The Darkest Child - 4 stars > Likes and Comments

I chose this book because it was recommended by a favorite author of mine, Tayari Jones. This was the first and only novel by the author; I thought it was well written, but relentlessly bleak. Tangy Mae and her eight (nine for a while) siblings are the children of a woman named Rozelle, the most abusive mother I've ever encountered in a novel. All children are "fatherless" and Rozelle favors the light skinned ("her white children") over the darker ones. It's 1958 in Georgia, and Jim Crow rules, so there's plenty to get angry about in reading the story. The children form fierce bonds, strengthened by the abuse, but they've little experience with real love. Tangy is far and away the smartest, but also the darkest and it is heartbreaking to read of her efforts to balance being good, taking care of her siblings as well as she can, and trying to fulfill her own potential. She also struggles to care for her mother, because terrible though she is, she’s been taught that a child must love her mother. Life is certainly not fair. Sadly, I suspect the author is describing situations she witnessed and fairy tale endings rarely apply in real life. I would like to know more about this author, who died in 2014.