In the Country of Women
In the Country of Women
Author: Susan Straight
Desc: In inland Southern California near the desert and the Mexican border Susan Straight a white self-proclaimed book nerd and Dwayne Sims an African American basketball player started dating in high school. After college they married and drove to Amherst Massachusetts where Straight met her teacher and mentor James Baldwin who encouraged her to write. Once back in Riverside at weekly driveway barbecues and fish fries with the large close-knit Sims family Straight―and eventually her three daughters―learned the stories of Dwayne’s ancestors. Some women escaped violence in post-slavery Tennessee some escaped murder in Jim Crow Mississippi and some fled abusive men. Straight’s mother-in-law Alberta Sims is the descendant at the heart of this memoir. Susan’s family too reflects the hardship and gumption of women pushing onward―from Switzerland Wisconsin Canada and the Colorado Rockies to California. A Pakistani word biraderi is one Straight uses to define a complex system of kinship and clan―those who become your family. She and Sims divorced after their third daughter was born but he lives nearby and the family has remained close. Of her three girls now grown and working in museums and the entertainment industry Straight writes “The daughters of our ancestors carry in their blood at least three continents. We are not about borders. We are about love and survival.” In the Country of Women is a valuable social history and a personal narrative that reads like a love song to America and indomitable women.