Silenced
Kia Dupree
Grand Central, Oct 18 2011, $13.99
ISBN: 9780446547741
In Washington, D.C., thirty years old single mom Nicola “Cola” Hampton has one goal for her three children daughter Teyona (called Tinka) and her two sons (fourteen years old Marquan and twelve years old Taevon). She prays they avoid the mistakes she and their dads made as Tinka’s father has vanished; Marquan’s sire serves a life sentence; and Taevon’s pop is a serial womanizer. When Cola loses her job, she is forced to move with her into the dangerous Sursum Corda projects with her three offspring.
Marquan steals a car and eventually is charged with capital murder and Taevon becomes a drug dealer. Cola’s only hope resides with Tinka, but though a good girl, her armed boyfriend Nine robs stores.
This is a powerful family drama as Kia Dupree provides profound insight into the other side of living in DC. The cast is fully developed especially the Hampton brood whose life in the projects comes across as perilous while also emotionally wringing. Rotating perspective between mother and daughter, Silenced is a raw deep look at surviving the mean streets of a Washington in which politicians prefer to pretend it does not exist.
Harriet Klausner
Kia Dupree
Grand Central, Oct 18 2011, $13.99
ISBN: 9780446547741
In Washington, D.C., thirty years old single mom Nicola “Cola” Hampton has one goal for her three children daughter Teyona (called Tinka) and her two sons (fourteen years old Marquan and twelve years old Taevon). She prays they avoid the mistakes she and their dads made as Tinka’s father has vanished; Marquan’s sire serves a life sentence; and Taevon’s pop is a serial womanizer. When Cola loses her job, she is forced to move with her into the dangerous Sursum Corda projects with her three offspring.
Marquan steals a car and eventually is charged with capital murder and Taevon becomes a drug dealer. Cola’s only hope resides with Tinka, but though a good girl, her armed boyfriend Nine robs stores.
This is a powerful family drama as Kia Dupree provides profound insight into the other side of living in DC. The cast is fully developed especially the Hampton brood whose life in the projects comes across as perilous while also emotionally wringing. Rotating perspective between mother and daughter, Silenced is a raw deep look at surviving the mean streets of a Washington in which politicians prefer to pretend it does not exist.
Harriet Klausner
No comments:
Post a Comment