Despite The Title, And Topic, It Is Not As Depressing As One Might Think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   Having recently come off from the anguish of "A Little Life," and, in my own life, having lost a parent--my surviving one--this year, I was not sure if I was up to Zinzi Clemmons' novel emotionally.

                                    Well, I was.  It is, thankfully, shorter than "A Little Life," less rambling, and loosely written in the style of a fictive memoir, with graphic (but not in a disturbing way) illustrations.

                                        The main character, Thandi, a Philadelphia raised girl--Main Line, no less, darlings!!!!!!!--whose mother's familial roots are in Johannesburg, South Africa, goes back and forth musing about her and her mother's roots, her own sense of identity and place in the world, and all this while her mother is dying of cancer.

                                          I related to Thandi, as I went through a similar experience--me being young and not yet grounded, while my own mother was dying of cancer, so it was easy for me to feel for her, without feeling my pain.  Though it is haunting, moving, and well written, I would not go so far, as did "VOGUE," in 2017 to call it "The debut novel of the year."

                                          Nevertheless, it is satisfying, rewarding, and may be the kind of inspirational experience that, as you read it, you hear, in your head, Peggy Wood, or Patricia Neway, who won the TONY Award for her role, singing "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," from "The Sound Of Music."

                                           "Till you find your dream,"girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"