Her Own Place

Southern Revivals

by Dori Sanders

Her Own Place traces the life and times of Mae Lee Barnes, an African American woman from rural South Carolina. The novel begins with Mae Lee's life as a teenager in the 1940s and follows her eventual marriage to her boyfriend, Jeff Barnes, who proposes before going off to fight in World War II. While Jeff is in the army, Mae Lee works rotating shifts at a local munitions plant and saves every penny she can to purchase a small farm. When Jeff returns from the war, he alternates between spending time on the farm and going to find work in the city, and eventually the family decides to start a new life in the city together. The day their new life is to begin, Jeff abandons Mae Lee and their five children, and the story traces Mae Lee's struggles and triumphs after Jeff leaves, including her challenges as a single parent on a working farm, her life after her children are grown, the realities of racial integration in the South, and the realization that her memory is slipping away.

Genres: Fiction, African American, Southern, Historical Fiction, Family, Contemporary, Historical

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Julie G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Road Trip 2020

Current location: South Carolina

Her children, who had grown up surrounding her like plants in a carefully tended perennial bed, had removed themselves and left visible the now uneven edges of her life.

I entered the state of South Carolina in a bad mood. I have a book hangover from the near-perfection of my last read, Cold Mountain, and I wanted to stay in North Carolina forever anyway, not travel on.

So, when I arrived in The Palmetto State and was greeted by a small town farmer, Mae Lee Barnes, I thought to myself: boring. . . predictable. . . three stars. . . blah. . . blah. . .blah.

But, then, Mae Lee Barnes crept under my nails like soil from the garden, and I wanted her to move into my spare bedroom and live with me forever. Honestly, when I finished the book a few minutes ago and saw that there was no sequel, I felt quite peevish and lost, annoyed that I'm going to have to continue on in life without her honest revelations.

I think I learned more from this fictional woman in this 243 page novel than I have from almost any other real woman in my life.

We first meet Mae Lee as a woman in her mid-60s, moving into the first new home she's ever owned. Her five grown children adore her, but they are busy with their lives and careers and kids and even though a couple of them live nearby, Mae Lee is alone and often lonely.

We then travel back, mentally, with Mae Lee, and we learn what she loved, what made her strong, what made her vulnerable, too. She takes us back to the gooey, the gorgeous and the ghastly, and by the time we are back with her 60-something self, we feel as though we know her well.

In her mid-60s, she lives alone, and sometimes she feels a part of the foundation of her life slipping away, but she's real about it, truthful about her anxiety, and she often rocks herself in her favorite rocking chair until she can beat the mean reds and fall asleep in peace.

There's a scene in this novel that I hope I remember always: Mae Lee is grappling as a grandmother over the idea that her beloved grandson might be gay. She doesn't know if he is or isn't, but it's plaguing her mind. She was born in the early 1920s and she's just not comfortable with such ideas, but she knows she loves her grandson and she knows how much it would wound him, if she expressed only a limited love for him.

So, she declares, out loud, to the empty room that she forgives her grandson and she desires to be forgiven by him, and she decides that her grandchild did not have to be present for her to feel fulfilled.

This declaration was incredibly powerful for me. How many times have you apologized to someone who wasn't ready to receive it and/or refused it? How many times has someone apologized to you and their words seemed insincere or insufficient?

What a revelation. . . to declare, out loud, with an open heart, that you are offering forgiveness or are receiving forgiveness. . . in an attempt to heal and restore balance. . . the presence of the other person not essential to that room.

I came to love the “plain” writing in this Dori Sanders novel, writing that is reminiscent in many ways of Fannie Flagg's, Anne Tyler's and Carol Shield's.

I feel positively bereft right now, having said goodbye to Mae Lee Barnes. I honestly do.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of Mae Lee Barnes, a woman of substance. Barnes wasn’t her name before she married a good-looking high school boy. They had no time to settle down to marriage before Jeff Barnes was off to the Army and when he returned, he never really returned but only stopped by occasionally to give Mae Lee another baby.

