To Be Renamed... Book Club discussion

We will meet on Wednesday, August 29, 2018 at Biddle's Escape (6:30-8:00 pm) to discuss Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's debut novel from 2017, A Kind of Freedom.

Description from Google Books:

Evelyn is a Creole woman who comes of age in New Orleans at the height of World War II. Her family inhabits the upper echelon of Black society, and when she falls for no-account Renard, she is forced to choose between her life of privilege and the man she loves.

In 1982, Evelyn's daughter, Jackie, is a frazzled single mother grappling with her absent husband's drug addiction. Just as she comes to terms with his abandoning the family, he returns, ready to resume their old life.

Jackie's son, T.C., loves the creative process of growing marijuana more than the weed itself. He was a square before Hurricane Katrina, but the New Orleans he knew didn't survive the storm. Fresh out of a four-month stint for drug charges, T.C. decides to start over--until an old friend convinces him to stake his new beginning on one last deal.

For Evelyn, Jim Crow is an ongoing reality, and in its wake new threats spring up to haunt her descendants. A Kind of Freedom is an urgent novel that explores the legacy of racial disparity in the South through a poignant and redemptive family history.

This book was long-listed for the 2017 National Book Award and was listed as a Notable Book in the New York Times.

Here's a New York Times review if you'd like to check it out before or after reading the book. (WARNING: I did not scrub the review for spoilers, so enter at your own risk.)

Hope to see you next month!