Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

[Vasqu1k]

This book profiles the divergent and convergent life experiences of one family whose matriarch, Hattie, is the central figure. Her young life is punctuated by early motherhood and indescribable tragedy, which shapes her and remakes her as first and foremost the mother of this unfolding clan. Her early years are profiled briefly before the subsequent chapters provide an account of her grown children, who each find their unique way to return home to who they truly are. Many learn to stand in their own power despite trauma, neglect, and setbacks while others voice their ongoing struggle to differentiate and finally redeem their identities in relation to their mother, whose stabilizing, if distant, presence was all they had to call home.

Hattie's story further expands as the shadow of each of these chronicles. The woman who faced so much hardship and despair to raise her children becomes the backbone and the ghost of each journey until they learn to listen to the voice of strength and guidance from within. Her grown children's voices are immediate and vulnerable, giving firsthand witness to the family dynamics that affect them on a personal level and the ongoing spectre of poverty and racism that affect them on a social scale.

Hattie's legacy becomes the combined grace, power, and heartbreak of each these characters as she holds the space for each individual to make his or her way in the world.