Literary Fiction by People of Color discussion

If anyone would like to lead the August discussion of KIN by Tayari Jones, please let me know via direct message. Thanks!

Happy August everyone!

Has anyone read any other books by Tayari Jones before? Are you currently reading it, requested it from the library? What’s your thoughts on her as a writer?

Tayari Jones:

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tayari_...

NPR Interview: https://www.npr.org/2026/02/22/nx-s1-...

Tayari in conversation with Imani Perry for The New Orleans BookFest: https://youtu.be/hzbYerscjBQ?is=txbm0...-

Never read her before.

It's in demand at the 3 libraries I pull from so I went ahead and purchased a Kindle so that I could participate in the discussion.

Looking forward to a lively discussion.

Meant purchased a Kindle format copy of Kin. I already owned a Kindle.

I've never read her work either, even though she's been on my radar more than once.

I just got finished with An American Marriage a day ago, and I think her writing carries the book. I like her cadence. Her writing flows in a way that keeps me reading, but as far as the story itself - I'd say maybe for a filler book.

Kin reading schedule:

8/3 - 8/6 chapters 1-12
8/7 - 8/12 chap 13 - 25
8/13 - 8/19 chap 26 -33

Entire book open 8/20

Thank you Columbus!

Looking forward to starting Kin after my virtual book club meeting this evening.

Our August book was John of John
by Douglas Stuart

The book was named to the Booker Prize long list only last week.
Such a beautiful heartfelt book.

Looking forward to discussing Kin on the 6th!!! By the synopsis it seems it should be a fabulous read. Cannot wait to enter into the lives of Annie & Vernice.

Enjoy your reading everyone!

I was so lucky that I got a "Skip the Line" copy of Kin from Libby at the end on July, and I have been devouring it!

Deanna wrote: "I was so lucky that I got a "Skip the Line" copy of Kin from Libby at the end on July, and I have been devouring it!"

Good for you! I’m in the Libby line for both the ebook and the audio and I’m still months away! Eek!

Just finished. This will be my first discussion. Looking forward to it.

What’s your thoughts on the authors writing style?

Any thoughts on or does the author give any clues as to what the title of the book, Kin means?

The chapters alternate between the two main characters, Annie & Vernice. Contrast the similarities or differences between the two.

ColumbusReads wrote: "What’s your thoughts on the authors writing style?

Any thoughts on or does the author give any clues as to what the title of the book, Kin means?

The chapters alternate between the two main chara..."

One aspect of KIN that I really enjoyed was Tayari Jones's use of a dual POV. Reading the story from both Niecey's and Annie's perspectives gave me a deeper understanding of each character and allowed me to see how their experiences shaped their relationship. It also added depth to the story because I could appreciate each woman's thoughts, struggles, and growth.

I also think the title KIN is very fitting. Family is a central theme throughout the novel, and the title serves as both a description of the characters' connection and a subtle hint about the storyline. Although Niecey and Annie were very different in their personalities and experiences, they were both intentional about showing up for one another when it mattered most. Their commitment to supporting each other despite their differences made their relationship one of the strongest parts of the novel.

PNB...
Thanks for giving us an idea of what we can expect without spilling the beans.

This should be fun for me as besides literary fiction and contemporary fiction, historical fiction is a really a favorite genre of mine.

Cheryl wrote: "PNB...
Thanks for giving us an idea of what we can expect without spilling the beans.

This should be fun for me as besides literary fiction and contemporary fiction, historical fiction is a really..."

My pleasure!!

My comments Chapters 1 through 12
KIN
BY TAYARI JONES

My, my oh my. I love how Ms. Jones takes the clay that is composed of words and shapes them into something so very unexpected.

What follows here is one of my favorite quotes so far in the book.  In my humble opinion it is the most simple but very beautifully structured of all paragraphs in Chapters 1 through 12…

“Before I opened the door, I said, “I love you,” tossing the words over my shoulder like a handful of wildflower seeds.”

I am so in love with writing that takes raw/simple language ingredients and folds them into an eloquent cake of a book.

It didn't take me long to fall for the wounded characters Annie & Vernice. It also didn't take long for me to understand that even though they are not related by blood that they are related by circumstances. 

