A Kind of Freedom - African American Literature Annotation

Title: A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Published: 2017
Number of pages: 256 pages (Kindle edition)
Sub-genre: Literary fiction

Plot summary: 
Follow three generations of a New Orleans African American family in this novel about love and life through the decades. Sections alternate between Evelyn in 1944, Jackie in 1986, and T.C. in 2010. Evelyn is a twenty-two year old studying to be a nurse when she meets handsome and shy Renard who begins to change her dreams. Evelyn's daughter, Jackie, is a new mother struggling with the disappearance of her crack addicted husband who suddenly reappears. Jackie’s son, T.C., was just released from jail where he had spent four months for a weed possession, but is getting out with renewed purpose because of the approaching birth of his son. A Kind of Freedom shows the connections between family members who stay by each other which brings hope during heart wrenching events.

African American Literature Elements:
Characterization: The characters in A Kind of Freedom are all very realistic. Each character has certain dreams for their lives, but as life goes, those plans change from circumstances out of their control and from some of their own poor choices. This is how real life goes. We have ideas for how our lives will turn out, but they rarely go exactly as planned. 
Storyline: Since so much time is spent on making the characters realistic, the storyline becomes very character driven. It is much more about the way the characters think and dream based on circumstances rather than the circumstances and events themselves.
Tone: While African American literature could be very depressing and dark, A Kind of Freedom also has a lot of hope. There are difficult topics discussed such as war, racial inequality, and drug abuse. Yet, through it all, the characters have each other and the connections they have help each one push through the difficult situations they face.
Writing Style: Since there is less focus on the setting and a detailed plot, there is a lot of dialogue and inner thought. This helps keep an engaging writing style for A Kind of Freedom. The dialogue for the characters flows naturally which helps the story move along quickly. 

Read-Alikes:
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Personal Thoughts:
While I did not love this book, I also did not hate it. I appreciated the well-developed and realistically flawed characters, but the plot was very bland and a bit predictable to me. I prefer a bit more excitement and action in what I read. Yet, like I said I did not hate it. It was a good change for me. It also helped that it was a very quick read. 
Now, I  have to give a warning, since this is realistic, Sexton did not spare the reader the gritty details of sex and the culture surrounding weed dealers. Specifically T.C.’s sections have a lot of detail about his sexual thoughts and actions as well as many uses of the “N” word and m*****f*****. For this reason I struggled with most of T.C.’s section. While this is abundant in T.C’s section, it is scarcer in Evelyn’s section, which was part of the reason why she was my favorite to read. I honestly think if her piece had not been in it, I might have really disliked this book.