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Memphis: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s discovery that she has the power to change her family’s legacy.
“A rhapsodic hymn to Black women.”—The New York Times Book Review
“I fell in love with this family, from Joan’s fierce heart to her grandmother Hazel’s determined resilience. Tara Stringfellow will be an author to watch for years to come.”—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone
LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Boston Globe, NPR, BuzzFeed, Glamour, PopSugar
Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.
As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger—that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush.
Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love.
“A rhapsodic hymn to Black women.”—The New York Times Book Review
“I fell in love with this family, from Joan’s fierce heart to her grandmother Hazel’s determined resilience. Tara Stringfellow will be an author to watch for years to come.”—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times bestselling author of Red at the Bone
LONGLISTED FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Boston Globe, NPR, BuzzFeed, Glamour, PopSugar
Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.
As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger—that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush.
Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love.
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Community Reviews
Memphis was a disappointment
It seems that no matter what the wrong done it is our duty to forgive. Iâm confused why the author needed Joan to forgive Derek because he put himself in a position to be locked up since heâs a rapist and a murderer. I didnât even understand Miriam allowing her two young daughters to live in a house with a rapist.
I will say I enjoyed the writing style of the author. Could have done without the constant use of the N-word. Actually confused Joan was adamant about another racial slur being used but had no problem using a racial slur against her own people.
It seems that no matter what the wrong done it is our duty to forgive. Iâm confused why the author needed Joan to forgive Derek because he put himself in a position to be locked up since heâs a rapist and a murderer. I didnât even understand Miriam allowing her two young daughters to live in a house with a rapist.
I will say I enjoyed the writing style of the author. Could have done without the constant use of the N-word. Actually confused Joan was adamant about another racial slur being used but had no problem using a racial slur against her own people.
So much of the 20th century finds a place in this novel. Set almost entirely in Memphis, the story is literally woven. Chapter by chapter, Stringfellow is revealing a bit of Hazel’s story, then a bit of Joan’s, then a bit of Miriam’s. These three women are the key characters in this saga of a black family in Memphis, from 1955-today. The writing is engaging and often elegant. This simultaneously spotlights and compensates for the harsh realities these women are living with.
I really enjoyed this read of Joan and the powerful women that guided her in life. The chapters take turns jumping timelines between the 3 generation of women and the life that was given to them to force them to lean on no one but themselves and the community Memphis gave them. This is a book of POC empowerment but mostly women empowerment. (Warning: There are triggers of abuse)
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