2022: A beautiful convergence of prose and poetry

I thought this was a well-crafted look at the Black experience, especially through the eyes of British women. There are twelve interwoven stories, with each narrator getting their own time to tell their story. The book covers a lot of ground, traveling through time and space to a variety of places and eras.

The only thing holding me back from a full five stars here was that I felt myself getting bored and/or rushing through several of them. Maybe that was my own white privilege getting in the way here, some blindspots preventing me from enjoying this book fully.

Be warned: if you are a stickler for exact punctuation, this book will annoy you! I usually put myself in that category, but I must say, it didn't bother me here. The prose was written to fit in a poetic style; it matched the punctuation that was there. I usually only get annoyed when the quotation marks are left off for no actual good reason!