From the author of the acclaimed The Dry Grass of August comes a richly researched yet lyrical Southern-set novel that explores the conflicts of gentrification—a moving story of loss, love, and resilience. In 1961 Charlotte, North Carolina, the predominantly black neighborhood of Brooklyn is a bustling city within a city. Self-contained and vibrant, it has its own restaurants, schools, … restaurants, schools, theaters, churches, and night clubs. There are shotgun shacks and poverty, along with well-maintained houses like the one Loraylee Hawkins shares with her young son, Hawk, her Uncle Ray, and her grandmother, Bibi. Loraylee’s love for Archibald Griffin, Hawk’s white father and manager of the cafeteria where she works, must be kept secret in the segregated South.
Loraylee has heard rumors that the city plans to bulldoze her neighborhood, claiming it’s dilapidated and dangerous. The government promises to provide new housing and relocate businesses. But locals like Pastor Ebenezer Polk, who’s facing the demolition of his church, know the value of Brooklyn does not lie in bricks and mortar. Generations have lived, loved, and died here, supporting and strengthening each other. Yet street by street, longtime residents are being forced out. And Loraylee, searching for a way to keep her family together, will form new alliances—and find an unexpected path that may yet lead her home.
more
Tomorrow’s Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew is historical fiction set during the 1950‘s and 1960‘s.. Mayhew has written another enlightening account of the segregated south. Her stories help the reader to understand the daily struggles of that time and place. I liked that the characters are everyday people that you might know. I have looked forward to reading a second book by Ms.Mayhew and it was well worth the wait. Now I will anxiously await a third book. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book.
Anna Jean Mayhew’s latest novel, TOMORROW’S BREAD, is a work of southern fiction that pulls quietly, persistently at the heart. The story’s time is 1961, the setting an almost all black community nestled within the greater city of Charlotte, North Carolina, known as Brooklyn, a self-sufficient, thriving, close knit neighborhood where families have lived for generations.
Times are changing, progress is on the march and with it comes the idea that Brooklyn is not good for Charlotte. “Blight” is the word used to describe the area, yet for those who only know it as home, it is their safe haven. Houses are to be torn down, residents moved from the only place they’ve ever lived, and their sense of unity, belonging, is sure to be broken. It is shocking, what will they do? Where will they go? Mayhew perfectly captures the essence of how this must seem to the inhabitants with this quote at the beginning of one of her chapters. It is from Langston Hughes who said, “Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum, but you always thought it was home.”
From the very first page, I was eager to spend time with Loraylee Hawkins, her young, bi-racial son, Hawk, her grandmother, Bibi, and Uncle Ray, the pastor Eben Polk, and all the rest, because they were realistic, and became characters I cared about. Mayhew has given us a wonderful, original account of a time that reminded me of another place similar to Brooklyn, the small community known as Soul City in Warren County NC. Mayhew’s TOMORROWS’ BREAD is a story that is pertinent even today, a distinctive work at once engaging and provocative.
In the early 60s, many large cities started a plan called urban renewal – it was a way to make space for the new large buildings that they planned in the future. In many places, urban renewal meant displacement of the people who lived in the neighborhoods that were being destroyed to make way for the future. Tomorrow’s Bread is about urban renewal in Charlotte, NC, where an entire area was wiped out called Brooklyn. The residents of Brooklyn were mostly black and poor but they had a community of friends and a pride in their area that had existed there since the end of the civil war.
This was a well-written, well-researched novel about a little known area of Charlotte, NC in the 1960s. After I finished the book, I wanted more information about it and found several interesting articles. I love it when I enjoy a book and also learn about a part of history that I had no idea happened. This is one of those books – you will love these characters and ache with them as they leave their old lives behind and work to create new lives in areas very different from the life they’ve always known.
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
I received this as a giveaway but after it was published – the book is not an advance reader copy. Thank you Kensington Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.
This is my first time reading anything by this author. The book takes place in the 1960s in Charlotte, North Carolina. Specifically, in a neighborhood of Charlotte called Brooklyn. There is wealth and poverty in Brooklyn, like any other area. Brooklyn is a predominantly black neighborhood.
Loraylee Hawkins shares a home with her son, Hawk, her Uncle Ray and her grandmother, Bibi. Loraylee works at a cafeteria in Brooklyn and she is in love with the cafeteria’s manager, Archibald Griffin, who is not only Hawk’s father but a white man.
The city has plans to bulldoze her neighborhood and is sending out letters to residents giving them a timeframe to relocate. This means not just houses but also the churches and a cemetery are being demolished.
This is a well-written book and draws you in to the story of Loraylee and the other members of Brooklyn. You want them to succeed in finding a new place to live. You cry with them and you laugh with them.
