Crystal Wilkinson

Beautiful. Kept thinking about it for days. Part of me wanted more of each character's story, especially Yolanda, but that's not what the story was doing. The grounding in a place is strong, and the use of pov is excellent. I can tell Wilkinson is a poet but the sentences don't get bogged down in preciousness of diction or syntax. Meant all the more to me that it is a Kentucky book.

This lovely little novel looks at the lives of several generations of women in a small black southern township called Opulence. There are arrivals of new babies and the death of loved ones. Strong relationships and destructive ones. The writing is lyrical and engaging. The narrators of the audio do a fantastic job but I might revisit this one in print. I am sure there is more to savor there.

wilkinson is a lovely writer, and her settings and characters were wonderfully vivid. i do feel as though a couple of the main characters - mona and yolanda - fell by the wayside at the end, so that is holding me back from rating it a bit higher. it is amazing what wilkinson was able to do in a relatively short novel, but i definitely could have spent more time with the people of opulence.

A compilation of short stories set in the rural South about the lives of African American men and women. The stories may be short but they are haunting and beautifully written. They are stories of love, fear, pain, acceptance, resignation, romance and determination. Not all the stories are pretty. Not all the stories are sad. But all the stories will leave a lasting imprint on your soul after you've read them.