In West Mills by De'Shawn Charles Winslow

Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023--San Antonio

In West Mills by De'Shown Charles Winslow is a short novel about the people living in the Black section (across the canal) of a town in North Carolina.  The main character is "Knot," a woman who has moved there to be the local school teacher.  Her father, a dentist, has arranged the job for her in hopes that she will "settle down" a little in life.  Instead, she remains stubbornly strong and intent on living life as she prefers--drinking moonshine, carousing at the local juke joint, making the husband in a nearby family her best friend, having a local gay man as her "closest" friend (the one to whom she can tell and discuss anything), getting pregnant from random guys and giving the newly born babies to good local families who want a child.  The book covers the lives and secrets of many within the community and some who have left to live their lives elsewhere.  The story ranges over a period of about 60 years.  It provides a broad picture of the lives of Black people through those years that range from being sharecroppers, to going to war, to going through the civil rights movement and the changes it brought, and eventually to the late 1900s.  I read the book because of the great reviews for a new novel by the same author entitled Decent People which I am no going to read.  I have this book 4 stars out of 5.