This is a charming book that’s a relatively quick read if you don’t mind first person/present tense interwoven with third person/past tense (varies by chapter and character). In this book, the author weaves a story of Black families in a 1950s-60s neighborhood called Brooklyn—part of Charlotte, N.C. In the story, the good white people of Charlotte are determined to “improve” parts of their town through Urban Renewal. To do so, they displace families and businesses with no care for the inhabitants—where they’re going to go and how they’re going to live.
The story is told through the perspective of three main characters. Loraylee Hawkins is a single mother who is the sole supporter of herself, her son, her uncle, and her grandmother—all of whom live together. She’s in love with the father of her son, but he’s a white man and there’s no way they can be together.
Ebenezer (Eben) Polk is the minister of the local church. He’s a widower who becomes the “father” to his sixteen year old nephew Noah when Noah’s father (Eben’s brother) is killed. Eben’s church and the accompanying cemetery will be destroyed when the Renewal comes through. He needs to deal with that, with the death of his wife and brother, with all the changes hitting him late in his life.
Persy (Persephone) is the wife of the greedy white man who’s pushing to get the Renewal through. Her point of view is a direct contrast to the people who live in Brooklyn, and yet she’s a sympathetic character.
The setting is believable and the characters well drawn, but it seems a little superficial. I’d have liked a little more depth to them. Also, I had trouble getting into the story—the language is true to the society and time, but that can make it a little hard to get past sometimes, which makes it slow to start. But once you get into the story, you forget about the language and just “listen” to their stories.
Would I read this again? Probably not. That’s not saying it’s not a good book. It is. It’s just not *my* kind of story. Would I recommend it? To people who like this kind of historical fiction, yes. They would probably enjoy it much more than I did.
Tomorrow’s Bread takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina in the early 1960’s as urban renewal threatens the neighborhood of Brooklyn. The people living in this neighborhood are predominately black and poor. It’s sad that the city forced people out of this neighborhood where many had lived for generations. And all because the rich and privileged considered this area a blight on the city. This was a fast read for me and I enjoyed it!
This novel was quietly entrancing and so realistic. Using three different narrators, the author drops the reader into Charlotte, NC in the early 60s in the changing south. Two of the narrator’s are living in the black neighborhood of Brooklyn, a self-contained area that has homes that span the spectrum between well-maintained to dilapidated shacks. The city wants to “help” the residents with the urban-renewal project that aims to relocate residents to “better” living areas.
I absolutely loved the characters and their inter-connectedness, especially the addition of Persy, the white woman who understands the devastation that the push to renew will perpetuate on the people that call Brooklyn home.
Loraylee and Eben are two beautiful characters who are strong and resilient, determined to make the best of their lives and contributing to their communities. My heart breaks realizing that, though these characters are fictional, they represent real people whose lives were irrevocably changed.
There were tears of both sadness and happiness with this novel. I hated reaching the last page, as I really want to know what happened next for each of the characters in the changing world.
#TomorrowsBread #kensingtonbooks
A book everyone should read. This is our history and we need to face it.
At first it was hard to follow.
Tomorrow’s bread takes place in NC, however every time the neighborhood Brooklyn was mentioned, I thought of NY. I had to keep telling myself it’s the name of the neighborhood that’s in Charlotte, NC.
Loraylee and her family survived the best they knew how in the 1960’s. It was near to read about the neighborhood and how it was, how the people made it their own. Sad to know this actually happened in real life.
Although I’ve never been in downtown Charlotte, only the outskirts. Reading about the urban renewal, I want to take a trip and visualize where Loraylee and her family resided and such.
Great read once you can get past the slow start in the beginning. When the narrative changed, you knew who was narrating. I liked reading about three different sides of the same time.
Tomorrow’s Bread is the first book I’ve read by this author and I definitely enjoyed the book. Set in 1961 in Charlotte, North Carolina this story is about a predominantly black neighborhood undergoing revitalization. The author tells the stories of the residents of the neighborhood known as Brooklyn. Very well written book. I definitely recommend it!
A wonderful story with great characters you’ll cheer for!
Though set in the 1960s, Anna Jean Mayhew’s latest delivers powerful messages about the “gentrification” we see happening all around us today and what it means for our communities. I thoroughly enjoyed this powerfully relevant story.
Sings to life the necessities of community, resting places and home. A tale profoundly relevant for our time.
This novel brings to life the struggles of urban African-American families in the 1960s, particularly those whose neighborhoods are being taken over in the name of “urban renewal.” Mayhew gives us faces and names for these families, and shows us that even in adverse circumstances, family and love will win.