Therefore Jones names her novel

***KIN***

Two girls linked early on as they had both unjustly lost their mamas within the first year of their lives.

Once the girls come of age and it is time to decide what they want to do next in their lives, the roads they each take send them somewhere dramatically different.

Annie’s path took me somewhere very unexpected, a rural whorehouse compound.  She leaves with 3 others to make her way from Honeysuckle (I absolutely love the sweet and simple name of the girl's hometown), Louisiana to Memphis, Tennessee where her she believes her mama Hattie is living.  The traveler’s car breaks down and needs extensive repairs and even though the group was dirt poor I never expected them to land where they did.

To me she certainly has her eyes opened (and so did I) and she learns some important life lessons in her time living on the compound.

Another unexpected happening was the encounter Bobo (one of her fellow travelers) has with a “haint” or spirit.  What a wild turn I was not at all looking to have happen.

Next let's discuss Vernice who with the charity and guidance of the older matriarchs (both of the traditional and non-traditional types) leaves for her first year of college at Spelman in Atlanta, Georgia.  Town folks even turned over their S&H stamp books in order for Vernice to purchase supplies and homegoods that she needed for starting her first year away from Honeysuckle.

As she decides to take a bus, she unknowingly becomes a civil rights activist, stepping into Rosa Parks shoes although she never had any intention to.  After being thrown off the bus without her suitcases she loses all her earthly possessions at the hands of some ugly white men and she was beat up as well.

Forced to return to Honeysuckle for help and to re-group.  In a way similar yet not so similar, Vernice’s own expected stop allowed her additional time with her former teacher Miss Jemison and the town’s midwife Hattie Mae.  They are able to give her guidance on the road trip to Spelman.  They also help smooth her transition into Spelman as Miss Jemison was a graduate of Spelman.  

Because she was “robbed” of her suitcases she would no longer arrive at college appearing as a girl of moderate means but now having to cobble together some clothes from the thrift shop with rubber bands and paper clips as there was no more time to sew herself new clothes,  now she was a poor girl living with many girls coming from money.  I was relieved that her fellow students did not treat her poorly because of her appearance, not even Joette, her wealthy roommate. 

To me it seemed there was a bit more foreshadowing of what might be ahead for Vernice than there was for Annie.

I feel that perhaps Vernice's roommate may have a large part in where Vernice's path is going especially as she engages her cousin Merlinda who lives at Spelman in a single room to help Vernice to retrieve her suitcases from the bus station.

To me it was very interesting that Merlinda lived in a single on the first floor of Vernice and Joette’s dorm and that it was named “The Underground Railroad” as it allowed the girls to both leave the dorm after hours as well as arrive back after hours.  I am thinking that this window out may have some significant part in Vernice's Year 1 at Spelman.

What do the rest of you think?

KIN
Chapters 12 - 25

These two lost “sisters” Annie and Vernice are hurting my heart.

As the story proceeds I find myself most concerned with Annie’s well being. Against the advice of several close family and friends she continues to search for her mother in Memphis.

Glad to see that she's made a step up from the mop bucket to cocktail server at the club where she and Babydoll are working. It's sad though that she makes a lot less money than her friend as customers don't perceive her as being sexy.
But the worst thing is she is hanging by a thread and could lose her friend and work ally Babydoll, her job and maybe even her lover Bobo. She is constantly approaching women in the club who fit an aged up description of her mother.

On one hand I feel she should give up the mission to reunite with her mother before she loses everything. But on the other hand I want her to be able to have the chance to heal the hole in her heart that Hattie Mae made the day she walked out on her baby girl.

Then again just because she might find her, will Hattie Mae want to accept Vernice as her daughter?

Now let's talk about Vernice. Here again I find myself torn. I think I am pro Franklin as he seems to be a good upstanding fellow. He seems to genuinely love Vernice. Together they could build a family with their boy and girl and plus one. It seems this is something she has wanted since she was a little girl. It does bother me that it seems so “arranged”.

Then we have Joyette her beautiful and passionate lover. As we move on to Chapter 26 I am afraid that Joyette might become selfish in her wanting of Vernice and could drop a bomb in the middle of Vernice and Franklin's marriage plans. I wonder how strong Franklin loves her. Strong enough to forgive her for keeping a lover on the side?

