Speaking of Summer

By Kalisha Buckhanon

Counterpoint     2019

292 pages     Literary

I try to finish most of the books that I begin, but I had trouble getting through Speaking of Summer. Several of the reviewers mentioned that it improved about half-way through, but frankly, it’s been quite a week around here, and I was not able to get to that point. I loved the title and loved the cover, but I just couldn't get through the book. Please don't let that deter you, because I believe that Buckhanon's look at Black women's worth is well worth pursuing.

Here is a plot summary:

“On a cold December evening, Autumn Spencer’s twin sister, Summer, walks to the roof of their shared Harlem brownstone and is never seen again. With her friends and neighbors, Autumn pretends to hold up through the crisis. But the loss becomes too great, the mystery too inexplicable, and Autumn starts to unravel, all the while becoming obsessed with the various murders of local women and the men who kill them.”

At first glance, Autumn does not appear to be an unreliable narrator, but we are privileged to frequent glimpses of her mental unraveling as she deals with what she perceives to be a lack of interest in a missing black woman. This, of course, is a common perception. If Summer had been a white woman, there would have been a much more rapid response to her disappearance. Her theme is always present; “women of color don’t matter in America unless we are rich and famous.”

Kalisha Buckhanon has a marvelous way with words. Sometimes I got so caught up in the language that I forgot to pay attention to what was happening in the plot, and that may be one of the major problems with the novel—it is wordy, and we become totally enmeshed in Autumn’s thoughts and her musings. There are quite a few flashbacks and current happenings that color the plot, but everything is vague and rather ungainly. One thing I did appreciate was the portrayal of Detective Montgomery, who treats Autumn with respect, and he understands Autumn’s trauma as she searches for answers about Summer.

I realize that Speaking of Summer has garnered a great deal of press and appeared on several lists, including Time Magazine’s Best Books of Summer 2019 list. However, I have to agree with the Kirkus analysis, which closes with: “Unfortunately, a somewhat clumsy chase for mystery overshadows the accurate portrayal of one woman’s struggles with mental health.”

Kalisha Buckhanon’s website.

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas
 Balzer + Bray     2017
444 pages     YA

I was driving a young African American woman who is on the periphery of our family to a play we were going to see together. She is currently living with grandparents as she goes to community college. On our way, she told me that she had been at a party the night before at a Motel 6. Apparently there had been a lot of drugs, alcohol and sex. One of her "friends" had accused her of making out with the friend's boyfriend. A fight broke out. and at 4:00 a.m., she placed an emergency call to her grandpa who came to rescue her. She said, "I was scared that someone might have a gun or someone might call the police." I said to her, "Are these your friends?" She responded that no, just the girl she went to the party with--the one that caused the fight. I told her that I wasn't sure she needed friends like this. She agreed that she had been too scared to let that happen again. We'll see.

This story was fresh in my mind when I began reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, one of the most devastating and powerful books I have ever read. The book begins with Starr at a party, very similar to the one I just described. She is not sure how or why she got to the party. When shots ring out, she escapes the party with her childhood friend, Khalil. On the way home from the party, Khalil is stopped by the police, shot, and killed. It is horrible and breathtaking. Even more devastating, this is not the first killing that Star has witnessed.

Starr is 16, Black, a member of an intact family, living in an African American neighborhood of an unnamed city. Her parents are living the best lives they can--the mother a nurse and the father, the owner of a convenience store. One of the first teenaged things the children are taught is how to react if they are stopped by police. The parents' concern for their children extends to sending them to a mostly white private school in the suburbs. Starr's mother wants to move away from the ghetto neighborhood, but Starr's father feels that they can do more for the neighborhood if they stay and work hard at the store to upgrade the neighborhood. Here is a remarkable quote from Starr about living in one world and going to school in another. When she has to speak to the police following the shooting of Khalil, she muses, "My voice is changing already. It always happens around 'other' people, whether I'm at Williamson (her school) or not. I don't talk like me or sound like me. I choose every word carefully and make sure I pronounce them well. I can never, ever let anyone think I'm ghetto."

The plot following the shooting concerns Starr's response to being the eye-witness. It exposes the entire Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality, moral and ethical choices, and how young African American teenagers negotiate a world filled with fear, violence, and bad choices. One of the most remarkable aspects of the book is the fierceness with which Starr's parents and the extended family protect her and her siblings. One of her greatest advocates is her Uncle Carlos, who is a police detective.

My writing about this book and its plot cannot possibly serve it justice. I have to lead two discussions of the book over the next several weeks, and I am not sure how to proceed with the discussion. I asked an African American friend to help me with one of the discussions, and I had to laugh when Starr talks about being the "official representative of the black race." I guess that is what I am asking my friend to be.

The Hate U Give is the Kalamazoo community read for 2019, and Angie Thomas will be speaking in Kalamazoo on April 18. I noticed that in the lead up to the event, several high school classes are reading the book. I am sure that the discussion that night will be incredible and revealing. I would not have read the book if it had not been chosen for this event, but it is a book that will stay with me forever. One reviewer said that it has entered the lexicon of great young adult books. A movie of the same name came out in 2018, which I intend to see before the Reading Together events.

Here are some comments from the reviewer in The Guardian: "The Hate U Give is an outstanding debut novel and says more about the contemporary black experience in America than any book I have read for years, whether fiction or non-fiction. It’s a stark reminder that, instead of seeking enemies at its international airports, America should open its eyes and look within if it’s really serious about keeping all its citizens safe."