Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson Book Review
by Catalina Bonati
3/5 stars
Red at the Bone (2019) by Jacqueline Woodson is a short novel about the dissonance between children and their parents and the pains of pregnancy and childrearing at a young age.
The story of Iris, her boyfriend Aubrey, her teenage pregnancy, her parents Po’boy and Sabe, and her child is narrated non-linearly through multiple perspectives. It starts by introducing Melody as she goes through a family coming-of-age ceremony at sixteen and by reflecting on how her mother was unable to go through the same ceremony due to her pregnancy. The event of Melody coming down the stairs in her hand-me-down white dress is narrated by most of the character perspectives (her mother, her father, and her grandfather) like many of the other events in the book. Most of the time, this adds to depth and dynamics to the story, yet sometimes the multiple perspectives are unnecessary and hamper story development. The book is slow-paced despite its short length and there is not much in terms of plot; rather, it’s character development through recollections which carry the story forward.
The discourse in this book centers on regretting teenage pregnancy and motherhood. It views pregnancy as a trauma endured not only by the mother but by the mother’s parents and even her child. The child’s origin story is regarded as a possible source of pain, as an initial point of contention between the parents and their relation to the child. The pregnancy depicted here is specific to the pregnancy of wealthy people; there are two affected families, but major emphasis is placed on Iris’ experience, who is well-off and suffers no economic hardship due to her condition. Aubrey, the father, is from a less privileged family yet he does not seem to experience any financial difficulty either; it appears as though it is not a pregnancy-related concern. To Iris and to Po’boy and Sabe, pregnancy is a separate event to raising a child. Iris suffers withdrawal from her regular life due to her condition, but once Melody is born Iris continues her own life plans of attending college and dating other people and is only very lightly affected by having a child. Melody is left behind in the care of her father and her grandparents who enjoy this role and have forgotten the collective trauma of the teen pregnancy.
The book focuses on very little other than pregnancy, childbirth, and parental relationships. Iris goes through a very slight search for identity during her time at college and Melody aims to be a separate person from her mother, but this theme is not strong or indulged enough. The slow pace of the book and the recurring themes viewed multiple times through different perspectives mark this as a one-track story despite its efforts to grant several viewpoints to life when coming of age. The book is innovative in its approach to motherhood not as a self-sacrificing, joyous relationship, but as a traumatic experience and is a necessary perspective in generational literature. Although Red at the Bone is repetitive in the exploration of its themes, it is a unique take on motherhood and detachment.
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