These 2 “sisters” both seem on the precipice of something big happening. I have come to care enough about both gals that I want the best for them. But as Annie says, “The $64,000 question is” …for both women what is the best?
__________________
I think I will hold off commenting on Marylinda and her white father until the author gives us a little more to chew on.

Ok, since I finished my last comment off with Marylinda I will mention I have nothing more to say on that subject as it wasn't broached again.

Now since this is the 20th...I will let it rip with the rest of my comments.

Chapters 26 to novel 's end
KIN

Well the title Kin carries through until the very end of the novel. I don't believe I have ever read a book whose title is so very attached to the lives of the protagonists.

Annie and Vernice being "cradle friends" also made them Kin.

The story took the friends down very different forks in the road of life.

Annie had life much tougher in my opinion. She really made things unnecessarily hard on herself. As she believed her mother had abandoned her and was living in Memphis Annie elects to reconnect with her mother.

Her trip to Memphis becomes very adventurous with Babydoll whose character I came from disliking to appreciating as a good and steadfast friend to Annie. No where near a steadfast friend as Niecy but a stalwart one as best she could be. Then there are Bobo and his cousin Clyde who end up switching love interest rolls with Annie. Bobo becomes her beau and seems to be her one true love as Annie writes to Neacy in one of the most memorable quotes from the book, "As you can probably tell, I have crossed the river of love and burnt the bridge behind me."

In their necessary stop because of car problems the quartet lands at for lack of a better description at a whore village run by a gruff yet surprisingly passionate woman named Annabelle. During their lengthy stay while they worked the cost of the auto repairs off Annie finds Annabelle to be a mother figure.

I also appreciated Bobo's encounter with the haint or ghost of Annabelle's mother.

When the 4 arrive in Memphis they set themselves up in far from comfortable quarters. Bobo finds meaningful work and also follows his dreams of being a successful musician. Annie and Babydoll work at the Elektra dance club where as Babydoll makes great tips as she is considered sexy and Annie makes considerably less as she is plain. She does however climb the ladder from mop woman to cocktail server and finally is allowed to bartend where she is appreciated for her skills.

She causes herself a LOT of trouble as she literally makes herself sick thinking of and approaching every woman who matches what her mother Hattie Mae may look like. It almost gets both girls fired as they are tied to the hip.

Her love life also greatly suffers as all her energy and interest seems to be spent on reuniting with Hattie Mae.

Someone in the group's inner circle trying to do a good deed lies and tells Annie her mother is dead. This takes the pressure off the entire group and especially Bobo and Annie's love life. After this individual fesses up to the truth things go from bad to worse. Now we all go through the heart wrenching hurt of Bobo walking out on Annie as he can't take it any more.

"For a man so light on his feet, he made a lot of noise walking out of my life."

The next horrible thing that happens is that the leacherous older married man that owns the nightclub makes quick moves on Annie and leaves her pregnant. The wife comes to the club and attacks Babydoll as she is so attractive the wife assumes she is the one having a tryst with her husband. Both girls are fired.

Let's move on to where Niecy 's fork in the road took her.

Niecy arrived at Spelman College in Atlanta and finds her roommate Joette to be a well to do junior whose family has made their wealth in the funeral business.

The two students fall in lust and a different kind of love. But in her heart Annie desires to have a traditional family with at least two children.

Enter Mrs. McHenry a wealthy alumni with 3 sons one Franklin a handsome, intelligent and pleasant attorney who is left with a bad leg after suffering from polio as a young child. Mrs. McHenry cherry picks Neicy as a wife for her Franklin.

Mrs. McHenry ends up being one of my very favorite characters as often I enjoy characters that you love to hate. She fits that category so well. She is conniving, selfish,
a social diva for whom appearances are most important even to the extent she essentially dissolves her relationship with her own younger sister as she is not educated or mannered. She even encourages Niecy to drop her friendship with Annie for the same reasons!

