GOOD DIRT
By: Charmaine Wilkerson
Narrated by: January LaVoy
Published: January 28, 2025
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction
After reading BLACK CAKE, I knew I would want to read more by Charmaine Wilkerson. Her sophomore novel shares a layered family story with multiple narrators and generations of pain and tragedy.
In 2000, at the age of 10, Ebony (Ebby) Freeman watched her 15-year-old brother die from a gunshot wound, in their own home, after a robbery went wrong. The Freemans were the only Black family in their well-to-do New England neighborhood. Fast-forward to 2018, the Freeman family is back in the society news after Ebby is left at the alter. Henry, her (white) fiancé, left without a word and Ebby is forced to reevaluate her life again.
From the 1800s to 2019, we learn the story of the Freeman ancestors and their tie to a precious family heirloom, a jar affectionately called “Old Mo.” The jar and its significance to the family are shared in pieces as each chapter reveals more of the Freeman family history.
After the canceled wedding, Ebby heads to France to stay in her friend Hannah’s cottage. Ebby has been meaning to write the “jar stories” as her family calls them and this seems like the right time to do that. She needs a new focus in her life and France has been the safe, quiet place she needs. While Ebby manages Hannah’s AirBnB, new guests arrive, resurfacing old wounds and setting her on a path she never would have expected.
“Sometimes, people let you down, but they’re still your people.”
This multi-generational story has numerous characters and narrators that tell the Freeman family story. Short chapters move the story along, but it can be difficult at first to remember which characters belong to which era of the family. There is a bit of a mystery that weaves its way through the story as the murderer of Ebby’s brother was never found. Was it someone they knew or was it just a robbery? I became invested in the story quite early and January LaVoy’s narration was easy to listen to. I was so invested that I read the hardcover and listened to get through the story even faster.
“To understand that sometimes you can save yourself a lot of trouble by daring to have a difficult conversation.”
There is a lot to discuss in this story including the historical aspect, the making of the jar and its significance, the murder and canceled wedding, and Ebby’s transformation. This story had all my favorite elements of a 5-star read including a bit of history, family drama, some romance, a mystery, and a character’s transformation that leaves the reader hopeful. When reading a book, I’m always looking for the way the title will appear in the story and in this case, the title appears in numerous ways which I really enjoyed.
Wilkerson’s research on 19th-century stoneware and pottery made by slaves was evident in her detailed descriptions. I love it when an inanimate object, like a home, a painting, or in this case, a jar, becomes a character itself in a story. As the novel states, “History can be told only through a chorus of voices” and in this case those voices included the words on a jar that traveled through generations as the voice of those who had gone before.
Charmaine Wilkerson is an American writer who has lived in the Caribbean and is based in Italy. She is a former journalist and recovered marathon runner whose award-winning short stories can be found in various UK and US anthologies and magazines. Black Cake (2022) was her first novel.
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Posted Under Book Review, Charmaine Wilkerson, historical fiction, slavery