Very quickly, Jeff Barnes is gone for good and this young woman has a farm and five babies to take care of. Her Own Place is the saga of Barnes, her parents, her children and her weltanschauung. Sanders’ book allows us to follow Barnes from her school days in the 1930s through the end of the 20th century.

The setting is rural South Carolina and the way of life there may surprise you. I do not want to spoil the plot for you. The story touches on what you might ask of your family and what you don’t ever ask. Also, what happens during a crisis or a disaster. Relations between the races create expectations and insights into why people behave the way they do. Here’s a sample:

“The singing voice of Elvis Presley on the radio made her step back in time. She remembered some remark he’d made about her people. They were called “colored people” then. And as she’d done then and from the day since she’d heard about it, she would refuse even to listen to him sing if she could do anything about it. She reached out to turn off her radio. Then she stopped. Elvis Presley was dead. Died in disgrace, when he was still a young man. And she was alive. The radio stayed on.”


Thanks to my GR friend, Julie, and her “Road Trip 2020” for calling this book to my attention.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mae Lee Barnes is no one special, just a black woman who believes in working hard, treating people with decency, raising her children to be good citizens, helping her neighbors when it's needed, and demanding respect so she can hold her head high. She made a bad marriage with a man who abandoned her and her five children, but she handled it. We get 60+ years of this woman's life, told in simple language without drama. 60 years of the last half of the 20th century and all its changes between blacks and white's, proving once again that we're all alike in the most important ways.

This was a sweet, simple novel that only packs a punch once you've finished because Mae Lee is all of us just trying to do our best every day.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful book in which little happened,except the life of one black woman in the South, which is to say that everything happens. Her life is not exceptionally tragic or exceptionally eventful, but it is an honest, human life that illustrates the Shakespeare quote: "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together." I have never been disappointed in a book published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. They publish many writers who would otherwise be overlooked. I look forward to reading more of Dori Sanders' work.

[Joni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mae Lee Barnes marries young and has five children at the end of WWII. Her feckless husband abandons the family and Mae Lee rises to the occasion and with foresight, she had bought a farm and land while her husband served in the war. Here in the rural Jim Crow south, she raises her family with wisdom, vigor and grace. The author captures a time and place before, during and in the aftermath of the civil rights movement. The characters, setting and wisdom that emanate from Mae Lee remain with the reader long after this short novel comes to a close.

[John’aLee · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightful summer read! The main character Mae Lee is someone you can’t help but fall in love with. She is an honest, resourceful woman who is humble and doesn’t let the color of her skin get in the way of living the life she wants.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

She isn't gifted, brilliant, or all-knowing; she is simply indomitable.That's how single mom of five Mae Lee gets by, running her farm and raising her children on her own.

[Robin Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book and Clover at the library book sale. I didn't really enjoy Clover but I thought I should give this a chance. You will note it took me a long time to read despite being a relatively short book. I was very busy during this time and my mind occupied by work stuff so I didn't really have room for another story in my head.

In reading Ms Sanders books it's not the characters or plot that wasn't interesting because I love slice of life fiction. I think the thing that made me think and be disturbed was a cultural part of both books, by an African American author writing African American characters. I've never thought so much about what is, and what must be, in my life.

I'm probably going to reconsider the three stars.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tender, (fictional) day-to-day account of the life of Mae Lee Barnes. From the point she leaves home to marry Jeff Barnes, through the births of each of her five children, and then on into her elderly years as a grandmother and lifelong friend to Ellabelle. Dori Sanders captures life for blacks in the South many years after Emancipation. A sweet account of the aging process.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tender, fictional, day-to-day account of the life of May Lee Barnes. From the point, she leaves home to marry Jeff Barnes, through the birth of each of her five children, and then on into her elderly years as a grandmother and lifelong friend to Ellabelle. Dori Sanders captures life for blacks in the South many years after Emancipation. A sweet account of the aging process.