We find her grooming Niecy both before and after the marriage (as Franklin and Niecy live in the family's basement for 6 months while their first home is being built. Mrs. McHenry ( I don't know why we don't find out her first name) is a daytime lush and encourages Niecy to be "happy" when her husband arrives home after work. She has a crazy cleaning compulsion revolving around dust in the home and teaches Niecy her way of keeping a house...enough said for now.

She again shows her true colors as Annie reached out to Niecy for help obtaining an abortion.

The entire family refuses to be involved in finding a practioner who can safely help Annie. Franklin's brother is a pediatrician and cannot tarnish his reputation. Even Franklin who loves and cherishes his wife cannot help as the outlying community seems to be on the lookout for anything that may tarnish a black professionals reputation.

With nowhere else to turn Niecy goes to Joette's cousin from their dorm who is of course very involved in women's rights.

Annie and Babydoll arrive on Neacy 's promise to care for her friend.

The family is not happy when the girls show up at the McHenry's home. Of course they receive an icy reception from the matron of the house. She certainly seems throughout the novel to be the foil between the two cradle friends.

While the ladies arrive at the secret abortion clinic having parked 2 blocks away in front of an A.M.E church and are given laundry to fold at the laundromat that serves as a front for the clinic it is raided by the police. The ladies somehow escape without arrest.

Now determined even more to help Annie she "allows" them to make off in Franklin's Cadillac to travel back to get help from Anabelle.

As this tear jerker winds up the practioner who is to perform the abortion asks for Annie's next of kin for his paperwork. After much consternation Annie answers Niecy, this sealing their lifelong bond.

Annie dies after the procedure.

Here's where the $64,000 question is answered...

There is much talk in the McHenry household about which of the colored funeral homes in Atlanta would be best suited for Niecy to take her "sister" Annie to be interned.

Lo and behold it comes back to The Cunningham's funeral home where Joette runs the business with her father.

Joette as she has been forced to reveal her proclivity for preferring women to her parents it seems she thinks it is only fair that Niecy must tell the truth about their relationship or she will not take care of Annie for Niecy. She literally has Niecy on her hand and knees begging! She claims that in order for her to earn self respect she must tell Franklin about their relationship.

Here I am relieved that he accepts the information and allows her to feel relief. Being the sterling man he appears to be he accepts her honesty while holding her in his arms as she "confesses".

What an incredible wordsmith Tayari Jones is. I spent a lot of time annotating all the well written passages in the novel.

Again I felt as if I suffered along especially with Annie.

The author fleshed out her characters so successfully even the minor ones.

It looks like I should go back in her catalog and read An American Marriage.

Looking forward to seeing comments from other readers in our group.


Annie after a sweet courtship realises she and Franklin would make a strong husband and wife and she falls for him.

Cheryl wrote: "Now since this is the 20th...I will let it rip with the rest of my comments.

Chapters 26 to novel 's end
KIN

Well the title Kin carries through until the very end of the novel. I don't believe I..."

Thanks for your comments, Cheryl. Would you read more by this author or do you intend to? I read both Silver Sparrow by her and An American Marriage and loved them! I read them both twice.

Greetings Columbus & the rest of our reading group...

Yes, as of right now I plan to read her back catalog, most likely starting with An American Marriage as it is most lauded.

Additionally, I am planning on going back to YouTube to finish watching Oprah Winfrey interviewing Tayari about Kin.

I got in about 20 minutes worth of the interview and found it fascinating how other readers viewed Kin and what it meant to them from their point of view.

Enjoy your reading friends!

ColumbusReads wrote: "Happy August everyone!

Has anyone read any other books by Tayari Jones before? Are you currently reading it, requested it from the library? What’s your thoughts on her as a writer?"

AMERICAN MARRIAGE (read first with LFPC), then with SOL Book Club (work library group) early this year around Jan or Feb 2026.

Now I am trying to read Kin with LFPC to see if we can read with work library group; publisher will be sending us 15 copies soon.

I also love the author since she took the time to speak to our SOL Book Club last year, and told us about her latest project and will donate copies. Now, we are looking forward to reading it.

Her first book I read twice with two book groups, and saw different things each read. I could relate to the characters or visualize them as real life people. Even the incarcerated men could relate to the prison experiences in "American Marriage" and had great discussion(s) about hypotheticals or may-be's.