false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172343365m/166101.jpg 166101 15 <b>Oprah Book Club® Selection, October 1999:</b> Breena Clarke's first novel takes place in Georgetown in 1925, where a large and close-knit African American community took shape beneath the shadow of segregation. At the center of the story is baby Clara, who is swallowed by the Potomac as her sister, Johnnie Mae, cools off in the brackish water. It's the only place the girls can find relief--they're banned from the new, clean swimming pool the white kids use.<p> After Clara drowns, the river is never the same, and Johnnie Mae hovers on the edge of womanhood wondering if she'll be able to get past her guilt and emptiness. In an eloquent passage, Clarke writes, "Losing a loved one, a family member, is like losing a tooth. After a while, those teeth remaining shift and lean and spread out to split the distance between themselves and the other teeth still left, trying to close up spaces."<p> Bits of wisdom like this are the book's charm. Most remarkable are the church scenes, which Clarke renders almost purely in the give-and-take of voices: the booming preacher's sermon ("The people we love, we only borrowing them"), and the congregation's "Praise Jesus, Amen" exclamations. The author based her novel on stories passed down in Georgetown--tales of that area's first black churches, founded when people decided they wanted their own place of worship, and implicitly their own God. In church the novel takes flight. Elsewhere <I>River, Cross My Heart</I> suffers from clumsy, purple prose, and a plot that moves forward in labored fits and starts. Clarke painstakingly tries to re-create this past world, but sometimes it seems her duty to history is holding her back, bogging her down in period-piece details. In the effortless church scenes, history loses its gravity and is absorbed by grace. <I>--Emily White</I> 2174991 1998 River, Cross My Heart (Oprah's Book Club) total:959|5:72|4:257|3:412|2:178|1:40| 959 3020 1370 79 4 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 10:18:04 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 10:18:39 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Oct 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 10:35:52 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 10:11:35 -0700 2009 River Cross My Heart. The story opens with the tragic death of a young girl, and the following plot always comes back to that scene, and how a family and neighborhood are changed because of the death. I don't know if it is because the reader doesn't know the character that p...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Feb 05 20:29:40 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 20:33:46 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Nov 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 15 19:40:09 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 15 19:52:30 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 08 14:06:20 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 08 14:23:43 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 07:13:48 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 07:18:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Aug 02 09:15:20 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 02 09:19:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Jan 23 09:54:29 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 09:58:26 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Sep 24 13:33:41 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 13:33:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 10:36:50 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 10:38:59 -0800 2009
This details the lives of a black family in the early 1920's and the prejudice and social climate in which they exist. It was tender and taught me much a...more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Mar 18 13:57:37 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 13:59:23 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Apr 10 07:22:33 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 07:35:27 -0700 2009 Johnnie Mae is Spunky and keeps her beloved Clara's spirit alive - I love that
Ella uses holistic healing - wish I could study that more.
Alice, Ina, & I share a sisterhood kindred spirit of caring for their family & friends. ]]> 3 0 false false Tue Oct 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 15:06:36 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 18:21:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Apr 29 10:50:10 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 10:51:20 -0700 2009 ]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 27 04:45:48 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 04:47:58 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2002 Wed Feb 11 22:20:19 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 22:20:43 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Thu Oct 08 14:59:57 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 15:02:34 -0700 2009 1 0 false false Thu Feb 21 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Sat Sep 19 07:38:10 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 07:38:10 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 19:25:04 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 10:36:30 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Nov 25 10:04:47 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 10:05:37 -0800 2008 Part of the Oprah series, which, although mainstream, never seems to disappoint]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=166101