosity leads her to trespass on the forbidden world next door. There, she learns the hard realities of love, race, and hatred. The story, told convincingly and compellingly in the voice of its young narrator, examines the complex relationships between family members, men and women, blacks and whites. Crossing Blood is a novel of making promises and struggling to keep them, of unlikely bonds and forbidden ones, of love gone wrong and love everlasting.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published June 8, 1992

Reviews

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't even have to think about my review. It was simply amazing. A throughly enticing novel. I... Wow, you feel every emotion so vividly while reading. Lucy, the shy heroin has always admired colored Skippy - it was suppose to be doomed from the start, a colored boy with a white girl. But it wasn't doomed.
It was simply magic.

Some may say that the love interest between Lucy and Skippy was too drawn out, but I think it worked out perfectly. If you take the time to read this masterpiece - if you take the time to savour it's words, you'll know how fulfilled this book makes you feel.

An instant classic.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic author. This is the third book I've read by Nanci Kincaid and I love this one too. Her characters are real and complex- you're left wishing for a sequel because you know you'll miss them!

[Steelie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Easy read about a white family living at the end of a white block, next to the black neighborhood.

[Terry Perrel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine Southern novel. Should appear on the "Best of the South" lists.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love how it explores the love of two young children, with so many obsticals,

[Mary Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. A look at race relations from a completely different perspective and era. The characters are well drawn and the dialogue is believable and terrific. I gained so much understanding from this book.

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that you start reading and pretty much have already figured out what will happen by the end, but I was pleasantly surprised that this book didn't go in exactly the direction I thought it would.

The story follows Lucy, a white girl living on the edge of a neighbourhood between the white section and black section in segregated Florida. It pretty much centres around the interactions between her family and the black family next door and compares and contrasts their lives as they play out.

I enjoyed the book for the most part as it moved along nice and smoothly just like Kincaid's other books, but it felt like there was another level of story missing there, something deep beneath the surface that the author was skimming over somehow. I suppose that's probably because the story was written purely from the first person perspective of a young pre-teen and then teenage girl, but it did feel like the story could've been filled out so much more. However, it was definitely worth the read despite all of that.

[Jana Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book.