Page from a Tennessee Journal
Francine Thomas Howard

AmazonEncore
September 20th, 2011 / ISBN: 978- 1612181301
Historical Fiction / African-American related
Amazon

Reviewed by Susan Johnson

“Page from a Tennessee Journal” is the first novel by Francine Thomas Howard. However Ms. Howard writes like an old soul.

At the opening of the book AnnaLaura Welles is struggling to keep her family alive. The year is 1913 and she is sharecropping a parcel of land for wealthy landowner Alexander McNaughton.

AnnaLaura started out this project with her husband John and her 4 small children. However her husband has took off and left her, taking most of the money she had hoarded back. The children are almost starving and AnnaLaura fears that the land owner, Mr. McNaughton will come by, see the shape of the crops and evict her and the children.
McNaughton does come by, and is struck by Anna Laura’s beauty. That is all wrong though as McNaughton is white, wealthy and married and AnnaLaura is black and anything but wealthy and has no idea what her marriage is bound for.

This book takes place close enough to the end of Civil War where black people still remember slavery and are forced to take a certain position in life.

As the book advances McNaughton brings food and gifts for the children and more or less rapes AnnaLaura on a regular basis. AnnaLaura endures for the sake of children but changes are coming and they won’t be pleasant for any involved.

As I read this book I found myself feeling for all the characters. Not only AnnLaura but McNaughton’s wife Eula Mae trapped in her own way. I tried not to like or care for McNaughton but he had characteristics that in enamored me to him also. Last but not least is John, Anna Laura’s husband who we should despise from the beginning but find he has reasons for his absence also.

For some reason as I was reading this book I keep thinking about the book, “ The Color Purple” by Alice Walker and the small similarities in these two books. I must say that “Pages from a Tennessee Journal”came across every bit as strong to me and I would not be surprised to find it a classic in the years to come.