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An author with a distinctive style of writing, Susan Wright, is truly an inspiration to many. She attended John W. North High School, California and then won a scholarship to the University of Southern California. In the year 1984, she earned a M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts. Her M.F.A was for Poet and Writers. This program is one of the best in the world for creative writing, and Susan, herself, founded a program for creative writing & writing for performing arts at the University of California. (Straight)She lived in Riverside, Calif, as a kid, and heard the stories of the black community that lives here; their plight, their challenges; the obstacles in their path daily and their voices as a tight-knit community, coping with discrimination in the society. These stories had a huge impact on her, and we find them inter-woven in each and every book of hers.
An interview of hers in 2012, she said that there are two kinds of people- one kind who leaves, and the other group who stays. She says she stays. (Jessica Gelt)And indeed she still stays in Riverside, merely blocks away from her old home. Her 12 books-Aquaboogie,I been in Sorrow’s kitchen, Blacker than a thousand midnights, The Getting’ Place, Highwire Moon,A Million Nightingales, The Friskative Dog, Take One Candle Light a Room and Between Heaven and Here. Each book has a different story-yet there are inherent similarities between each of them. She says she invests a lot of time in each of her books and can’t detach herself from them ever- it is only love.
Aquaboogie is about an all-Black-community. There are an older generation and the younger generation of the Black community- who smoke Cocaine and travel in open- hood cars. Rather fascinating representation of their lives! Eleven stories woven together- with characters ranging from a poet who has been jailed, a bird lover to domestic violence victims and a pig farmer.
Another excellent work of Susan Straight is Highwire Moon, nominated for the National Book Award. The story follows the separation of a mother and daughter and their struggle to find each other years later. Serfina, the mother and Elvia, the daughter have harrowing experiences across migrant populations, shady motels, orphans and foster homes in their quest for each other. But there is love and hope in each and every page that wrings the reader’s heart. The determination of these two women makes the readers vouch for them. The most particular and poignant symbol in the book is the pair of silver barrettes Serafina carries to keep Elvia in her mind. The torment undocumented workers have to go through in their lives in different countries, is an eye opener for the plight we often subject fellow human beings to. Susan strikes a champion in this novel.(Susan_Straight)
However, the best work of Susan Straight would probably be the Rio Seco trilogy. The three novels in the series are A Million Nightingales, Take One Candle Light a Room and Between Heaven and Here. The first novel, A Million Nightingales, takes place in the mid- nineteenth century and deals with the journey of Moinette, a mixed-race slave who gradually goes on to become a free woman and an entrepreneur. The cruelties she faces in her life; how she is torn away from her mother, how she is sold off as a slave, how three men brutally rape her. But, there
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is hope as well. Moinette learns to read and write by herself, she runs a boarding house successfully and eventually manages to give her son a free life. The first-person style of narration, the intermittent use of French, Bambara and Creole words and the true account of American slavery makes this book a poignant read. Truly, it deserved the Lannan Literary Award it brought home Susan and the rave reviews worldwide.
The next book in the series is Take One Candle Light a Room. It transcends across the journey of Fantine, a travel writer. When she comes home, she finds her murdered friend Glorette’s son Victor’s increasing bend towards crime and violence. Together with her father, she embarks on a journey to help Victor and makes a journey of self-discovery herself and questions all the choices she has made in her life. It is a wonderful piece of writing, with intricate family details, the vivid descriptions of the orange groves, the strong characters and the ties that bind them. It is not just the story of Fantine or Victor- it is the story of millions of the black population- who are looking for an identity of their own, amidst all the chaos in their lives.
The third and final book in the series is Between Heaven and Here. Critics rate it as Susan’s best work. It switches back and fro from past to present, and traces the death of Glorette and the incidences that followed. Glorette is a prostitute and yet she wants to give her son a better life and prepares him for University. The prequel to Take One Candle Light a Room, this book makes us aware of what Victor was before his mother’s death, the hard choices Glorette made. The most touching point of the book is the fact that Glorette is a beautiful woman. Her face is
lovely, her skin is golden- yet her beauty does nothing but gets her a tragic end. The people of the town bury her across the Orange Grove and her son, preparing for SAT, must learn to forgive his mother for the choices and follies. We know what he does, if we have read the earlier book. The grim, depressing tone and incidents of this book wrench our hearts and make us wonder at how horrific the lives of the African-American community are in our society. They have no dignity, but even they are individuals with happiness, sadness, hopes, aspirations, fears, anger. Susan makes them come alive in each page; with their dialect, their families, their sorrows speaking for themselves. Each Black character in the book is a strong representation of the triumph of humanity. (Roy Hoffman)
Susan Straight has won several awards and nominations for her works. Be it the finalist for National Book Award for Fiction in 2001 for Highwire Moon or the Lannan Literary Award in 2007. She won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for “The Golden Gopher” and the 2013 award for Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Susan Straight has truly proved herself to be the darling of the critics and masses alike.
In her personal life, she married an African-American and had three daughters with him. She divorced him but remained friendly with him. Being a single mother, with three daughters, must have been tough, but Susan managed it well. Her eldest daughter Gaila graduated from Oberlin college, her middle daughter Delphine graduated from the University of Southern California, and her youngest Rosette is still studying at the University of California. In her website, she has a separate link called “American Family” with lovely pictures of her life. (American Family)She deeply loves the African-American community and even though, not being black herself, she has a lot of respect and admiration for the community. The plight of the black community has always moved her and each of her books is about them. The African-American community finds its voice and representation in her books.
Susan Straight is a pioneer of change- she is a model for many aspiring writers, who want to make a change and provide hope to a community that has been downtrodden for centuries. A writer provides an insight into a new world, and Susan Straight does the same to millions of readers around the world- with her lucid storytelling, simple language and poignant tales.
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Works cited:
- “American Family.”Susanstraight.com.n.p.,n.d.Web.27th October.2014
- Jessica Gelt. “Susan-straight-book.”articles.latimes.com.n.p., n.d.Web. 27th October. 2014
- Roy Hoffman. “Between-heaven-and-here-by-susan-straight.”NYTimes.n..p., n.d.Web. 27th October.2014
- “Straight.”creativewriting.ucr.edu/.n.p.,n.dWeb.27th October.2014
- “Susan_Straight.”salon.com.n.p.,n.d.Web.27th October.2014