[AL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mae Lee won me over instantly. What I love about Sanders characters is they’re simply plucked from Anywhere, USA. Everyday people with everyday ups and downs.

We meet Mae Lee as a young woman and stick with her into older age, watching how she falls in and out of love, her mothering, her drive for the life she knows she deserved, her care and concern, and ultimately, ensuring her hard work pays off for the sake of her kids.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reall enjoy Sander's writing. The way that memories flow info the present seem very realistic to me, and the story of Mae Lee was very calming. I really like the relationships between the characters.

[Lisa Huninghake · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet story of Mae Lee, her family, friends, and neighbors. From beginning to end, you walk beside Mae Lee through a failed marriage, buying land and raising her children alone. Her best friend, Ellabelle, knows her best and these two won my heart!

[Susie Agee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how the author let us know the private thoughts of this woman as she observed the development of her own life with her family in the midst of many social changes. I liked how she and her children are stable and decent.

[Ashley Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, won't give review or else I will spoil the book!!!!

[Terese Machmiller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appreciate the lived experiences of this woman, struggling to survive and to launch her offspring into better lives. Inspiring.

[Christina Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fun . I gave it 4.5 stars. I would recommend it to others to read.

[Abby Gottesman · Rating 4 out of 5]

boring in the best way--peaceful. I also love reading stories set in the south as I'm away from home

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a black woman and of her life lived wholly in a small community in South Carolina. She is a hard working single mother raising her five children on a farm with the help and love of family, relations and friends, both black and white. Over the decades her life evolves from immersion in farming and independent subsistence to community service and a modest but personally valued house in a black 'sub-division' in town. All the way along it is the story of a strong, uncomplicated woman molded and shaped by her community and history and own independent spirit. It is not a deeply entwined or 'awesome' tale, but a clean and simply-cast story of a black woman's values and tenacity.

[Chandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

GENRE: Historical Fiction, African American

SETTING: post WWII; farm land in rural South Carolina

CENTRAL FEMALE CHARACTER: MAE LEE BARNES: hard working; persistent; a survivor; a mother full of love and her FIVE (5) CHILDREN

SYNOPSIS
She was left to raise her children on the large acre farm. This story is about a woman who worked hard and went on to see her children succeed and some to college.

WHAT I LIKED: Her reaction to losing her money. And, Lest We Forget and many have. Always a historical reminder

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE: Some parts of the book were a little slow in the pace of events.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, which got glowing reviews, baffled me: it was one long straight line from start to finish. No great insights, no great lessons, no big events. The diction was pretty stilted, so even tho I liked Mae Lee as a character, the story as a whole left me cold. The best part was the scene when Mae Lee visited the plantations in Charleston--that was poignant and well told. Otherwise, just flat--a pleasant enough story about nothing much, just a regular woman.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet sweet story of a black woman's struggles to work a farm and raise her five children. It begins with WWII and continues through the Civil Rights era. By the end, she is all of us, aging and trying to cope with the life that is left. This is not earth shattering fiction, but it is earth level life showing the good left in so many.

[Nedra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very sweet book with such feeling for the south, for the good heart of this matriarch of a southern black family, for the power of friendship and family, for knowing who you are. I really enjoyed its gentle pace, its lovely southern words and images.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Dori Sanders when Clover came out, she was at a book signing party in her honor at the ABA in Los Vegas. She was a delightful woman. I loved her books.

[Jenalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story that takes place in the south. Follows the life of a good woman. A little slow sometimes, not as good as Clover.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Asheboro Public Library + Jerry Bledsoe

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good story line, however, thought the ending could have been more connected. Ending was disappointing.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be mostly episodic, not very engaging until the last few chapters, not a bad book, but definitely not a great one either

[Lora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite book of 1993...

[susieqlaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great southern fiction!