Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Edition Reviewed: Hardcover, 252 pages
Published April 5th 2022 by The Dial Press
Memphis by Tara Stringfellow is the beautiful outcome of a poet-turned novelist. Packed with color, imagery, and figurative language, this is a story of three generations told in four voices that spans six decades. I was immediately “drawn in” by the descriptive narrative of young Joan, who sees the world through color and sound. When she reaches the family home in Memphis after a long and emotional journey, she observes, “The butterflies are what solidified my fascination. Small and periwinkle-blue, they danced within the canopy. The butterflies were African violets come alive. It was the finishing touch to a Southern symphony all conducted on a quarter-acre plot.”
Stringfellow gives us an up-close view of the poignant times in the lives of the North women: Hazel, her daughters Miriam and August, and Miriam’s daughters Joan and Mya. Through telling their story, she also gives us a window to poignant times in our country from the perspective of these resilient characters. And the power is in who’s telling the story.
Stringfellow combines elements of food, music, community, and family to produce a patchwork masterpiece that smothers the reader in the nostalgia of the past, as painful as it is beautiful. Her narrative structure is alternating characters in alternating timelines, much as one would knit together a multi-colored pattern. The effect is intentional, not tapping on one painful spot for too long before returning to the next place that needs tending. One might think that four povs and time-hopping would lead to confusing or rereading, but Stringfellow is flawless in her execution and it is easy to slip back into the story at hand.
In the end, I was sad to leave the pages of Memphis, the town and the family home being characters in the novel in their own right. I recommend this resplendent story to anyone who loves reading art on a page that transposes to the canvas of the mind and settles deep in the heart.
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This sounds so good. Going to try and get myself this book. ❤️