Blending poetry, prose, and illustration, this ambitious and inventive debut collection from University of Chicago sociologist Ewing offers the coming-of-age story of a young African American woman told with raw indignation ("We, the forgotten Delta people,/ the dry riverbed people"), close observation ("the slick of you and the smell of sugar and hot plastic," of Luster's Pink Oil), and triumph ("Sometimes being an artist means walking faster than everybody,/ shedding your clothes/ like the devil dressed you in his own best ideas"). The result effectively portrays both growing up and growing up black, mediated through a tremendous sense of physicality.
VERDICT Smart and widely appealing.
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