Going Down South by Bonnie Glover is the APOOO September book-of-the-month (BOM) and it promises to be a good book club discussion.  To learn more about this book, check out Phyllis’ review below.

When I received the Advanced Uncorrected Proof of Going Down South, I had no clue as what the book was about; I knew I had enjoyed Bonnie Glover’s debut, The Middle Sister, and eagerly wanted to read her sophomore release. Having grown up in the Mid-West, I incorrectly thought the title referred to the annual treks to various parts of the South that I and other children with Southern roots routinely took every summer to visit grandparents and other relatives. However, I quickly realized that the title references an alternative connotation of the phrase — it is/was often the excuse given to school administrators, church members, and neighbors to explain the une xpected and lengthy disappearance of their daughters. Going Down South was literally the scuttling of unwed (usually teen) mothers to relatives in the South to have their babies away from condemning eyes, scornful stares, and gossiping neighbors.

Olivia Jean Stone is a homely, bookish fifteen year-old Brooklynite who lives with her beautiful, emotionally-distant mother, Daisy, and her philandering, drunkard father, Turk. As with most of the girls in school, she has a crush on an older popular (skirt-chasing) upperclassman, Preston Douglass, who for the most part does not know she exists. One fateful day, his attentions turn to Olivia Jean and the inevitable happens — she ends up pregnant as a result of raging, uncontrollable hormones, no protection, and an overeager desire to please and (in her mind) keep Preston. Quite naturally, Preston balks at the notion of fatherhood and marriage. The news turns fun-loving Turk into a cold, mean-spirited man who shuts out Olivia Jean and breaks her heart even more by refusing to talk to her or even look in her direction. Her parents make arrangements for Olivia Jean to stay with her maternal grandmother, Birdie, in Alabama after she refuses to reveal the name of the child’s father and an abortion. Neighbors are told that Olivia Jean is going South to tend to an ailing grandmother. Daisy and Turk’s plan is to drive down to Alabama over th e weekend, leave Olivia Jean with Birdie until the child is born, and immediately drive all night to arrive back in New York in time for work Monday morning. Unbeknownst to them, Birdie has changed the original agreement — she intentionally waits until they arrive in Alabama to state her terms. She will now accept the deal on the condition that one of the parents stay with Olivia Jean throughout the pregnancy. Daisy is livid at Birdie’s ninth hour demand; a controlling tactic which will jeopardize her job, but relents and reluctantly sends her wayward husband back home to Brooklyn alone.

As Olivia Jean’s belly grows, so does the tension between all three women. The author craftily interweaves a series of flashbacks that provide the missing pieces of how these women came to be complete with colorful characters, nuggets of wisdom, and unconditional love. The result is a sometimes funny, sometimes sad page-turner of a novel which I read in one sitting. I had to keep reading for the revelation of decades-long kept secr ets: Birdie’s secret regarding her eccentric employer, Daisy’s source of anger and apathy toward Birdie and Olivia Jean, Daisy’s unending love for Turk and her long-standing tolerance of his infidelity, Daisy’s refusal to visit Birdie for 15 years, and Daisy’s secret that shakes Olivia Jean’s world. Granted, the author gives enough clues for the reader to deduce the secrets before they are revealed by the characters, but that does not detract from the story.

Going Down South is worth a chance as it will fit nicely on the shelf along side similarly themed Mother/Daughter relationship novels like Nowhere Is A Place by Bernice McFadden, Orange Mint and Honey by Carleen Brice, and daughter by asha bandele. I think that book clubs will find this novel appealing as it deals with issues and themes (racism, colorism, sexism, parental sacrifices, etc. ) that will provide fodder for great discussions.

Reviewed by Phyllis
June 20, 2008
APOOO BookClub

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