The Garfields, though, are not minded to reflect on bewildering accounts that their ancestors were betrayed by signares – women of European and African blood who sold them into bondage. No matter their elevation, there’s still the tug of inherited shame, a condition psychologists have termed “post-traumatic slavery syndrome”. Chief among them is the fragrant, white cotton glove-wearing matriarch Nana, whose aroma “took you to a better place in the world” than that of the southern relatives who “ate pig offal and covered their living room furniture in plastic”. This novel’s spiritual heart is found in the languorous south, the location of African Americans’ resistance to racismĪiley’s branch of the Garfields, numbered among the black Americans who migrated from southern states to Washington DC, are riven with societal anxiety over maintaining their middle-class status. On entering puberty, she becomes increasingly conscious of the family’s pretensions and hypocrisy, as well as her sexual abuse by a relative. The protagonist, Ailey Pearl Garfield, daughter of light-skinned parents who describes herself as a “gourd filled with secrets”, narrates as a reserved, watchful guide. Originating from Chicasetta, a fictitious town in Georgia, the Garfields are the book’s focus.

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