Suzanne Feldman

This is a fascinating, magical tale of two young women with intertwined lives and histories. One sister, Cassie, black and raised in a cross-the-track laundry business ran by Grandmother. The other sister, Judith, white and poor, living a haggard life without literacy, delivering laundry for pennies to the rich uphill families. They share an oil-worker, white father who ran out on his white wife and children. The tale is from Cassie’s perspective and the reader views her plight, shared with most African-American in the United States of the 1950s. Cassie transforms from a controlled child into a vital young woman through experiences, insight, and understanding of her options in life. Her young mind is full of the tragedies of African-American slavery, the perils of black blood, and the desire to escape the Grandmother, who wants her progeny to have ever whiter children to gain status.

The magic and travel happen simultaneously as the two half-sisters went from overwhelming poverty in rural Mississippi to more stable lives on the east coast, starting in Virginia. Imagine the scenes and landscapes they traveled through while they moved East, first in a junker-car that seemed to be moved by magic and then by train to Virginia. Their travels take them through times of magic when their car is resurrected with gasoline, mules talk, the mystery of Porterville is revealed, and the magic of Blacks turning white becomes clearer. The trip to Virginia is to confront their father and get in on the inheritance, it pulls Judith and her singing dreams towards the possibilities of a different life. In the end the inheritance is worthless in money, but deep in the sense of belonging and family. Cassie’s Grandmother gains her whiteness through Cassie’s acceptance of herself, as a young, independent Black woman.

The story is a projection, an interpretation of the world of racism and the hatred of difference. It speaks to the reader as a reminder of where we have been and where we could return if we travel backwards. The story is hopeful, it illustrates a way to overcome difference. Cassie traveled forward and prevailed, using the confluence of ideas she gathered along the way.
… (mehr)