Dolen Perkins-Valdez

I've read so many reviews of this book, eulogising its quiet thoughtfulness. There is indeed much to admire. The messages of an elderly pastor to his small son, who will not perhaps remember him very well after his death, are touching, and a wonderful way for the reader to make contact with a particular time and way of life in America's recent past. Many descriptions are telling and memorable. Somehow, however, though I read to the end, I never really succumbed to the undoubted power of this narrative. But I feel the book may stay with me, and that it may be one of those texts I have to have two goes at to appreciate. I hope so. I've read so many entirely favourable reviews, that I feel my slight negativity makes me the loser.… (mehr)

Digital audiobook narrated by Lauren J Daggett.

In 2016, Dr Civil Townsend, reflects on her time three decades previously when she worked with Montgomery (Alabama) Family Planning. In 1973, she was a nurse and hoping to help women take some control over their destinies. She was particularly involved with the Williams family, and horrified at how the two young daughters were treated.

Perkins-Valdez took inspiration from a shameful episode in America’s history, when poor, Black people were used as subjects for medical studies without their informed consent.

Additionally, Perkins-Valdez looks at the class distinctions between poor, rural Blacks and the wealthier professional Blacks. Civil belongs to this latter social class and she has to make a conscious effort to hide her judgment of the way her patients live. She behaves compassionately towards them and even risks her career to fight on their behalf, but she has never encountered these conditions and it is difficult for her to hide her reaction.

I was certainly aware of the syphilis study done at Tuskegee, but I was not aware of the studies and policies on birth control and sterilization perpetrated against women of color. Kudos to Perkins-Valdez for shining a light on these policies in our history.

Lauren J Daggett does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. I did get confused a few times when the storyline jumped from 2016 to 1973 and back again. But context usually made it clear in which era the story was taking place.… (mehr)