Synopses & Reviews
Violet, Lilly, and Rose know how it feels to be black women trying to find their place in a changing white world. Violet, the eldest, grows up believing in the myth of the southern belle-only to discover that good manners and genteel charm aren't going to bring her acceptance from a closed-minded society...or a philandering husband. Lilly is an ex-Black Panther and writer caught up in the stormy aftermath of the sixties; she shuts out this new world of confusion and pain with the heroin that can never give her peace-or salvation. Rose is the youngest, a sculptor who has shaped herself in the image of an independent black woman grounded in the political movements of her time. But she carries a secret heartache that will resonate in the life of her daughter, Imani, who grows up searching for the daddy she longs to know.
Earthy, evocative, rich in the atmosphere and emotional turmoil of the times, Getting Our Breath Back is a story of struggle and forgiveness, of separation and reconciliation...of women who must reinvent themselves if they are to survive, to heal, and to flourish.
Synopsis
In Shawne Johnson's debut novel, Getting Our Breath Back, Violet, Lilly, and Rose know how it feels to be black women trying to find their place in the world, even if those places are very different. Violer's belief in the myth of the Southern Belle fails her when she discovers that her genteel charms aren't going to bring back her philandering husband; Lilly is caught in the aftermatch of the sixties, shutting out the pain of her past with drugs; and Rose, outwardly independent and grounded in political movements, carries a secret heartache that resonates in the life of her daughter who longs for the father she never knew. Careening through the chaos and optimism of the sixties through the disillusionment and disappointments of the seventies, Getting Our Breath Back is an earthy and atmospheric story of emotional turmoil and self-reinvention.
About the Author
Shawne Johnson received her undergraduate degree from Bennett College in North Carolina and completed her master's degree in English literature at Temple University in Philadelphia. She has been a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique, Africa. Getting Our Breath Back is her first novel.