Repossessing Ernestine: A Granddaughter Uncovers the Secret History of Her American Family [Hardcover]

Marsha Hunt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1996

The memoirs of an African-American singer, writer, model, and actress, who discovers that her long-lost grandmother, Ernestine, is alive in an asylum, describes the process of recovering her family's past, discovering a multicultural legacy that she never knew she had. $40,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This compelling memoir by Hunt, an African American actress and writer (Free), reads like an edge-of-your-seat mystery. After learning from a cousin that her grandmother, Ernestine, who was committed to an insane asylum in the 1920s, was still alive at the age of 94, Hunt decided to find her and uncover her past. Ernestine, as described to the author, had been light-skinned with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was the daughter of a black mother and an unknown father and was married with three children when she was institutionalized by her husband, an African American minister. Defying family members who preferred to keep her whereabouts a secret, Hunt rescued Ernestine from a rundown nursing home. Although Hunt was unable to discover why Ernestine spent 50 years behind bars, she suspects the reason may have had more to do with racism and sexism than insanity. Photos not seen by PW. $40,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

African American actress Hunt, author of the novels Joy (LJ 1/91) and Free (LJ 12/92), attempts to trace the fascinating legacy of her grandmother's life. Ernestine, her grandmother, was placed in an asylum first in Boston and later, for nearly 50 years, in Memphis. Hunt begins an interesting detective hunt that unearths not only questions about the treatment of the supposedly insane but also the issues of skin color and prejudice within the African American family and community. Her investigation, however, never seems to come to closure. Ernestine probably was not insane, though we learn few details concerning the circumstances that led to her confinement. Moreover, the prose is awkward and the metaphors and descriptions unrefined. A simple family history chart would have solved the problem of the initial confusion about the characters and their relationships. Recommended with reservations only for larger public libraries.
Jenny Presnell, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060174439
• ISBN-13: 978-0060174439
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,232,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Repossessing Ernestine is a fabulous outline of a Memoir, August 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Repossessing Ernestine: A Granddaughter Uncovers the Secret History of Her American Family (Hardcover)

Repossessing Ernestine is a very interesting, compelling novel, however, Marsha Hunt should have given the reader more history of the "Talented Tenth". I am sure there some readers were lost and confused with many points in the book. More information about the "light skinned" elite in America and their history would better explain how Ernestine's world evolved, thus, lending credence to the idealism that was her true captor. Ernestine Hunt was a victim of social mores, beliefs and practices more so than alleged "mental illness".

Marsha Hunt did not explain how it came to be that her mother and father met, married then divorced. The reader is not given an explanation of why her father was not present in your life and how she truly felt about that. These facts would speak to the evloution of the "Talented Tenth" tradition up to 1956.

Repossessing Ernstine is a fabulous outline of an interesing memoir/biography. Marsha Hunt should follow up on this novel with another, giving more depth and insight into important historical incidences of Ernestine's early life. The reader needs to be re-introuduced to Ernestine Hunt - this time, instead of offering participant observation facts, invite the reader into Ernestine's world.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can we have some more, please?, July 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Repossessing Ernestine: A Granddaughter Uncovers the Secret History of Her American Family (Hardcover)

I read this book some years ago. I even called a friend who now lives once more in her home town of Memphis, TN. She assured me of the accuracy of events and names. Reading this book was equivalent to eating and enjoying a good multi-course meal. However, before I could finish the dessert, the table was cleared. As with many, if not all readers of this book, I hope that there will be a follow up book delving further for explanations. We are left hanging in mid air over quite a few issues. Does Marsha Hunt feel she gave all that she felt we needed to know, or did she grow weary and/or scared of finding more answers? Truly she cannot be content with the finality she offered to us. Still, bravo to her for her determination.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Touching, November 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Repossessing Ernestine: A Granddaughter Uncovers the Secret History of Her American Family (Hardcover)

I must firstly disagree with the review that I have read. This book was capturing, and I was unable to put it down, I was reading in ques, while travelling and staying awake late into the night to finish it. I am a Mental Health nurse, and can understand the chain of events in Ernestine's life, especially in the era which she lived. Ms Hunt did an exceptional job of locating her 'lost and forgotten' grandmother, and whatever her motivation was, she appeared to increase the quality of Ernestine's life. I would be interested to learn how she spent the following years. Again Ms Hunt is to be commended. I have recommended the book to many friends,who have all enjoyed it, and after four years, I recommended it to another friend only last week.