"Red at the Bone," by Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson, the acclaimed author of many books for children, and of a bestselling memoir, “Brown Girl Dreaming,” was also widely praised for her 2016 novel for adults, “Another Brooklyn,” about which I wrote here on 2/5/17. The latter is a powerful novel about young African American girls and adolescents, and portrays the severe sexism and racism they endured. Just as I recommended that novel, I now recommend Woodson’s new novel, “Red at the Bone” (Riverhead, 2019). This is the story of a teenaged mother, Iris, pregnant too soon, and her daughter, Melody. Iris’s well-to-do parents disapprove of Iris’s pregnancy, but fall in love with their new granddaughter and raise her, while Iris goes to college, as she had always dreamed. She dearly loves her daughter, but is not willing to give up her dreams for her, and their relationship is fraught because of this. There is a complex and vexed, although loving, relationship among these three generations, as well as with Melody’s father, Aubrey. There are themes of women’s aspirations, social class, race, and family relationships. This spare book is beautifully written and thought-provoking, never oversimplifies the issues, and never lets the issues overshadow the characters themselves. Woodson is now on my list of writers whose novels I will always read.