Synopses & Reviews
For Rae Dodson, the early seventies are as hopeful and promising as the peace signs popping up everywhere. The signature sounds of Motown are filling Detroit's airwaves, and automobile factories are supporting a burgeoning black middle class, which works by day and plays bid whist by night. Rae's hip older sister, Kimmie, has moved home from New Orleans; her mother's nerves have calmed enough for her to stop taking her vitamins; her father has discovered new painkillers that ease his chronic migraines; and now, despite her parents' sleeping in separate rooms, the peace between them seems to be holding. All that shifts, however, when Rae's mother suddenly takes off with her lover down a stretch of highway.
Left to care for her ailing father, Rae grows up faster than any young girl should and is forced to admit that her mother may be incapable of love, that her father's love may be too all-consuming. What's most obvious is that neither seems fully capable of looking after Rae, who is searching not only for a way to make her family whole again but also for a way to make sense of her own budding sexuality.
With fully realized characters and an infinitely imaginative storyline, Shifting Through Neutral heralds the arrival of a promising new talent.
Review
“The authors prose is poignant, like a strong left hook...sad, but endearing...written with precision and skill.” Atlanta Daily World Celebration of Books Fall 2004
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“Richly detailed and intimate…Davis eloquently paints a picture seldom seen: the abiding affection black fathers have for their children.” Detroit Free Press
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“A vibrant...journey through a young womans coming-of-age....Hop inthis novel is a ride well worth taking. Martha Southgate, author of The Fall of Rome
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“Shifting Through Neutral is a beautifully rendered story by a writer to watch.” Benilde Little, author of Acting Out and Good Hair
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“Wonderful....In this book...there is...a poignancy that cuts incisively through the tender tissue of family love.” Elizabeth Strout, author of Amy and Isabelle
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“Lyrical...addictive...haunting. This beautiful coming-of-age story and will assuredly capture many hearts.” Trisha R. Thomas, author of Would I Lie to You?
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“A tender telling that made me long for my own father.” Africana.com
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“A beautifully rendered first novel that captures the complications of children caught between discontented parents with secret lives.” Washington Post
Synopsis
Not yet a woman yet more than a little girl, Rae Dodson is caught up in her family's drama. Her hip older sister, Kimmie, whom her mother favors, has moved from New Orleans to join them in Detroit, a city that moves as if in synch with the Stevie Wonder tunes that play giddily from new automobiles fresh off the factory lots. Her bid whist-playing mother is as nervous as ever, and her father's chronic migraines seem less responsive to medication. And while they all occupy the same house, they might as well be living separate lives. When the tenuous peace finally breaks, Rae must decide where her loyalties lie: should she choose her emotionally distant mother, whom she adores, or her affectionate but needy father? Rae does choose and launches into a rich, loving relationship with her dad, for whom she shows a fierce, undying loyalty. But as she matures, she must find a way amid her own budding sexuality to be both Daddy's girl and her own woman.
About the Author
Bridgett M. Davis is an associate professor of English at the City University of New York's Baruch College, where she teaches creative writing and literature. A graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, she is the director of the award-winning feature film Naked Acts. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son.