The Root Worker [Hardcover]

Rainelle Burton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 2001

A remarkable debut novel than limns the shadowy landscape between innocence and experience, The Root Worker is the riveting story of Ellen, an eleven-year-old african-american girl growing up in Detroit in the 1960s. As described in Ellen's own voice, the world is a threatening place. She is afraid of her teachers, nuns at the Catholic school she attends who instill in her a fear of punishment for sins she doesn't understand. She is afraid of her mother, who holds her responsible for her family's ills and is convinced that Ellen is possessed by evil spirits. But more than anything, she fears the Root Worker, a voodoo priestess who has Ellen's mother under her sway, who feeds her fears and insecurities, and ruthlessly torments Ellen in an effort to find a "cure" for her wickedness.
,br>Through all of these experiences, Ellen is in a constant search for "glue"-a place of safety, where no one can touch her. She finds a way there when she meets Barbara, a neighbor who tries to restore her trust in people. It will take a great deal, however, for Ellen to wrest herself from the people who have power over her. A novel in the tradition of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Alice Walker's The Color Purple, The Root Worker marks the introduction of a sparkling new literary talent. It is a gracefully written and unforgettable novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A horrific subterranean maze of darkest superstition and cruel, crude magic underpins and undermines the world of the 11-year-old girl who narrates this powerful and disturbing first novel. Ellen is a poor African-American child growing up on Detroit's Lower East Side in the 1960s. She has a ragged connection to a terrifying reality. In her mind, she refers to her mother as the Woman, to her father as the Husband. When she becomes pregnant, she barely knows how or by whom. Her confidante, Clarissa, may not exist at all except in Ellen's tormented imagination. The Root Worker, a voodooish maker of spells and curses for an extortionate price has convinced the Woman that Ellen is the cause of the bad luck that befalls the family. Harrowing efforts are made to cast out Ellen's evil spirits. Ellen knows, from the sisters at the Catholic school she attends, that the Root Worker is the devil's handmaid and that it is a sin to believe or buy her charms and "fixes." Ellen's salvation finally comes from a neighbor who recognizes the child's plight and sets her mind and heart on reclaiming Ellen for the human uplands of hope and trust. This is a challenging, strongly written debut by a writer with the compassion and courage to peer into a very dark place. (June 19) Forecast: A strong contender for inclusion in African-American curricula, this book is also a natural for workshops and conferences on child abuse. Readers who appreciated Trezza Azzopardi's The Hiding Place will find this novel equally forceful.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The Woman, 11-year-old Ellen's confused mother, believes the black girl embodies a spirit of evil and misfortune that haunts the family. The Woman and the Husband distance themselves emotionally from Ellen, the mother out of madness, the father out of weakness. Younger brother Marcus is a playful companion, but older brother James is a sexual tormentor. Ellen finds thin solace in Catholic Church rituals and comfort in her alter ego, Clarissa. Meanwhile, the Woman seeks the guidance of a root worker, a voodoo priestess who holds sway in their downtrodden, 1960s Detroit community, where folks with southern backgrounds are caught up in a frenzy of "working" roots against evil and countering roots against the roots worked against them. The Woman and the Husband, an occasional Catholic, engage in a holy war, each looking for more powerful protective magic. When the Woman's mounting abuse and the root worker's perverse "cures" threaten to extinguish her soul, Ellen is rescued by a new neighbor's kindness. A strong debut that recalls Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye (1970). Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover; 1 edition (May 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585671401
• ISBN-13: 978-1585671403
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,097,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Burton transfers her characters into you inner being, October 10, 2001

By 

Candace "ccottrel" (Valey Stream, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Root Worker (Hardcover)

Meet Ellen. A child who many have forsaken. Her mother. Her brother. The root worker.

This finely crafted novel takes you through Ellen's life a she sees it; her hope for things to change for the better. Her conflicting religious beliefs. Her pain. Her sorrow. Her triumph.

The thing I enjoyed most about this book was the fact that after I read it it still lingered in my mind. I liked the fact that while I was reading my emotions were running on overtime. When something bad happened, my heart sank. When something good happened, I almost cried tears of joy.

Warning: This is not a "candy read". Expect to be affected. Expect to feel the emotions and terror Ellen feels. Expect to feel your heart wrench. Expect to feel set free.

From now on, I will expect nothing less.

Hats off to this talented new writer on a dazzling debut.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN AFFECTING DEBUT, August 5, 2001

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Root Worker (Hardcover)

Think Toni Morrison or Alice Walker and you have a concept of the quality of Rainelle Burton's affecting debut novel, which is based on true life events but is not autobiographical.

It is 1960s Detroit, Michigan, a hard scrabble urban community where belief in voodoo is rife - the frightened go to root workers, voodoo priestesses, trading food money for cures to banish hexes.

Eleven year old Ellen is a black girl whose mentally deficient mother believes the child is possessed by an evil spirit. Her father is a lackadaisical soul who doesn't protest when the Woman or mother consults a root worker who is soon all powerful in the family. Ellen finds no protection at home from the priestess's frightening directives nor from the nuns at the Catholic school she attends.

It is only through the kindness of a neighbor that the young girl may be able to escape her harrowing existence and discover a life of her own.

While Ms. Burton has painted a haunting reminder of a desperate community and desolate lives, "The Root Worker" is also a story of hope and the triumph of good over evil.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Searching for Glue, August 1, 2001

By 

M. L. Browne "M.L. Browne" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Root Worker (Hardcover)

This is a hard book to read. Right from the start, the reader must accept the loss of hope as the road to salvation. Staying hopeful is a sure way to come to disaster.

Rainelle Burton has written a beautifully evocative story about true empowerment, using the narrative voice of a young african-american girl in a sharply bifurcated world. The young protagonist, Ellen, shuttles between her home, where she lives with a brother who sexually abuses her, a mother who she may only address as "The Woman," and a weak-willed, philandering father who she knows as "The Husband," and St. Agnes, the parish school she attends, with its wimpled nuns and robed priests. However, in Ellen's world, there are no saviors in the church or school, and there are no miracles in the potions dispensed by the root worker who The Woman pays for curatives.

Ellen calmly observes the dichotomies between what she believes her life might be and what it actually is throughout the story. She tries to make sense of her surroundings, searching for "glue" to hold things together, and to provide her with the safe haven she desires. The reader sees through Ellen's bruised and swollen eyes as stark episode after episode of poverty and ignorance reveal themselves. As readers, we share Ellen's pain and humiliation in the name of hope.

Ellen sees her own battered face and body in a shop window and identifies the girl she sees as "Clarissa," to whom she addresses many of her observations. Clarissa is Medusa-haired, puffy-eyed, scratched, and soiled, a battered confidante for a lonely, frightened little girl. What the reader discovers is that for Ellen, as for any child trapped by poverty and abuse, the only way to survive is to stop trying to find congruence in the absurdity surrounding her.

This is a remarkable book, and a remarkable outing for a first-time author. Burton's voice rings with truth, even if it's a truth we might not want to know. We can't help but admire her unflinching ability to illuminate the harsh realities of the lives in which root working still figure, and her tenderness toward Ellen.

I can't wait to read Burton's next offering.