Twelve Tribes

Twelve Tribes

"Hattie knew her children did not think her a kind woman--
perhaps she wasn't, but there hadn't been time for sentiment when they
were young. She had failed them in vital ways, but what good would it
have done to spend the days hugging and kissing if there hadn't been
anything to put in their bellies? They didn't understand that all the
love she had was taken up with feeding and clothing them and preparing
them to meet the world. The world would not love them; the world
would not be kind."
The matriarch protagonist of Ayana Mathis' The Twelve Tribes of
Hattie has not been treated kindly by the world. Hattie was a teen in
1923 when she and her mother and sisters moved from Georgia to
Philadelphia seeking a better life. She was seventeen and missing her
family (her mother having died and her sisters having moved away) when
her first borns, her baby twins, had died in her arms from pneumonia.
She carried the scar of their loss throughout life. Her womanizing,
never able to earn enough husband made raising the nine children that
followed quite the challenge. As the children grew up they presented
challenges of their own.
The narrative strands of the chapters of The Twelve Tribes of
Hattie speak with the voices of Hattie, her children, and finally a
grandchild. You will meet:
*Hattie struggling desperately to save little Jubilee and Philadelphia
and then to help them die in peace
*musician Floyd struggling with his homosexuality in 1948 when this
kind of difference was punished savagely
*Alice in 1968 desperately alone in the mansion of a husband who
doesn't really accept her
*Franklin in Nam in 1969 thinking back on a failed relationship while
soldiering in Vietnam...
I'm not sure others will see the resemblance, but I am put in
mind of the writings of Maine's own Carolyn Chute. Both authors take
families most of us would not want in our neighborhoods and follow
their tribulations, their members' battering by fate and each other,
their complexity and interconnectedness in a way that grants them some
measure of humanity and dignity. They, in all their hurts and
imperfections, are dealt with tenderly by their author creators. We
see that their difference from us is one of degree, not dichotomy.
A work of the depth and maturity of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
is amazing as a debut novel. We can expect great things from its very
young creator.
On a personal note, my sweet Joey cat had to be taken to the emergency
vet hospital in the middle of the night a little over a week ago. He
had a urinary tract infection which led to crystals. Two days later
he was back with us, much improved and ever so happy to be back with
us. As I write this on my ipad touch, he is curled up on my lap,
purring contentedly.
A great big shout out goes out to everyone who restored Joey to good
health!
Julia Emily Hathaway


Sent from my iPod