Shines a fierce light on the effects of racsm in a cornet of Louisiana and, by doing so, illuminates the hearvy price paid for bigotry.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The racial divisions of the 1950s South as seen through the eyes of a young girl achieved quintessential expression in To Kill a Mockingbird. Guidry, then, is courageous in exploring the same situation. In her first novel, she eloquently captures the reality of black and white relations in Louisiana before the civil rights movement. Her characterizations and insights into family life are strong and believable, and her young female narrator's voice is convincing. Narrator Vivien Leigh Dubois, like Harper Lee's Scout Finch, is coming of age in a changing world. A 10-year-old about to go into fifth grade, Vivien Leigh knows that there are differences between whites and "coloreds," unlike her younger sister Mavis, whose best friend Marydale Arceneaux is the daughter of the Dubois family's black housekeeper. When two "colored" nuns (the "sisters" of the title) arrive in Ville d'Angelle to teach at Holy Rosary, the all-white, private Catholic school that Vivien Leigh attends, she slowly begins to see these divisions in a different light. Guidry's characterization is nuanced; not everyone is portrayed as a hate-mongering racist, and she makes it clear that it required bravery to speak out against bigotry. Yet whereas Lee's classic pulled readers into its plot, Guidry allows her story to meander. Only in the last hundred pages does the story propel the reader toward a conclusion where there are no easy heroes, no easy compromises or truths. Though uneven, the novel is written in fluid, assured prose and gracefully drives home its message: that life is not black and white, but rather painted in shades of all colors.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
TEMPESTUOUS CHANGES SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD,
By
This review is from: Year the Colored Sisters Came to Town (Hardcover)
Jacqueline Guidry - a Louisiana Cajun by birth - has taken a turmoil-rocked time, the mid-1950s in the South, and allowed us to view the events that would forever change America through the eyes of a ten-year-old child. Her young narrator, Vivien Leigh Dubois, lives near a small Louisiana town, Ville d'Angelle, with her mother and father and her little sister Mavis (whose place in life is seemingly to continuously irritate Vivien Leigh). The family is Catholic, and the girls attend Holy Rosary School. They enjoy a fairly idyllic existence among their extended family and friends - but the time is 1957, and things in the American South (and the rest of the nation, of course) are about to change forever.The `troubles' in Little Rock - the attempt by black children to attend Little Rock's Central High School - are of course in the news. Since the institution of slavery in America, race has played a part in our lives that we cannot ever erase - the scars from it, even if the wounds were somehow miraculously healed today, would be with us for decades to come. Memories retain pain suffered, even if it is buried for years - it must be faced and dealt with if we are to learn from it and pass through it. When two black nuns arrive in the town and appear at mass one Sunday - and when the townspeople learn that they are new teachers, to work in the otherwise all-white Catholic school - fears raise their heads, tempers flare, and friendships between blacks and whites that have been (at best) tenuous for years begin to fray and snap. Vivien Leigh sees the sisters' presence as a problem - she sees them as `out of place', only because that is what she has been taught, if not directly, then by example. It is far easier for a child to come to accept change, however, than it is for adults, who have lived with their beliefs for most of their lives. The family's housekeeper, a hard-working, honest and lovable black woman named Aussie, and her young daughter Marydale (who is the `best friend' of young Mavis) are caught up in the hard feelings and impending changes like everyone else. The relationship between them and the Dubois family, which goes back for years, is bruised to the point of never properly healing - which, although each of the sides recognizes as a sad thing, is also seen as inevitable, something with a bad taste that the simply have to accept. Guidry's characters are endowed by the author with distinct, honest and accurate voices - the rite of passage through which they are traveling takes its toll of each of them, and changes each of them uniquely. The care and compassion - and sheer literary talent - with which the author relates this story makes this a book that anyone who wishes to understand (and we all NEED to understand) the troubled times depicted here, as well as the challenges that remain before us, should read. It's also moving and entertaining, and I can recommend it highly.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Year the Colored Sisters Came to Town,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Year the Colored Sisters Came to Town (Hardcover)
This book has living, breathing characters in a real-life situation. The story is compelling from the first sentence to the last with a subtle undercurrent throughout. Set in the South in the late 1950s, the book tells the story of residents of a small Louisiana town. They don't know it yet, but they are about to participate in events that will change their town and their country forever. One summer Sunday, two African American nuns arrive at church for Mass. No one is too alarmed, assuming they are just passing through -- although there is some question of why they didn't go to Mass at the "colored church" instead. But the nuns are back again the next week. And soon, the townfolk learn that they're staying to teach first and fifth grades in the all-white Catholic school. No one seems happy about it, but some are more unhappy than others, especially parents who form The Concerned Citizens group and another group of men from Baton Rouge known as "the sheets." Told from the viewpoint of a 10-year-old girl, this story will keep you turning pages all night long.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
exquisite writing,
By candy (Overland Park, KS) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Year the Colored Sisters Came to Town (Paperback)
It has been a long time since I have read a book this well written. The author has taken life in the 50's South and shown us the everyday cracks and crevices that can mold and/or alter lives. She is to be congratulated for an incredible book. I eagerly await ner next one.
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