Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in 2023. The most recent of the author's works that has been praised for telling the untold stories of black people in history, this novel takes place more recently than Perkins-Valdez's earlier Civil War era pieces. It deals with cancer, mental illness, racism, disturbing but not graphic medical content, a car accident, talk of abortion, and classism.
Civil Townsend has just started working as a nurse at the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic in 1973, her first job out of nursing school. She is assigned to be the nurse for two girls in the country and is shocked to find on her first visit to see them that both girls have been placed on birth control, even though one of them hasn't even had her first period yet. In addition to that, she has questions about the birth control shot being pushed at the clinic, whether it is safe for humans. Civil stakes matters of their contraceptives into her own hands, with devastating consequences for her young charges, as she struggles with her role in the girls' lives.
This story is based on real life events that happened in the 70's, in which the government sterilized women in poor areas, predominantly women of color, without the full consent and understanding of the women involved. This story was not always easy to read although I did learn quite a bit, but ultimately, I wanted more from this book and ended up feeling very underwhelmed. I did not really like the main character, I never connected with her and had a hard time with the choices she made and the feelings of guilt she struggled with afterward.
I'm giving Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez 4 stars out of 5. It is an interesting book and it's well written, but it left me wanting more from it.
For more from Dolen Perkins-Valdez, check out https://dolenperkinsvaldez.com/
Pairs well with a slice of 7Up cake and a friend that will buy you MCAT practice tests for Christmas.
Comments