River Thomas is eight-years-old when she begins to hate herself. This is when her mother started straightening her hair with the hot pressing-comb heated on the kitchen stove. Often, the seeds of self-rejection are unknowingly, and even lovingly, sown and nurtured. This can be especially true for a young black girl growing up in the 1950's south. This story about passion and dreams in the dark and dangerous world of child abuse, bigotry, and lust introduces the reader to River. Her personal metaphorical journey must become a physical one if she is to escape the racism of Hopewell, Texas and successfully navigate her way through the maze of sexual, racial, gender, and work identities. Along the way there is much more she must escape: Greg, her faithful but bland older husband; Adam, who awakens her sexually; Police Chief Manders, determined to drive her away from a hard-won and successful business. Crowning Glory River's Journey is a compelling story for our time, raising powerful challenges to our cultural complacency regarding violence against the human spirit.
Taylor Thompson's novel bristles with emotional fidelity to the consequences of human brutality and the grip on love and human dignity needed to overcome it. It's a sharp-edged peek into African-American history...but its truths about emotional trauma are universal. This could be required reading for any high school AP course or college class in American History or American literature or trauma psychology. It sits with dignity along side Dick Gregory's Nigger, James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son, and Alice Walker's The Color Purple.
A lifetime of passionate, often painful realites lives inside this marvelous novel.
A five Stars Review! "River is a character that readers will quickly learn to love. She is a fighter and I loved how she fights to claim her place in the world. An engaging read, indeed."
__Ruffina Oserio
